Michael Jordan, 'Leadership has a Price'

In light of 'The Last Dance', Michael Jordan reveals that fans will see an intense side of him, 'I challenge people when they don't want to be challenged.'

In respect to 'The Last Dance' being aired this Sunday, tons of stories surrounding Michael Jordan are being shared by some of the NBA's best players. The age old debate of who is better between 'LeBron vs Jordan' seemed to seep its way into the conversation as well but regardless of who you think the best basketball player is, for the next few weeks, it's all about Air Jordan. 

In a sit-down with The Athletic's Richard Deitsch, Director Jason Hehir, talked about the one question that made him realize this was something extraordinary, 

Through the years, do you think that intensity has come at the expense of being perceived as a nice guy?

“Look, winning has a price,” says Jordan. “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 fucking do. When people see this they are going say, ‘Well he wasn’t really a nice guy. He may have been a tyrant.’ Well, that’s you. Because you never won anything. I wanted to win, but I wanted them to win to be a part of that as well. Look, I don’t have to do this. I am only doing it because it is who I am. That’s how I played the game. That was my mentality. If you don’t want to play that way, don’t play that way.”

'The Last Dance' is a 10-part documentary series that follows Jordan's last season with the Bulls in 1997-1998 and documented by NBA Entertainment. It will air over 5 weeks from April 19-May 17. 

What are you most excited to learn about Michael Jordan in this series?