The Golden Age of Basketball

Chapter 944 The Back View of the Continuing Chase

Retiring in 1998 seems like a very good choice for Jordan.

Although the championship still went to the Portland Trail Blazers that year, Jordan, like poor Jerry West, could never beat Bill Russell in the Finals.

But Jordan still seized the opportunity to win three championships, own the world's most famous sneaker brand, have a lot of US dollars, a private jet, and enough financial resources and energy to explore his more beloved baseball and golf.

But for Jordan, was such a career truly enough?

In particular, Forrest Gump won the championship again in 1999 and 2000, completing his third three-peat and achieving an unprecedented feat.

With his ten-time championship and status as the greatest player in history, no one can shake his position. The debate about who is better between Gan and Joe has quietly faded away, without any further controversy.

So, did Jordan ever consider a comeback in the years after his retirement?

Clearly, Jordan did consider joining a championship-caliber team, but his pride prevented him from joining any such team and instead challenged Forrest Gump and the Portland Trail Blazers.

In 1999, he had the opportunity to join the New Jersey Nets and team up with Charles Barkley and Hakeem Olajuwon. With him on the team, the Nets would likely have been able to replace the New York Knicks and challenge Forrest Gump in the NBA Finals.

But Michael rejected the checkbook offered by Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen, preferring to retire rather than build a super team just to win a ring.

Later, Phil Jackson and the Lakers also extended an offer to him, saying that if he was willing, he could team up with Pippen again in the 2000-2001 season to win another championship.

But he still refused; he didn't want to work with Phil Jackson again.

Michael has always insisted that the process is more important than the result. Although people are inevitably blinded by the sweetness of the result, how a person views the process determines his true height.

Michael exemplified this; the disintegrating Bulls were no longer a team he would continue to fight for. Furthermore, his relationship with Phil Jackson quickly deteriorated after he left the Bulls.

Because he realized that Jackson had been manipulating him, using his competitiveness to rally the team and achieve victory.

Although it is inevitable that people will use each other in their interactions, Jordan always believed that there was still genuine affection and selfless, purely appreciative feelings among friends. Therefore, from then on, he valued his friendship with Forrest Gump and Barkley even more.

He co-invested in several businesses with Barkley and Forrest Gump, and they often played golf and bowling together in the summer.

At the 2000 Olympics, both Jordan and Barkley stated that they would be just as happy for Forrest Gump if he won an Olympic gold medal.

Barkley landed a commentary job with Turner TV, reportedly through Forrest Gump's introduction, with a contract term and a substantial sum.

Jordan, on the other hand, reaped considerable profits from several foreign trade investments. The Chinese foreign trade investment channels that Forrest Gump possessed were practically money-printing machines, but he himself wasn't very enthusiastic about them and mostly introduced them to his friends.

Meanwhile, Jordan's relationship with his family became increasingly strained, with no signs of improvement.

Her sister, Sis, was still struggling with her grief after her father's death. Shortly after her father's death in 1993, she began writing a book, but chose to abandon it in 1995.

She has consistently criticized her brother Jordan for spending large sums of money gambling, even though Jordan has never mistreated his family financially.

He consistently gave his family money, more than $10 a year, but his sister said she didn't want to push the responsibility of raising the children onto Michael. However, everyone disapproved of Jordan's extravagant spending at casinos and his purchase of many luxury goods.

After receiving the criticism, Jordan immediately sent each member of his family a brand-new car, a free gift from a local dealership in North Carolina. However, he gave his sister a used Pathfinder, which led to her criticizing Jordan for using his wealth to control his family.

After that, Jordan stopped contacting his sister. After retiring, when he heard that his sister wanted to write and publish her autobiography, Jordan expressed his anger and said that he would never buy or read the book.

Jordan and his mother also drifted apart. Dolores publicly criticized Jordan for not being kind enough to his family, and Jordan chose to refuse to donate to the James Jordan Center.

Putting aside the inherent complexities within his family, we can see in Jordan that he is breaking away from, or has already broken away from, the nest built for him by family, love, and kinship during his youth. This nest nurtured him and gave him strength, but one day he will leave the nest; he has become too big and wants to fly further.

By 2000, two years after Jordan's retirement, he was only 37 years old. From a societal perspective, he was in the prime of his career, but as an athlete, he was entering his final stage.

