Over 20 years have passed since Michael Jordan last won an NBA title with the Chicago Bulls. His last one was crown No. 6 and then the squad disbanded. Jordan continued with the league but he never got to win a championship again, and he made clear that chasing an NBA ring with a different crew never crossed his mind.
The GOAT debate in the NBA is yet to be concluded but MJ has proven that he has the qualities, and not only the basketball skills, to be deserving of the honor. For one, his sense of loyalty remained unsullied through the last of his playing days with the Bulls. Jordan waited for several seasons before getting a shot at the Larry O'Brien but the thought of jumping ship so he could be a champion did not occur to him.
According to Fadeaway World, the NBA legend could have easily bolted out of the Bulls camp when the league started recognizing him as a superstar in the late 1980s. But patiently, Jordan waited for the right time and his optimism paid off. Chicago dominated the 1990s by winning six titles, perhaps missing one or two because MJ took a hiatus.
He was asked at one time if switching teams would be in the cards for him if only to get his hands on an NBA ring. The quick answer from Jordan was "No."
"I'd like to keep winning championships in Chicago," the six-time NBA champion said, adding the lure of joining up with the Lakers, the Warriors, and the Knicks would not interest him.
The statement was made years ago and the words from MJ were a clear reminder of an NBA superstar who is a cut above the rest. Jordan is the complete opposite of the present-day league superstars, who are always on the lookout to win honors. For this new crop of stars, changing colors wouldn't be a problem so long as the end-goal is served.
Yet while Jordan is a different class, he remains a human. His former teammate Steve Kerr recalled that when MJ briefly left the NBA to try a career in baseball in 1993, the superstar was in fact overwhelmed by his exploding popularity.
Kerr played for four seasons with Chicago and he witnessed how "insane" Jordan's life had become in the better part of the 1990s.
"I will always maintain that the reason he went and played baseball was because he was fried emotionally from the scrutiny that really only he felt," Clutch Points reported Kerr as saying.
Now a champion coach for Golden State, Kerr added: "I think he had had enough and just stepped away for a little while and then came back and was ready to roll."
Jordan's vacation ended after 18 months and he resumed playing for the Bulls for three more years, and winning the NBA title for each of the seasons.
