Quotes about Michael Jordan

Since I was a kid, I dreamed of making it to the league and having the type of impact on the game Michael Jordan had and continues to have today.

When I started playing, my mom said there were three players she wanted me to watch – Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan.

I always imagined myself going up against Reggie Miller, Michael Jordan, guys like that, and I had to make the shot to win the game.

I want to play 11, 12 years right here and then retire – and win us some national championships, and be the Michael Jordan of Charlotte. This is the place that drafted me, that paid me. This is the place I should be loyal to.

I have to say that when I was young, when any politician was talking I wasn’t even interested. Maybe they were saying some nice stuff, but then if you put Michael Jordan on TV, I was interested!

A lot of players will tell you, ‘When I was a kid, I watched Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, LeBron, Magic, and I wanted to be just like them.’ For me, it wasn’t like that at all.

I don’t think anyone’s worth $100 million if Michael Jordan wasn’t, but hey, that’s what Abe Pollin thought I was worth, and if someone puts $100 million in front of you, you’re gonna take it, too.

I don’t think there is any 16-year-old who is going to embark on the sort of career that Sachin Tendulkar has had and walk away from the game at 40 with such great achievements. He’s the Muhammad Ali and the Michael Jordan of cricket.

I know everything about Michael Jordan.

I was a die-hard, obsessed fan of Michael Jordan. I’d take his posters with me to away meets, I’d walk out on the deck in my Air Jordans before I swam, I’d write 23 on my cap. I’m just a huge Jordan fan.

One of the greatest things about my job is that I can enjoy all the successes of a show, but can still go out in public, not like say, Michael Jordan.

Jazz is all about improvisation and it’s about the moment in time, doing it this way now, and you’ll never do it this way twice. I’ve studied the masters. Why would I want to play ball after the guys who sit on a bench? I want to play like Michael Jordan.

I think that what streamers have is a direct connection to their audience. Imagine if LeBron James or Michael Jordan could interact directly with their audience every time they went to work.

When I met Michael Jordan on a basketball court at an athletic club – we hooped together in Chicago – he came to me and asked me if I wanted to do a song for his upcoming movie. I was like, ‘Yeah!’ I didn’t even ask what it was.

Growing up, Michael Jordan was my Olympic hero.

I told my boys this: Somebody gotta be better than Michael Jordan. Why not you?

If somebody says no to you, or if you get cut, Michael Jordan was cut his first year, but he came back and he was the best ever. That is what you have to have. The attitude that I’m going to show everybody, I’m going to work hard to get better and better.

Nobody else was saying what he said on air, and sometimes he pushed the envelope when he said the newest Jay Z line with a Michael Jordan highlight. But Stuart Scott was an artist.

I did not choose necessarily on the basis of significance. If you have a vote for the most significant athlete, then you have Ali, then you have Babe Ruth, then you have Michael Jordan.

Perhaps the most satisfying thing occurred when Michael Jordan became a team owner and said to me, ‘I owe you a lot of apologies. It’s a lot harder to run a team than I thought.’

A lot of people say Michael Jordan and all of that. But Magic Johnson and my dad were my role models.

I feel like my biggest competition is myself. A lot of kids get caught up in the comparing game – comparing themselves with Michael Jackson, comparing themselves with Michael Jordan. You gotta be your best. You gotta overcome your own fears.

Michael Jordan broke the mold of the Magic Johnson/Larry Bird era – he came in and he had a gold chain, he wore longer shorts and his sneakers were a different style.

Unlike Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, Jackie Robinson never tried to convert himself into an acceptable black man.

Michael Jordan was the greatest practice player I’ve ever seen.

I want to do for rebounds what Michael Jordan did for dunks.

I remember being a teenager and watching 40-year-old Michael Jordan compete in his final All-Star game.

I would never have wanted to play with Magic Johnson, I would never have wanted to play with Michael Jordan, I would never have wanted to play with Karl Malone or John Stockton in my prime. We wanted to play against the Shaqs, the Kobes.

I love golf. But do you know how I got good at golf? Because of Charles Barkley. I was playing with Charles, Michael Jordan and Roy Green, and Charles was talking so much trash. On every shot, he was talking trash. So I left the tournament, and I went and practiced for a year and half.

In Taiwan, I’d be like Michael Jordan walking down the street.

I’m not like the next Michael Jordan, but I’m also not what everyone saw me as before I started playing in the NBA, either.