Off the court, Jordan was a remarkably successful businessman. According to one survey, as many as 90% of NBA players went bankrupt within a few years of retiring.

Many of them were deceived and exploited by brokers and fund managers, while others were victims of the education system, which taught them very little and left them mostly clueless about financial management.

After they left the league, their once luxurious lifestyle could no longer be maintained.

Unlike Jordan, he maintained a long-term partnership with Nike, and the Air Jordan brand alone is enough to keep him wealthy forever. Not to mention the substantial returns from his various off-court investments, making him a bona fide billionaire.

One of the most surprising investments was when Michael Jordan became a minority shareholder of the Portland Trail Blazers after Nike formed a consortium to acquire them in 2000.

This was once Forrest Gump's kingdom, the team that defeated Jordan and the Bulls three times in the Finals. Now, Jordan is a part of it and even served as its manager for a period of time.

He became the Portland Trail Blazers' chief of operations, and as their former biggest rival, Jordan tried to make his mark on the team in this role.

However, he soon discovered that it was all in vain.

In Portland, everyone loves Jordan and welcomes his arrival. Walking down the streets of Portland, people will eagerly greet Jordan, asking for autographs and photos.

This surprised Jordan, who thought the Portlanders would hate him, miss Forrest Gump, and reject him.

That wasn't the case; Jordan believed that Forrest Gump's influence was probably not that great.

One day, Jordan visited the Trail Blazers' training camp and couldn't resist going down to the court to play one-on-one with Kobe, hoping to ignite the players' competitive spirit.

As a result, Kobe didn't want to go one-on-one with him at all, and said, "Michael, you should just stay on the sidelines and watch, don't break your old arms and legs."

The two started trash-talking each other, but Kobe just didn't want to go one-on-one with Jordan, saying he wasn't interested.

In a fit of emotion, Kobe said, "Michael, do you really think there's a place for you here? People like you out of politeness and respect, just like seeing a circus bear wearing a hat and treading on a ball on the street—anyone would go up and take a picture with him!"

"How could you possibly think you could surpass Forrest Gump? Forrest Gump is the god here, Jesus Christ. God teaches us to love and to forgive. We won't hate a bear because of that, but you can forget about making a name for yourself here. You haven't even won a championship here."

Jordan and Kobe almost got into a fight, but their teammates pulled them apart, which made their relationship even worse.

Jordan never appeared at the Trail Blazers' training facility again. Shortly after the start of the season, he resigned from his position in the Trail Blazers' operations, retaining only a minority stake.

It wasn't just because of Kobe's trash talk, but because Jordan quickly realized that Kobe was right.

Portland belongs only to Forrest Gump; their loyalty remains with him whether he's there or not. For Jordan, the painful part is that he can't return to Chicago.

Jordan once considered securing a key position within the Bulls, even a role as an owner in the management team.

On the contrary, owner Reinsdorf never considered this possibility. He knew that if Jordan joined the management team, Jerry Krause would have to leave, and the conflict between the two had reached an irreconcilable point.

Moreover, the Bulls' shareholders insist that it's one thing for Jordan to make a fortune for us on the court, and another thing for him to want to join the management team off the court; the two should not be confused.

Before Jordan joined the Bulls, the Bulls' management and board of directors were known for being conservative, rigid, and inflexible. On the one hand, they were very loyal to each other, but on the other hand, they were stubborn, narrow-minded, and lacked change—the Bulls were the only team in the entire league whose logo had never been changed.

East Coast teams generally share these characteristics: the owners are very humane, and the staff can stay with the team for more than ten or even decades, with everyone having a good relationship.

The problem is that the NBA is highly competitive, the environment is changing faster and faster, and everyone is seeking innovation and change.

In comparison, Western Conference teams are more open, diverse, and dynamic, without the heavy burden of history.

This is one of the reasons why Western teams have gradually surpassed Eastern teams as a whole since the beginning of the 21st century.

While Jordan was leaving the Trail Blazers and unable to return to the Bulls, he learned that Forrest Gump was going to rebuild the team in Las Vegas and that the guy was also going to make a comeback.

Jordan, whose desire to win had long been unbridled, had already resumed normal training before 9/11.

Now he finally found his target, the figure he could continue to chase.

