Michael Jordan - “I’m Back” - 25th Anniversary Of MJ’s Return To The NBA Documentary

It was just a media frenzy in front of the Berta Center. And once I got in, they told me that Michael is retiring that day. That everything kind of, I don't want to say breaking apart. My dreams are actually breaking apart. I came with the idea to play with the best player. This is a very bittersweet day. There's a certain sadness because the greatest athlete to ever play a team sport is leaving the game. Everyone knows exactly what the circumstances are right now in terms of my decision not to play a game of basketball. When you first hear something like that, you think it's a prank, you know, just coming off your third championship. As I talked to my teammates, and I told them, this day is going to come for everybody. Enjoy it while you have it. Because it's very limited, and it is a treasure. And even with Shaquille and these other stars coming into the league, you'll be a star for a while. You may get tired of it, you may want to step back. It's always your choice. When you do it, don't have reservations. Be happy with your decision. It was surreal. And I remember, as part of the media, we're all sitting around kind of nervous. Like, okay, what's going to happen now? It wasn't a happy day for the NBA. You're losing your star player. I mean, we had a lot of great players, but he just, he was Michael Jordan. I think it was like a hush coming through the whole NBA family. He was a star of stars. You know, celebrities lined up to see him. It was unusual for him. It was different. So to have that constant pressure on you, no matter what you did, where you went. Along with being the best at the best at what you do, the pressure is just astronomical. Will I ever un-retire? I don't know. You know, I think the word retire means you can do anything you want from this day on. So if I desire to come back and play again, maybe that's what I want to do. Maybe that's the challenge that I may need someday down the road. Well, I got this whole idea from Bo, from Dion. You know, the guys who made that transition to play two sports. And I'm saying, well, you know, I always wanted to play baseball. And I kicked myself for not playing in college when I had the opportunity to play in college. I was just hoping I'd get that opportunity again. And I have. So they gave me the motivation to at least try it. Well, how was it? Workout. Yeah. Oh, yeah. You look like you're improving now. I'm getting better. I knew I would. It's just a matter of practicing habits. You know, Walter's giving me some time, which is what I need. And, you know, I learned the fundamentals, practicing where they become habits. I'll be able to react when the time comes. I remember when Joe Nostick and I talked, I don't know how long ago, and we thought Michael may become a spring training. And Joe said, well, we had it last year. I said, I don't think it's going to be the same. And it's not. You know, I think Bo Jackson is a star, but Michael is probably the best-known athlete in the world, the way it looks to me anyway. I like his attitude. I really do. I think it's extraordinary that he takes this very serious. No matter what Bud Selig has ever done or will ever do again, his place in history is secure. He is the acting commissioner who officially canceled the 1994 playoffs and World Series on this, the 34th day of the baseball strike. If the baseball strike had not happened, I don't know if this thing would have, if this would have materialized. It might have materialized later, but if that baseball strike was not, he was all in. Michael Jordan was pegged for the Chicago White Sox double-A club in Nashville, but he refused to challenge the baseball union, and Jordan left camp last week. It was very negative when it came to sports. The board also voted to cancel the season. Effective noon on Tuesday, January 10th, in the event the agreement is not reached. I could remember vividly being in Madison Square Garden watching on the tell screen the O.J. Chase scene on the freeway. This is a Channel 5 News special report. There is a rather amazing story developing in Los Angeles this hour where California Highway Patrol is in pursuit of a white Ford Bronco, a car that was reported to be one that might contain O.J. Simpson and a friend earlier today. That was one of the most surreal things I've ever experienced. I think even without all those other factors, I mean, people miss Michael. He would never say this, but look what's going on in sports right now. Everything that's going on, it's getting such a bad name. It's getting tarnished. People are looking at us differently, all right? Bring it on. Well, I think he transcended just sports in general. It wasn't just the basketball piece. So the track athlete, the bowler, the football player can all identify with the greatness of Michael. And so that's why he was good for sports because it didn't matter. And then the grandma, the uncle, they can also have Michael's back so they're turning on the TV. So he did so much for just sports, not just basketball, but sports in general. I might get in trouble for this. Him and Rod