In the old days Michael Jordan and Larry Bird worked for everything they got. They worked hard on their game.

You look back at the ’95 season, and a lot of those guys were getting mega minutes. Michael Jordan was out playing baseball. We were still winning, won 55 games I think, so those guys were all very content and happy with the way that things were going that year.

I’ve looked up to Michael Jordan because not only was he an assassin on offense, he was an assassin on defense.

I was probably 7 or 8 when I went to see the Bulls play and was able to see Michael Jordan.

Playing with Michael Jordan would be a great opportunity for me. I would have someone around I could learn a lot from. I look up to him as a player and as a person, and that would make me a better player and person.

The greatest players use anger as fuel. Michael Jordan played every night with something like road rage.

I’ve had an affinity for Michael Jordan. He’s probably the greatest athlete in my generation.

I can remember me and my cousin always fighting. He was a big Bulls and Michael Jordan guy.

If I would compare anybody to Michael Jordan, it would be Kobe Bryant.

At 7, I was shooting 3s with so much ease that the guys at the neighborhood park were impressed. Michael Jordan was one of the best humans to walk the earth in my eyes, third only to Jesus and my mother.

Grease and starch just always win over protein. In food as in so many things. Look around you, that’s what our whole country is based on. It’s amazing that Michael Jordan can be an iconic figure because he’s basically just protein.

Being named Michael Jordan – I think growing up playing sports and having a name like Michael Jordan – and I was extremely competitive – I used to get teased a lot. But it made me want to strive for greatness and be able to compete at whatever I decided to do.

I feel lucky. I feel blessed. If you get blessed with some ability, I think you have to work hard at it. Michael Jordan was a great basketball player, but he wasn’t the best shooter, even though he had the skill, and he had to work and work at it.

I always watched Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson, and I said I could be playing on the court with them.

When Michael Jordan quit, I suddenly found myself without a sports hero.

If you were the greatest, you were the Michael Jordan of whatever business you were in.

‘E.T.’ and ‘Star Wars’ were cult movies then and opened up a brand new world of adventure and mystery. But as much as I would have loved to be friends with E.T., I realized that following in the footsteps of Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan was more realistic.

I dreamed about being Michael Jordan, Michael Jordan being my dad at some points, or him helping me play basketball.

I wanted to be a sneaker designer since I was 10; it was my dream to work at Nike and design signature shoes for Michael Jordan and Penny Hardaway. When it was time to select high schools, I wanted to go to one that would help me get a jump-start on my dream.

I didn’t have a role model. My role model was Michael Jordan. Bad role model for an Indian dude… I didn’t have anyone who looked like me. And by the time I was old enough to have what could have been a role model, they were my peers. Aziz Ansari is my peer. Kal Penn is my peer.

I grew up playing sports, so I think of what it would be like to be in the NBA if you were a great player when Michael Jordan was playing. You could’ve been a phenomenal player, but you’re in the Jordan era. That’s the unfortunate thing about the competitive nature of entertainment. But we know what we signed up for.

Growing up, you’d see Michael Jordan on everything from Gatorade to shoes – everything. Obviously, that’s something pretty cool for an athlete to aspire to.

With Venus and Serena and their ascension – and you had a lot of kids that saw them and wanted to be like them – it’s like any sport, any major athlete, like Michael Jordan in basketball: everybody wanted to be like Mike.

Michael Jordan was criticized. Barry Bonds was criticized. Some of the greats in every profession have been criticized. Not everything is peaches and cream.

Michael Jordan was that guy – he was Michael Jordan. So whatever he did, we followed.

The great Chicago teams when Tex Winter and Phil Jackson were there – the triangle was just amazing. I know Michael Jordan was great, but everybody touched the ball, everybody cut, everybody moved. It was just so hard to guard.

If an athlete like Michael Jordan played tennis, he would be the best – he’s flexible, not too bulky, and has unbelievable hand-to-eye coordination.

When I was young, I didn’t watch basketball, but I watched ‘Space Jam’ with Michael Jordan so he was my favorite player.

Hopefully, one day, I’ll be up there with Michael Jordan.

When I grew up I was a huge Michael Jordan fan. That’s not very unusual for people to like him, but I just liked reading his books, especially where he came from, getting cut from his high school team. I thought he was a good person, a good role model to look up to.

You can’t be new for too long. You want to just respectfully disappear. It’s a bit sad sometimes. Michael Jordan retired like a god, and then he came back… We don’t want to go out like that.