On September 30th, 37-year-old Jordan held a press conference to announce his return to the NBA for the 2001-2002 season, continuing his rivalry with Forrest Gump.

—Excerpt from "Michael Jordan: The Life," a biography of Michael Jordan written by Roland Lazambi, published in 2016.

"You're talking nonsense, Michael. I don't believe you're trying to beat me!"

"Believe it or not, that's what I think. I'm here to defeat you."

"I don't believe you. You just want a stake in a team. Why don't you come work for me? I'll give you shares, lots of them, how about that?"

"Forget it, Sonny. I'm going to sell all my shares in the Trail Blazers. I never want to go back to that damn place again."

"Portland is a great place, don't they welcome you? Portland fans are very polite."

“They welcomed me and treated me well, but I know that will always be your territory.”

"Nonsense, who told you you couldn't go to Chicago? If you had come to Las Vegas sooner, I could have considered you a key contributor to the team's founding. Otherwise, if you went to another team, I would have taken you down."

"We'll see, Sonny. I have a lot of confidence in myself."

"Forget it, Michael, you... fine, I can't persuade you for now. But let me tell you, don't think that you can play for two years and then own a team. Forget about it. All team owners are bloodsuckers, liars, the biggest liars. Don't believe any of their nonsense, not a single one."

"Aren't you the same?"

“I’m different. My wife is the boss, but I’m not.”

On the phone, Gan Guoyang, as always, tried to persuade Jordan as a friend, while Jordan, as always, had his own ideas.

Based on Gan Guoyang's understanding of Jordan, he had two reasons for wanting to make a comeback. He certainly wanted to compete with him on the basketball court, but that wasn't his primary motivation.

The main idea, however, was the second one: to seize this opportunity to break into the NBA's ownership structure and become a true tycoon.

With 10 championships under his belt and years of accumulated experience, Gan Guoyang finally made the leap from player to owner after the 9/11 attacks.

Even so, Gan Guoyang still had to go off the court and continue playing despite his old arms and legs.

My love for basketball is one aspect, but another is to fulfill the betting agreement.

If Gan Guoyang doesn't return to the game, it will be a big problem whether the tickets for the live show can be sold out, given the so-called "potential talents" on the expanded draft roster.

Gan Guoyang's return is a different story. Just a few days ago, the Glory team's sales team announced the season ticket sales hotline, and the phone lines were flooded with calls.

The original plan was to sell 5000 season passes, but that wasn't enough, so they increased it to 12000, and even then it still wasn't enough to meet demand.

But there's no other way; we have to retain some individual ticket channels and can't sell all the seats.

As a result, many people started registering and queuing up, waiting for someone to cancel their ticket so they could be replaced, or waiting for a transfer.

The revenue from stadium tickets alone will reach a very high level. Gan Guoyang only regrets that the MGM Hotel's stadium has too few seats, only more than 17000, and not many VIP boxes either, otherwise it would earn even more.

Jordan was far inferior to Gan Guoyang in terms of championships and fame, but he could still be considered the second best player of the 90s, the only one who could rival Forrest Gump.

It will obviously be much more difficult for him to become the team's owner.

He didn't feel a sense of belonging in Portland, and with Nike around, he would always be a supporting character, a small business owner, never a big boss.

Therefore, he also wants to make a comeback, using his reputation, fighting ability, and money to gain a real shareholder status.

Then, in the future, look for opportunities to become the team's owner and controller.

This was Jordan's real purpose, and even if he didn't admit it, Gan Guoyang knew it would be like this.

It's not that Jordan has lost his original aspirations, but rather that at his age, he inevitably has to consider more factors when making decisions.

In your early 20s, you might only think about playing ball and just play ball. But when you're almost 40, you naturally want to play ball, make money, and be your own boss all at the same time.

As expected, after speaking with Gan Guoyang on the phone in the morning, Jordan held a press conference in the afternoon to announce his comeback to the entire United States: "I will return to my beloved NBA court and continue to fight for victory. In such a sad and frustrating time, I need to stand up and continue to fight, to give everyone confidence to overcome the current difficulties and continue moving towards our greatness and beauty."

Jordan said this, and at the same time, he chose his comeback team on the West Coast, Portland's arch-rival, the Emerald City, Seattle.

(End of this chapter)