Higgins are really, really good friends. He came and practiced with us two or three times in Oakland. One morning while Michael was visiting, he calls and asks me. It was early in the morning. I was on my way because I was an assistant coach for Don Nelson. I was on my way to practice, and he called and said, do you think it's okay if I practice with you guys? And then I said, I don't think so, but let me call Nellie. That's what we call Don Nelson. Let me call Nellie, and I'll get back to you. So I called Nellie and asked Nellie if it's okay, if there's going to be any issues. Michael wants to know if he can practice with us. Nellie's response was, hell yeah. He ramped up the practice, and we had closed-door practice in the Coliseum. I was injured at the time, so I do remember Michael coming down to practice, and we happened to take the same size. We're basically the same size, same sneaker size. So he was out kind of, you know, I think we had Tim Hardaway maybe with Charles Sprewell at that point in time, and they might have been popping off a little bit, and Michael said, Mully, let's go. Give me your gear. Went into my locker, put my gear on, and went out there and basically single-handedly beat the Warriors down by himself. And that was when I'm like, this guy's coming back. Jordan, the former three-time MVP, has been practicing for the last couple of days with his old Bulls club. I had been hearing rumblings as soon as he left last Thursday. The first thing I heard about it was yesterday afternoon, I guess. I heard it this morning. The station called me and said there's a possibility something's going on with Jordan. I heard about something on Monday. How badly do you want to see this come to life? Oh, this is it. Without this, Chicago's lost. Is he coming back? Is he not? Is he gauging his interest? And again, we didn't really know. Here's what it got to be. Who could get there the earliest and camp out all day long? You go to the Birdo Center, and it's like a stakeout. You have every news crew from in town. You had sports crews, you had the news crews, you had national news crews, and everybody's waiting at the Birdo Center where there are gates. So you can only stand on one side of the gate. So we've got 40 people standing on this island where they basically scan their ID, and you see one black Range Rover after another pull up. We're like, this one's Michael, and it wasn't. It's B.J. Armstrong, and he rolls down his window, and we're like, B.J., do you know anything? He's like, don't know anything yet. It was time to go practice, and once I went to the locker room, and I saw about 40, 50 pairs of Jordans at his locker. I said to myself, there's no way he's just going to practice one practice with the 50 pairs of shoes here being ready. So I remember the one day I catch him going in the back door, Michael, and I'm running up with my crew, and then there's some other reporters, follow suit, and we're all running up there, and I'm, Michael, Michael, Michael, Michael, and he just closes the door on my mic. He's just like, there. Another day we catch him coming out, and he's got to go through this little thing, and I'm like, Michael, Michael. He rolls down the window, and I stick my mic in there. He goes, hey, what's up? And I go, and I start, and he goes, watch yourself, and he puts the window up. That's it. This is one of my jobs, is to help him craft a statement. I consider myself a good writer, and I wrote like 5 or 6 different versions, maybe 6 or 7 paragraphs apiece. He read them all. He didn't like any of them. And finally he says, give me that paper. I'm waiting to see if he'll take like 10, 15 minutes, he's going to put something together based on the different paragraphs, so he just takes out the pen and writes, I'm back. And it was majestic in its simplicity. There are certain times you don't have to explain it. Well, I'm just fascinated with the logistics of the fax. I mean, how many numbers did he have to send it to? How does that work? That's probably our social media right there. I'm back on the fax. Just 2 words, I'm back. That's the most impactful 2 words ever. He didn't want to go on TV. He didn't want to try to, I guess, up show or show up, you know, the league or anything like that. A quiet fax, I'm back, I'm playing this weekend, and that's it. For us it was just exciting, it was thrilling. You know, when we heard he was coming back and it was official, all of a sudden, you know, everything changed. Our horizons changed, our possibilities changed, and just the excitement of playing with the greatest player ever. The sense of happiness around the league, I think, was just fans, the sports talk radio, which was just getting going. It was just all over the place. As of today, the economy has produced 6.1 million jobs since I became president. And if Michael Jordan goes back to the Bulls, it will be 6,100,001 new jobs. The stock market skyrocketed. That's $1.3 billion in just 3 days. From that point on, it was like the Bulls were this American team that everybody wants to see. Michael was competitive. You know he wasn't going to stay into baseball. He was coming back in the NBA, and