ESPN’s 10-part documentary entitled The Last Dance debuted this past week. It profiles the 1997-98 NBA champion Chicago Bulls and their superstar Michael Jordan. This series is an absolute gift and has come at the perfect time. We need a distraction right now and something to root for. Enter the G.O.A.T. himself Air Jordan!!!
This documentary shows just how incredible the leadership skills of Jordan and head coach Phil Jackson were. It also displayed the greatness of Scottie Pippen and why I consider him the greatest wing-defender in the game’s history. Finally, the first two episodes teaches us how management’s ego and lack of perspective prematurely ended the dynasty at six championships. If you want to know how great Jordan and Bulls were, think about that statement. The dynasty ended prematurely with six championships.
The following 43 Leadership Quotes From Michael Jordan From The Last Dance Part 1 & 2. All comments are Jordan’s unless otherwise noted.
Jordan’s Comments Immediately After Their 5th Championship
- Focus On Today – “We’re entitled to defend what we have until we lose it.” – Jordan after the team’s fifth title. He added, “No one’s guaranteeing rebuilding’s going to be 2, 3, 4, 5 years. The Cubs have been rebuilding for 42 years.”
- Great Leaders Always Have Options – “I said from day one if Phil is not coaching I’m not going to be part of rebuilding. Phil should be the head coach and I shouldn’t have to be put in the position to play for another coach other than Phil Jackson… I have choices. I will not choose to play for another coach.” – Jordan after the fifth championship
Jordan’s 1984 Rookie Season
- Leaders Crave Respect – “I just want the Chicago Bulls to be respected as a franchise.”
- Leaders Want To Make A Difference – “Hopefully I can go in and contribute and maybe turn it around.”
- Do Not Let Others Define You – “He’s not 7-foot so he’s not going to carry a team in the NBA.” – Walt Frazier
- Smart Leaders Let Their Performance Speak For Them – “From the first day in practice, my mentality was whoever is the team leader on that team, I’m going after him. And I’m not going to do it with my voice cause I had no voice. I had no status. I had to do it with the way I play.”
- Leaders Often Make An Immediate Impact – “Every player on that Bull team knew within a two-week period he was the best player we had.” – general manager Rod Thorn
Jordan and The Bulls Excellence
- Great Leaders Create An Image – “We created an image people wanted to be apart of and that’s all you can hope for.” – head coach Phil Jackson
- “Michael Jordan is the ultimate sports alpha male.” – Michael Wilbon
- There Is A HUGE Difference Between Exposure And Experience – “I would never let someone who is not putting on a uniform and playing each and every day dictate what we do on the court… Let’s focus on our craft. Let’s give them a reason not to think that way.” – Jordan about the team’s rebuilding plans after their 5th championship
- “He was good but but he wasn’t good enough to do without Michael Jordan. You can argue that Michael Jordan was as good at his job as anyone has ever been at their job at anything.” – Mark Vale, author of Rare Air: Michael On Michael, on general manager Jerry Krause.
- “The most important part of the process (of winning a championship) is the players. For him to say that is offensive to how I approach the game.” – Jordan on Krause saying, “Players alone don’t win championships, organizations do.”
- “You couldn’t make a short list of the most consequential and successful teams in American sports and leave Michael Jordan and 90’s Bulls out.” – Bob Costas
- Michael Jordan And All Great Leaders Never Take A Day Off – “Michael played every game as if it were his last. He never took a day off.” – Ahmad Rashad
- “They’ll never be another team quite like this and they’ve got to be the number one sports team in the world.” – former NBA commissioner David Stern
- Successful Leaders Are Always Glass Half-Full – “I just lost it. It’s a 10% chance but there’s a 90% chance I won’t… Everybody’s just thinking about the negative. I’m thinking the glass is half-full.” – Jordan on re-injuring his foot
Jordan On Winning
- “What’s unique about this dynasty is we have Michael.” – guard Steve Kerr
- A Leader Must Do Everything They Can To Make Winning Happen – “My innate personality is to win at all cost. If I have to do it myself, I’m going to do it.”
- Wining Requires A Sole Focus – “Every time I step on that basketball court my focus is to win the game. It drives me insane when I can’t.”
- Competitiveness Starts Early In Life – “That competitiveness within me started when I was a kid.”
