It is widely believed that defense wins championships. As an assistant coach of the winning Chicago Bulls team, Johnny Bach had more insight into his players than anyone else. Bach is the architect of arguably the best defensive scheme in the history of the NBA, which made him closer to Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Horace Grant. He was also someone who understood MJ best. The late coach made a similar revelation about His Airness in Sam Smith’s 2014 book, There Is No Next. The former Boston Celtics forward narrated how MJ made better athletes out of his teammates with odd competitive antics.

He saw firsthand how hard Jordan worked to become the legend he is today. Additionally, Coach Bach devised the ‘Doberman Defense’ led by Michael Jordan, Pippen, and Grant, which is heavily credited for the Bulls’ first three-peat.

Johnny Bach’s candid take on Michael Jordan’s tenacity

Johnny Bach played professional basketball in the early days of the Boston Celtics when it was part of the BAA. He turned to coaching at 26, becoming one of the youngest head coaches in college basketball in the country. He would later coach the Golden State Warriors before coming to the Chicago Bulls in 1986.

Bach was one of the personalities in Sam Smith’s 2014 book, There Is No Next, revealing what made Michael Jordan an icon in sports history. “He practiced every day,” Bach said. “People don’t realize he practiced shooting every day.” 

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Jordan, according to Bach, not only practiced himself but provided unusual motivation to his teammates to practice. He narrated an instance of MJ making taunting pigeon sounds once. When questioned, he told Bach, “My two pigeons coming down,” referring to Grant and Pippen.

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Under Michael’s provocation, Horace and Scottie played him for $50 a shot. They’d do that with determination to beat him. “Made Horace a much better shooter, and Pippen,” Bach observed. Unorthodox as it may seem, MJ made his coaches’ job easier. But Bach also made more revelations about Jordan’s personality off the court.

Johnny Bach also disclosed that Madonna snubbed Michael Jordan

Jordan’s path to six NBA championship rings was also filled with lows both on and off the court. Known for his intensely competitive nature, analysts would theorize he wanted to be better than his teammates too.

Bach also dished that Jordan shot his shot with the pop icon, Madonna. She, however, turned him down. Pippen had the ‘Material Girl’s’ attention though, and that made Jordan burn with envy.

That was not the only instance he saw of Jordan’s competitive nature. In the same excerpt about his “pigeons,” Bach spoke about Jordan being hard on teammate, Bill Cartwright. Bach would coach Jordan to aim better for Cartwright to catch the ball. “He isn’t you,” the coach told his best player.

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Two years after Smith’s book was released, Johnny Bach passed away on January 18, 2016, in Chicago. Upon his passing, Jordan called his coach the “greatest basketball minds of all time.”