Alright so fun fact about me is that I’m obsessed with retired NBA players telling stories. It started a couple years ago when I first met Ron Harper and got to sit around a fire pit with cigars and listen to him go for hours. I mean quite literally non stop story after story, each somehow better than the last, and it was maybe one of the coolest nights of my life that would later be luckily repeatedly.
There’s probably a deeper reason why, but I’ll just settle on the fact that I like good sports stories and NBA players are by far the funniest. They’ve got such ego but humility. There’s respect and disrespect. Self-awareness but not self-deprecation. It’s really an amazing mixture of personality across the sport and the podcast revolution of the last decade has captured it perfectly.
Like this MJ story from Stephen Jackson. It’s hard to keep track of what’s been told before about Michael already but I think this one’s pretty fresh to me. There’s anecdotes of him playing 1-on-1 and there’s stories of him humiliating multiple Bobcat players while owner. But I never heard the one about him lacing up with the b-teamers at 47 years old then running a playoff team out of the gym. Probably half a dozen tequilas deep on about 3 hours of sleep no less.
That’s insane.
One MJ story I heard from Ron Harper that stands out is when Harper signed with the Bulls from Cleveland. MJ reached out to invite him to training sessions at MJ’s mansion in Highland Park. MJ told him we start at 6 sharp so get here around 5:30. Ron thought that was too late to train because he liked to workout in the morning. YOU THINK I’M WORKING OUT AT NIGHT? Jordan was shocked Harper thought he meant 5:30pm.
So Harper goes over at 5:30 and MJ’s in the kitchen in his boxers drinking a pot of coffee and halfway through a fat cigar. Harper was bewildered. I asked Mike – who the fuck smokes a cigar at 5:30 in the morning before a workout?
I do, bitch
Then MJ put on a 45 pound vest, went into his home gym and completely worked Ron Harper off the court and out of the weight room. And he never took the vest off for an entire 4 hour workout.
I know that’s cliche Jordan stuff, but remember Ron Harper was an 8-year vet averaging 20ppg when he signed with the Bulls. He played against MJ a lot in Cleveland and he obviously knew he was the best player in the world. But Harper wasn’t exactly sure about what went into MJ behind the scenes and why he was so special. As he described (PARAPHRASING)
A big part of the reason I wanted to play for the Bulls was so I could figure out what made MJ so much better than all of us
It took him less than 10 minutes of their first workout together to realize MJ was shaped by the hands of God, and it was through this divine intervention that MJ would become the best basketball player of all time. He was faster and stronger – obviously – but most impressive was just how insane and intense he was in the rest periods between exercises.
Somehow he was getting stronger as the workout went on?
And of course, the whole time MJ’s talking shit to Ron Harper about every single drill, exercise, movement, you name it. Whatever they were doing, MJ was wearing an extra 45 pounds, running Ron into the ground and reminding him at every single moment that he was TRASH.
I driving home like Ohhhhhhhhhhh all this shit makes now
And that’s how quickly and comfortably Ron Harper went from attempting 17 shots per game with the Clippers to just 5 with Bulls.
Anyways nice story from Stephen Jackson and a good reminder that MJ probably still has at least 15/5/5 in the bag.