- “Don’t wait for somebody to give you something. You’re strong. You’re intelligent. Go out and earn it and work for it.” – Michael’s mom Deloris
- We All Have Daddy Issues – “I think from a competitive standpoint, I wouldn’t be here without the confrontations with my brother. When you come to blows somebody you love, that’s igniting every competitive fire within you. I always felt like I was fighting Larry for my father’s attention… My determination got even even greater to be as good if not better than my brother.”
- You Should ALWAYS Try To Win – “That just shows a losing attitude… We should always go out and try to win.” – On sitting Jordan down in Year 2 for a possible lottery pick
- Winning Requires Setting Standards – “I vowed to make the play-offs every year.”
- Winning Is A Fundamental Aspect Of Life – “The mistrust Michael with management, specifically Jerry Krause, was he believed they violated the most fundamental aspect of sport, of the most fundamental aspect of the way Michael conducted his life, you do it at the highest level and you do it to win all the time. From that moment on, Michael’s relationship with ownership and management was deeply sour. That never went away.” – Vale
Jordan on Scottie Pippen
- A Leader’s Success Is Determined By Those Closest To Them – “I would never be able to find a tandem, another support-system, another partner in the game of basketball like Scottie Pippen. He was incredible to play with… He helped me so much in how I approached the game, how I played the game. Whenever they speak Michael Jordan, they should also speak Scottie Pippen. I won all the championships but I didn’t win them without Scottie Pippen. That’s why I consider him my best teammate of all-time.”
- Leaders Welcome And Embrace Challenges – “I’m gearing myself up physically to deal with whatever I have to deal with. I’m looking forward to it actually.” – Michael on not playing with the injured Pippen for the first part of the 97-98 season
- Anger Can Be A Motivator – “Scottie was out. My voice had to be the loudest. I let my anger motivate the players by saying, ‘I want this. Do you guys want it?'”
- Many Successful Leaders Don’t Care About Your Feelings – “He’s not worried about hurting your feelings. If your feelings are hurt, you can leave. He’ll gladly tell, ‘If you don’t want to be here, get out. We don’t need you here.'” – Bill Wennington
- How To Maintain Dominance – “Every day Scottie wasn’t playing gave someone confidence they could beat us and if you try to maintain dominance over people, you don’t want to give them a chance to gain confidence. So that drove my energy.”
Jordan’s College Career at North Carolina
- Leaders Sense Opportunity And Seize It – “When we invited him here, we had heard of him. We knew him. 5 days later when he left here we thought he was the best player in America.” – Assistant coach Roy Williams on Jordan attending their camp as a high school junior
- “Michael’s parents did a tremendous job with him.” – Head coach Dean Smith
- The Best Leaders Want To Get Better And Can Get Better – “He was very inconsistent as a freshman but one of the most competitive ones we’ve ever had in our drills. He wanted to get better and he had the ability to get better.” – Coach Smith
- The Best Leaders Are The Hardest Workers – “Michael Jordan tell’s me one day he wants go be the best player who ever played here. And I tell him you have to work harder than you did in high school.” – Coach Williams. To which Michael responded, “I’ll show you. No one will ever work harder than I’ll work.”
- “I was better than he was… for about two weeks. He wanted to learn. He wanted to grow quickly.” – UNC teammate and future NBA Hall of Famers James Worthy
- Great Leaders Are Humble Leaders – “It felt really good. I did something that helped out the whole team.” – Jordan immediately after hitting the game-winning shot against Georgetown his freshman year
- Defining Moments Give You Confidence – “That (game-winning shot) changed my name from Mike to Michael Jordan. That gave me the confidence that I needed to start to excel at the game of basketball.” – Jordan
- Great Leaders Never Turn It Off – “Michael Jordan is the only player who can turn it on and off and he never turned it off.” – Coach Williams
63 Points Against The Boston Celtics
- “Michael had this supreme confidence about him. He loved the big stage.” – John Paxson
- “This is the opportunity to play against Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics. This is showtime.“
- “You don’t hold the great ones down.” – Larry Bird
- A Leader’s Greatest Asset Is His/Her Energy – “(Head Coach) Stan Albeck kept putting me in isolated situations and I kept taking advantage of my youth and energy.”
- “That wasn’t Michael Jordan. That was God disguised as Michael Jordan.” – Bird
What is one thing you learned from Michael Jordan which will make you a better leader?
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