he came back with a vengeance. It was a very joyous moment for my community, for myself, for my friends. Just having the greatest basketball player ever, you know, coming back, playing the game. I needed that inspiration. Growing up in the inner city, you know, it was like I kind of lost a superhero when he retired. It changes the way we look at sports today. It's the greatest of all time. It changed the likability of sports. When he came back, it did light a fire because now everybody had that vision once again that, okay, there's the best. He's back. This is the NBA on NBC. Today, it's the Chicago Bulls versus the Indiana Pacers. And listen to the roar at Market Square Arena. SRO crowds sitting in on history. Glad you folks could join us too. Hi, everybody. I'm Bob Costas. What Michael Jordan does today and what he will attempt to do in the next several months and maybe years is truly unprecedented. It's never happened in team sports. The atmosphere at Market Square, which may be my favorite arena in America. I mean, it's like Camden Yards here in Baltimore. It's old school. The fans in Indiana are tremendous basketball fans. And it was like a heavyweight prize fight. Market Square Arena was loud, and it was full of people who hated the Bulls as well because these are the Reggie Miller Pacers. These are the Pacers that are good enough to probably win a championship if Michael isn't in the way. So you have the effect of Pacer fans hating that Michael is back but knowing that they're seeing history at the same time. For 21 months, the NBA was without its supreme artist. There may be many interesting peripheral aspects to both his departure and return, but at the heart of it is simply this. The best in the world is back. And in a sports world darkened by constant talk of money, strikes and lockouts, here's a shining reminder of why we're drawn to sports in the first place. The drama, the anticipation, the sheer beauty of the moment. Today, an artist returns to his true canvas, the hardboard courts of the NBA. Michael Jordan is back. The scene was amazing. It was like a, you know, mega media outing. And when he got there, they put him in a separate locker room from the team. And I just kind of, you know, quietly took some pictures, you know. And every time the camera clicked, I remember it just sounds so loud. And I didn't want to upset him, you know, but I wanted to get some pictures because I knew it was a historic moment. This is stuck in my head. I'm jostling to try and get as close to that tunnel as possible to see that first time that Michael and the Bulls are coming out of the tunnel as a different Bulls organization. And it was lined with people and hangers-on and media and news, not just sports media, but news people. The buzz was, and I've covered three Bulls championships, there's never been a buzz compared to that tunnel of Michael Jordan running out of it for his comeback. The shoot-around was incredible, just the anticipation. The energy in the building when we ran out of the court was incredible. It was before cell phone cameras, and I remember seeing about, I don't know, 5,000 flashes go off as soon as we ran out of the court. The moment is nearly at hand, Michael Jordan's return to the NBA. 6'6 from North Carolina, number 45. It was 21 months after his last appearance in an NBA game. Only 5 months after his number 23 was raised to the rafters in Chicago, Michael Jordan has returned. I think mentally he's still focused in on basketball and has been watching it closely. He's been practicing with them for the last week and a half or so. So I think conditioning-wise, he might be a little bit tired early in the excitement and the drama and all that, but come third or fourth quarter, he'll be the same old Michael. Michael Jordan on Reggie Miller here at the start. I really wasn't looking to shoot early because I was trying to get in the foot of the game. Next thing you know, I had to beat the clock to shoot the ball, so I kind of got forced into taking a shot early. Jordan played by Jack for the start. So after missing, you just want to get back and get on the stride. Jordan still looking for his first field goal. Once I stepped on the floor, I really felt good. Under your belt, how does it feel? Well, as you see, my timing was a little bit off today. I was just trying to get my rhythm back. I don't know if it was a good game for me to come back. Reggie seemed very energized. So it's my first game back. I know it's not going to happen in one game. It's going to take a little bit to get my timing back, but hey, I'm back. That's all that matters. When you love something for so long, when you try to walk away from it, I think at the time that I walked away from it, I probably needed it mentally more so than anything, but I really, truly missed the game. I missed my friends, and certainly I missed my teammates. I missed the atmosphere a little bit, so I was eager to get back into the realm of things. Michael had tremendous respect for the people who came before him and paved the way for the opportunity that he enjoyed in the NBA. I wanted to instill some positive things back to the game. There's