Michael Jordan shocked the world when he announced his retirement in 1993. After a few months, he decided to play professional baseball. Then in 1995, he left baseball after refusing to be a replacement player during the Major League Baseball strike.
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We all saw in the Last Dance that Jordan started showing up to the Bulls training facility after BJ Armstrong teased him for being too old and questioned his one-on-one skills. Jordan, being competitive as ever, couldn’t back down from a challenge. He then started training more frequently before announcing his return officially on March 18, 1995. Only Michael Jordan could send the whole media world into a frenzy with a two-word announcement.
But NBC Network’s Sports Uncovered podcast revealed some more unexpected details. According to then Warriors player Tim Hardaway Sr, Jordan was practicing with the Warriors before he joined the Bulls training. “He came and practiced with us two or three times and we knew he was coming back then. He just took over our practice. It was like he never left,” said Hardaway Sr.
Michael Jordan: The best player the Warriors never had
Jordan was really close friends with the then Warriors assistant coach Rod Higgins and would frequently visit him. They knew each other from Jordan’s early days at the Bulls. Higgins spent four years in Chicago before leaving for Seattle. He said, “Michael was a Warrior for 48 hours… he came in and (Warriors equipment manager) Eric Housen dressed him out in Warriors gear, he might have given him number 23. Once Michael got warmed up, you could tell his objective was to basically kick Spree (Latrell Sprewell) and Tim’s (Hardaway) behind, and talk trash to them.”
Chris Mullin, a former Warriors wing player, said: “He was just so fit, so it wasn’t a physical thing, But seeing him on the basketball court and playing against Sprewell, who was a really good player and he was in midseason form, for him to do that, I thought, it’s just a matter of time.”
Although it wouldn’t have happened, a lineup with Jordan and Mullin’s scoring ability, teamed up with Sprewell’s explosiveness, would have been a joy to watch.