I met Michael Jordan on a golf course! I don’t even know what to say. I’m still freaked out that I met him.

If you’re a person struggling to eat and stay healthy, you might have heard about Michael Jordan or Muhammad Ali, but you’ll never have heard of Bill Gates.

It was a great time to grow up in Chicago. It was the mid-’80s, and we had the ’85 Bears and the Michael Jordan era.

Willy Wonka’s like my Michael Jordan.

Michael Jordan was going to do whatever was ever necessary, and certainly I can say without question, he was going to achieve and stop playing whenever he wanted to stop playing.

There’s only one Michael Jordan.

There’s some guys – Michael Jordan and Mariano Rivera and Tiger Woods – that were blessed with the ability just to be… great.

I was a Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordan fan growing up.

This is to LeBron James: If you want to be the best, get rid of the comparisons. Get rid of all the comparisons that are out there. That’s what Michael Jordan did.

The ultimate sports figure. The ultimate competitor. Great person. I consider him my friend. I wouldn’t be that good if I was Michael Jordan.

I hate to say it’s not a Laker but Michael Jordan. He’s been the greatest player I’ve ever seen. And I’m probably a harsh judge of talent in the sense that I admire players that are really good defensive players and really good offensive players.

I thought the lanes opened up when Michael Jordan used to drive. I used to be like, ‘Wow.’

You look at a guy like Michael Jordan: I can’t believe there will be other basketball players like him.

My friends, they all say that I’m turning Hollywood. Big-time. And I want to be that. I want to be a guy who’s bigger than what they say. You look at Kobe. Michael Jordan. Somebody like Michael Jackson. Those guys are bigger than life. I strive to be that.

Like most kids, I grew up idolizing Michael Jordan and continue to work relentlessly to reach his iconic status on the court.

That was the moment I wanted to use bitcoin: when I saw Harriet Tubman on a $20 bill. It’s like, when you see all the slave movies, it’s like, why you gotta keep reminding us about slavery? Why don’t you put Michael Jordan on a $20 bill?

As brilliant an individual that Michael Jordan was, he was not successful until he got with a good team unit.

Eddie Murphy was the Michael Jordan of comedy. He had a full range of abilities.

As you become a legend in the game, you build more doubters than you build supporters. And that’s fine. I think that comes with anything that’s challenging. I think it even comes with sports. The older that Michael Jordan got, I think the more doubted he became.

I grew up in Chicago, and I understand what Michael Jordan symbolizes.

The only thing that can blow away the Michael Jordan sad face meme, is the Floyd Mayweather knockout meme. If Floyd Mayweather got knocked out – knocked out to the point where he is ice cold on the ground – I think that’s the one meme that can just overwhelm the whole Jordan issue.

What’s it like finding out Denzel Washington wants you to direct his next movie? It’s like getting a phone call from Muhammad Ali or Michael Jordan saying they want you to coach them.

I think the NBA will certainly survive without Michael Jordan.

Being Michael Jordan means acting the same as I always have.

You can’t explain much in 60 seconds, but when you show Michael Jordan, you don’t have to. It’s that simple.

In 1981, when I went down to visit Georgia Tech, I watched Michael Jordan play and literally get ridiculed for taking a jump shot in the championship game that went off the backboard, and they won. People are forgetting that Michael was just one of the players when they went to the Dream Team.

I met Michael Jordan as a kid. I train with George Gervin also, so that’s a big thrill as well. I’ve learned a lot from him.

I’m not sure I’ve ever been around anybody that wanted to win more or worked harder than Michael Jordan.

I came out of high school, where my heroes were, like, Michael Jordan and a lot of local rugby players – and on the movie front, it was Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.

I think there’s a lot of different ways to win. You’ve seen teams that win championships with a super-duper star like Kobe Bryant. Those championship teams with Michael Jordan certainly had a great, great player.

I’m a big Bulls fan, Michael Jordan fan, LeBron fan.

For all that Michael Jordan could run, jump and entertain, he is best known for one thing: He won. If you want to be a great player in this league, you have to focus on one thing – the bottom line, which is winning.

For 30 years I wrote for newspapers and magazines, wrote books on the Dallas Cowboys’ dynasties of the ’70s and ’90s, wrote about Michael Jordan in Chicago and Barry Bonds in the Bay Area, even wrote columns for ESPN.com from 2004 to 2006.