MJ THE COMPETITOR

“I’ve never seen anyone like Michael Jordan who would fight so hard not to lose,” said Washington Wizards owner Abe Pollin. “I’ve never seen anything like his drive.”

When Rex Chapman scored forty on him, Jordan responded in their next meeting with fifty. When Jerry Stackhouse scored nineteen points in the first half, Jordan held him scoreless in the second half — and scored forty-five points. “MJ might have a bad game,” said veteran pro Sam Cassell, “but never bad back-to-back games.”

Former NBA player Kenny Smith remembered, “When I played at North Carolina, all the NBA guys would come back to play in the summer. During the scrimmages, Michael would never leave the court. Not even for a drink of water. Between games, he’d stand out at mid court. I asked him why and he said, ‘I don’t need water. I don’t need anything. I’m not leaving the whole time’.”

“He knew that to get faster, he had to run against faster people,” said UNC teammate Joe Wolf.

From "How To Be Like Mike"

By Pat Williams