Last week, Jordan did a few interviews to promote the documentary and talk about his illustrious career. One of the things that stood out throughout his press run is Jordan’s comments to Jason Hehir of The Athletic sit-down. He stated he had concerns that people will have the perception that he is a “horrible guy.” He spoke specifically of his treatment of rookie name Scotty Burrell who joined the Bulls during their 1997-1998 season. ‘When you see the footage of it, you’re going to think that I’m a horrible guy. But you have to realize that the reason why I was treating him like that is because I needed him to be tough in the playoffs and we’re facing the Indiana’s and Miami’s and New York’s in the Eastern Conference. He needed to be tough and I needed to know that I could count on him.”
Jordan doesn’t think that everyone will understand the level of the drive he had towards his success and greatness. “When people see this footage, I’m not sure they’re going to be able to understand why I was so intense, why I did the things I did, why I acted the way I acted, and why I said the things I said,’” said Jordan.
“Look, winning has a price,” he continued. “And leadership has a price. So I pulled people along when they didn’t want to be pulled. I challenged people when they didn’t want to be challenged. And I earned that right because my teammates who came after me didn’t endure all the things that I endured. Once you joined the team, you lived at a certain standard that I played the game. And I wasn’t going to take any less. Now, if that means I had to go in there and get in your ass a little bit, then I did that. You ask all my teammates. The one thing about Michael Jordan was he never asked me to do something that he didn’t f–king do.
MJ’s words may sound harsh and foreign to some, but actually it is a common mindset amongst a lot of people who have achieved greatness in their respective careers and professions. Periodically you will hear similar stories of how hard it has been for some people to work with iconic figures such as Oprah Winfrey, Prince, and James Brown to name a few . The fans and spectators usually only get a chance to see the end result of the hard work that was put in to achieve their goals. But for the people who were besides them while they are taking those steps to get to that goal; it can be exhausting and frustrating.