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Michael Jordan Made a “Nervous” Confession in 2014 on Second Guessing His Own Major Decision: “I Gotta Work on Weaknesses..”

Published 10/20/2022, 10:30 AM EDT

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Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan did not have many weaknesses when it came to his game. There was barely anything that he could not do on the floor. But there was one thing that MJ had to learn in order for his game to evolve. And that was to be a better teammate and team leader. 

Jordan had a good one-two game with fellow Hall of Famer Scottie Pippen. But it took him a while to trust the rest of his teammates. And when he did, he went on to win his first three NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls. 

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Micheal Jordan and his comeback to the NBA after retiring

After winning three titles in three consecutive years, Jordan retired to go play baseball, his first love. But soon after, MJ decided to make a comeback to the NBA rocking the number 45 jersey. And in the first game back in 1995, he went against Reggie Miller and the Indiana Pacers.

via Imago

While sitting down with Ahmad Rashad, he discussed his time during that first game and how nervous he was. His mind was going to a lot of different places and MJ wasn’t sure if his body was capable of following.

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Jordan and Rashad drove down to the game in Indianapolis together for his comeback game. And while driving down Jordan discussed the things he needed to work on. He said, “I gotta work on weaknesses of how to be a leader on my team, I gotta work on weaknesses of my game.”

And Jordan explained that those were the things he was nervous about, whether or not he could do what his mind wants him to do physically. It took a while for ‘His Airness’ to get back in the game but as history would show, he sure did.

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For that game, the Chicago Bulls ended up losing to the Indiana Pacers 103-96. And it is safe to say that Jordan, for a change, did not have a good game. He shot 7-28 from the field, going 0-4 from beyond the arc and ending the night with 19 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, and 3 steals. Scottie Pippen on the other hand had 31 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists.

It was only a matter of time before Jordan got back to his best

Four of the five starting players of the Indiana Pacers lineup had scored in double figures. Reggie Miller led the team with 28 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals for the game. And even though Jordan had 19 points and contributed fairly to other stats, it just wasn’t what was always expected of MJ.

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Watch This Story – Reggie Miller, the ‘Bad Boy’ Pistons and other opponents that gave Michael Jordan a hard time in the playoffs

However, that was a brief time when Michael Jordan was just getting back in shape to play basketball from baseball. And as we know it, it wasn’t long before Jordan went for another three-peat, bringing his championship total to six. 

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Written by:

Abhishek Dhariwal

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Abhishek Dhariwal is an NBA writer for EssentiallySports. He earned his bachelor's degree in English Honors from St. Xavier's College and his master's degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from AAFT School of Mass Communication and Journalism.
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Edited by:

Veer Badani