At the time in 1994, Michael Jordan had announced his retirement from the NBA and had been playing minor league baseball for about a year. His father's death meant a lot to him, and as he reflected on his conversations with his father, he recalled comments made by his father.
"I covered their as*es when they got tight at the end of games, and I had to overcome fourth-quarter deficits all by myself. It bothered my father a lot, just as it bothered me, to hear them bit*hing about not getting enough credit or not getting enough shots, or squawking about the supposed preferential treatment I was getting from Phil," MJ was later quoted.
Ambitious MJ
It was not a surprise to anyone that MJ was always striving to be the best and make others be their best, but while MJ was sitting in a hotel lobby talking to a reporter and continued running his mouth, he was saying some quite ambitious and aggressive statements. MJ claimed that he could average 32 points per game after two weeks of preparation before returning to the NBA.
"They had no idea how much pressure and grief I had to put up with off the court while carrying them on the court," he continued. "Scottie found out the hard way what it's like to be under the microscope 24 hours a day. For the first half of the season he did great carrying the team; the second half not so great."
No Bad Blood
Following MJ's words, Horace Grant had some of his own.
"I don't blame him. The thing I would say, though, is how many championships did Michael win before Scottie and I got here?" Grant argued.
"The things said about Scottie and Horace have never been a secret. But there was no strong emotion to it at all," NBC's Ahmad Rashad said the next morning, quoting MJ.
When MJ returned to basketball the following season, the Bulls faced Horace Grant's Magic in the playoffs, handing MJ's only playoff series loss during the double three-peat stretch. Nevertheless, the relationship between Pippen, Grant, and MJ never soured.
As for MJ's ambitious claims, however, he did need a bit more than two weeks of preparation, but averaging nearly 30 points a night proved pretty easy, as the Bulls went on to win the next three NBA championships.
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