Michael Jordan Blasted a Reporter for Tarnishing His NBA Career During His MLB Struggles: ?Is That Going to Hurt My 32-Point-Whatever Scoring Average??

NBA legend Michael Jordan shocked the world when he announced his first retirement. After being unable to win an NBA title for years, Jordan had just won 3 straight titles with the Chicago Bulls. Furthermore, he was at the pinnacle of his NBA career. So it stunned the world when MJ walked away from basketball. This was after the killing of his father, James Jordan Sr. Jordan said that he lost his desire to play the game. And at 31, went on to try his hands at baseball. A game he hasn’t played since his high school days.

Jordan signed a Minor League Baseball contract with the Chicago White Sox. In 1994, he played for the Birmingham Barons, a Double-A minor league affiliate of the Chicago White Sox. Unsurprisingly, he was not the superstar he used to be on the hardwood. And MJ knew that would be the case because he had not played the game for so long.

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However, a lot of people expected Jordan would dominate baseball just as he used to for the Bulls. Some felt that Jordan could hurt his basketball legacy if he failed in baseball. When an interviewer suggested that, MJ didn’t take it lightly.

Michael Jordan and baseball

After a game, an interviewer suggested that failure in baseball would somehow tarnish his reputation as a basketball player. “If I strike out 15 million times, is that going to hurt my 32-point-whatever scoring average?” he said. “If I fail at baseball, does that make me less of a basketball player? If I’m a horse??baseball player, that don’t tarnish what I did on the court.”

Many consider Jordan’s baseball stint as not successful or a failure compared to his accomplishments on the basketball court. But that does not necessarily have to be the case. At 31, MJ set out to play a game he hadn’t played since high school. Of course he struggled, however, he was developing. He was getting the hang of things in the baseball world.

Furthermore, he could have directly played Major League Baseball if he had wanted. Reports suggest that the General Manager of the Oakland Athletics, Sandy Alderson, offered Michael Jordan a major league contract. However, MJ didn’t want a major league contract handed to him. He wanted to earn his major league contract and decided to grind for it.

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The manager of the Cleveland Indians, Terry Francona, was the manager of the Birmingham Barons when MJ played. Francona said that Jordan was on his way to the major league and that it would take him 3 years. Unfortunately, the fans would never know what MJ could have achieved with his baseball career.