NBA
Michael Jordan’s NBA Greatness Can Be Explained With a Single Question From Tim Grover
Joe Kozlowski began his career as a sports journalist in 2013 and joined Sportscasting in 2019. He covers the NBA and soccer for Sportscasting, with specialties in legacy NBA players such as Michael Jordan and Premier League club Arsenal. Off the clock, he's a Kansas City Chiefs fan and a hockey goalie. Growing up loving Shaquille O'Neal and reading everything he could about the great big men throughout NBA history — likely because he was still tall enough, at least relative to his peers, to play center — he's continued to love learning about and exploring the historical and story-based sides of the basketball archives. As for Arsenal, Joe spent a year living in London and latched onto the local support of the club. He's barely missed a match since, loving Arsene Wenger, enduring the Banter Era, and following along through rebuilds. The Premier League interest developed into a passionate following of the Champions League, Europe's big five league, and international soccer as a whole when played at the highest level. Regardless of the sport, Joe is captivated by the stories of athletes beyond the box scores and how they push the envelope — both in terms of what we think a human is capable of accomplishing and how they find new competitive tactics to win.
Get to know Joe Kozlowski betterPublished26 Nov 2022
At this point in time, it’s not groundbreaking to say that Michael Jordan is one of the greatest players in NBA history, if not the outright GOAT. Even if you never saw His Airness play, you probably have a good sense of what made the Chicago Bulls star so special. Not only was he incredibly talented, but he refused to accept anything less than sitting atop the metaphorical mountain. If something could make MJ better, it was worth the effort.
If you want an example of that, consider a simple question that trainer Tim Grover would ask the UNC product after every NBA game. That, along with Jordan’s answer, will explain everything you need to know.
After each Bulls game, Michael Jordan was ready to hit the gym and work
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If you’ve ever played a game of full-court basketball, even at a recreational level, you know how draining that can be. Now, imagine going through 48 minutes of high-stakes NBA action with the entirety of the opposition’s attention focused on stopping you. That’s the challenge Michael Jordan faced every time he took the floor.
Those efforts, however, weren’t enough to convince His Airness to take a day off, though. After a brief rest, it was time to get back to work.
“After every game, I used to ask Michael one question: Five, six, or seven?” Tim Grover wrote in his book, Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable, according to a 2013 ESPN write-up. “As in, what time are we hitting the gym tomorrow morning?”
His Airness, as you’d expect, always had an answer.
“And he’d snap back a time, and that was it,” Grover continued. “Especially after a loss, when there wasn’t a whole lot else to say. No discussion, no debate, no lame attempt to convince me he needed the morning off.”
And while it’s easy to rely on narratives and overlook talent — no amount of early morning workouts is going to turn a benchwarmer into Michael Jordan — Grover’s story does help highlight what made His Airness so great.
As we’ve probably all experienced, there’s a certain appeal to relaxing, especially after a hard day’s work. And while His Airness certainly knew how to have fun, he never let that get in the way of his work. At the risk of going down a work ethic-related rabbit hole, Jordan had that drive to fight against human nature and always push toward the next level.
How often have we seen a player with all the potential in the world become overconfident and fail to put it all together? Jordan would have been well within his rights if he chose to rest on his laurels but couldn’t bring himself to take a morning off. That’s what elevated him from very good to an all-time legend.
Is that the healthiest way to live your life? You can be the judge of that. But it’s certainly a part of Michael Jordan’s larger body of work and overall greatness.
