Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan (born 1963-02-17) is a retired professional basketball (and briefly baseball) player who spent most of his NBA career with the Chicago Bulls. He is considered one of the most accomplished players of all time.

Sourced

• I've reached the pinnacle of my career. I just feel that I don't have anything else to prove.
  • Classic NBA Quotes: Michael Jordan. NBA Encyclopedia. NBA Media Ventures. Retrieved on 2006-11-22.
  • Announcing his retirement from the Bulls (1993-10-06)

• I'm back.
  • ibid.
  • Announcing his return to the Bulls (1995-03-18)

• I'm retired 99.9%. Of course, there always is that .1%.
  • ibid.
  • 1999-02-18

Unsourced

• Even when I'm old and grey, I won't be able to play it, but I'll still love the game.

• I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying.

• I can never stop working hard. Each day I feel that I have to improve. Hard work…Determination…I gotta keep pushing myself.

• I know fear is an obstacle for some people, but it is an illusion to me…. Failure always made me try harder next time.

• I never looked at the consequences of missing a big shot…when you think about the consequences you always think of a negative result.

• I play to win, whether during practice or a real game. And I will not let anything get in the way of me and my competitive enthusiasm to win.

• If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you never will change the outcome.

• I've always believed that if you put in the work, the results will come. I don't do things half-heartedly. Because I know if I do, then I can expect half-hearted results.

• I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.

• I've never been afraid to fail.

• Just play. Have fun. Enjoy the game.

• My attitude is that if you push me towards something that you think is a weakness, then I will turn that perceived weakness into a strength.

• My body could stand the crutches but my mind couldn't stand the sideline.

• Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.

• People can fly. Some people fly higher than others, that's all.

• Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.

• Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.

• There is no "i" in team but there is in win.

• There is no such thing as a perfect basketball player, and I don't believe there is only one greatest player either. Everyone plays in different eras. I built my talents on the shoulders of someone else's talent. I believe greatness is an evolutionary process that changes and evolves era to era. Without Julius Erving, David Thompson, Walter Davis, and Elgin Baylor there would never have been a Michael Jordan. I evolved from them.

• To be successful you have to be selfish, or else you never achieve. And once you get to your highest level, then you have to be unselfish. Stay reachable. Stay in touch. Don't isolate.

• You can practice shooting eight hours a day, but if your technique is wrong, then all you become is very good at shooting the wrong way. Get the fundamentals down and the level of everything you do will rise.

• You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.

About Michael Jordan

• Once Michael gets up there he says, ‘Well, maybe I’ll just hang up here in the air for a while, just sit back.’ Then all of a sudden, he says, ‘Well, maybe I’ll 360. No, I changed my mind. I’ll go up on the other side.’ He’s just incredible.

• Michael Jordan Is In The NBA Live,NBA Street,NBA Ballers & Space Jam
  • Magic Johnson, quoted in Classic NBA Quotes: Michael Jordan. NBA Encyclopedia. NBA Media Ventures. Retrieved on 2006-11-22.

• I think he's God disguised as Michael Jordan.
  • Boston Celtics forward Larry Bird, after beating the Bulls in a 1986 Eastern Conference first-round playoff game that ended in OT, a game in which Jordan had scored 63 points.
    • Quoted in Joel Achenbach (1999-01-15). "'This Is a Perfect Time for Me to Walk Away'". The Washington Post: p. A1. Retrieved on 2006-11-22. 

• That play was “Give the ball to Michael and everyone else get the fuck out of the way.”
  • Bulls head coach Doug Collins on The Shot, quoted in the NBA Encyclopedia.

• You don't hesitate with Michael, or you'll end up on some poster in a gift shop someplace.
  • Felton Spencer, quoted in the NBA Encyclopedia.

• The Chicago Bulls' Michael Jordan's three-point explosion in Game 1 of the 1992 NBA Finals against Portland is easily one of the greatest performances I've ever seen. As he made his sixth straight, he winked directly at Mike Fratello and me in the broadcast booth and held his palms up in a shrug, as if to say, “What can I do?”
  • Marv Albert, quoted in the NBA Encyclopedia.

• This is a day that I had hoped would never come. It has to be the toughest day in the history of the Chicago Bulls. It's a tough day for Chicago.
  • Bulls Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, quoted in "Michael Jordan Retirement Press Conference" (transcript). NBA Media Ventures. 1999-01-13. Retrieved on 2006-11-22. 

• Basketball lovers are letting 'Michelangelo' walk away from the game while he's still an artist.
  • Phil Jackson, on his reaction to Michael Jordan's first retirement.