a lot of negative things that have been happening to the game. I guess in terms of me coming back, I come back with the notion of Magic Johnson and the Larry Birds and the Dr. J's, all those players who paved the road for a lot of young guys, and the young guys are not taking care of their responsibilities in terms of maintaining that love for the game. He was that guy that was carrying the torch, and I thought he was right. The game wasn't being respected. A lot of guys was just coming in, just talking and not really being students of the game and not really understanding what they need to do to go out there and prepare themselves for games. You know, this is like the King Arthur. Everybody tried to pick a sword and a baton up. They couldn't do it. When they did it, they felt the power of it, and they said, No, I don't want this. When you look back at all the great players who played the game and what they've tried to pass on as a legacy of being able to play this game for a living, quite frankly, you make a lot of money playing this game, but that doesn't mean you take this game for granted. You're treated like dirt. I think for the players that's coming behind you, you want them to be viewed as people and not just dumb jocks or dumb athletes who make a lot of money. They're professionals, and we're professionals, and we're being treated like lawyers and doctors because of the salaries that we receive. So let's act like sensible people and do the jobs that you're asked and certainly not use it as some sense of power to do whatever you want just because you have those thoughts. Here you have this guy saying, We've got a bunch of young, cocky, brash guys in this league, whether it's the Penny and Shaq Orlando Magic teams or, as you mentioned, Allen Iverson coming and then some of the other guys later, Vince Carter and everybody like that. So here's Michael saying, No one's taking it, I'm taking it, and I'm coming back, and I'm going to win three championships. Before Michael retired, I was definitely looking forward to playing here in Magic on the NBA level and learning a lot from him. Then once Michael retired and Magic left and retired, I felt kind of cheated a little bit, but I knew why they had retired. Now that Michael has came back, I'm just going to take advantage of him and try to learn as much from him as possible. He and I, again, we went head up for many years, so we kind of helped set the tone for what guys ultimately did that came up behind us, but absolutely, he was a major manufacturer of that. Can you imagine if anybody said load management to Michael Jordan? I mean, it's you play Hurt and you play every game, and you play in every venue in every city because there are people that can only afford to go to one game, and you're not playing? I think his stamp will always be on the NBA. When you win six championships, six MVPs, and you don't lose in the finals, your stamp will always be there, and his will. As time grows, time goes by, the legends and stories even get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger, and I try to tell people, I'm like, oh, that's not true. I said, oh, it's true. I said, you don't believe me? Pull up that stuff on YouTube. I said, I got a chance to see it. I got a chance to see it firsthand. So when you're an icon, and he is an icon, it's not going to stop. Playing with Michael Jordan changed the entire course of my career. I was able to play on these championship teams, made a name for myself, was able to get into TV, into broadcasting, into management, coaching, and the reason people hired me for these jobs later on was because I had played next to Michael Jordan, and I had been part of championship teams. So for me, it was a dramatic impact on my life at the time and what I was doing at the time, but really on the rest of my career, the rest of my life, so I kind of owe Michael. I mean, he's everywhere in terms of the NBA game, and now being an owner, he's an astute, successful businessman, which for me and us, and I'm talking about my family and basketball players in general, that's where the respect, and that's when you pat yourself on the back and you say, oh, yeah, he's one of ours. He set a blueprint for us of how we could do things, and for me, being someone in the city that I grew up in, someone in a position that I felt that I would one day play height-wise and all that, he just gave me a blueprint, and off the court, being able to build a brand that lasts as long as it has, all the things that he's done, so we appreciate him for giving us that blueprint and giving us his all in the game. He just changed the whole picture of basketball since the first time he played for the Bulls, but especially that day when he came back, the salaries changed, the game became global. Now the players, they all have benefits from Michael coming back and then his decision to come back and play. Every young kid in the world right now wants to come to the NBA and play here and show their talents, and you can ask anybody. They might not remember somebody that was good 10 years ago, but they're going to remember Michael Jordan and talk about Michael Jordan.