Michael Jordan retired thrice in his illustrious career and each time served a very different purpose. Following his second retirement, Jordan went down the path of front office management for the paltry Washington Wizards as he would become both a part owner and their President of Basketball Operations. However, he felt as though this wasn’t enough. He truly wanted to connect with the players and suited up one last time for a $2,000,000 contract as a player. Unfortunately, this didn’t work out all too well.
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Jordan’s stint with the Wizards as a player and as a front office executive can both be forgotten as there wasn’t much of note that he accomplished on either side. The reason for why he delved down this path in the first place was because Chicago Bulls executive, Jerry Krause, vowed to not have Phil Jackson back as the head coach for the 1998-99 season.
MJ specifically stated that he would not play for any coach other than Phil. So, when he was let go, ‘His Airness’ walked away from the game of basketball as well.
Michael Jordan admitted it wasn’t a good decision to play for the Wizards
Jordan’s first stint as a front office executive went as many would expect for someone who was a player their whole life and now had to manage an entire franchise’s decisions. While he did have the right idea when it came to getting rid of bad contracts, he was incredibly mediocre at assessing talent.
During his interview with Cigar Aficionado in 2005, he went on to admit that the decision he made to be closer to the players by playing himself wasn’t the best idea that he had: “bad decision to go back”
“One of the bad decisions I made was to go back and play. Even though I was soothing an itch that I had, I also thought I was being innovative in my job by going down and evaluating the talent first-hand. I may just have gotten too close to see or maybe too critical of certain actions of the players. That was one of the biggest mistakes that I feel I made in Washington.”
The Washington Wizards would miss the Playoffs in both the years that Jordan played for them. MJ would eventually have to retire at the age of 40 for the 3rd and final time due to lower body injuries that he couldn’t deal with any longer on the professional stage.
Jordan donated his Wizards salary in the wake of 9/11
Michael Jordan came back to play for the Washington Wizards around the time of one of the worst terror attacks that took place on American soil in the history of the country. His contract paid him around $1,000,000 per year for the 2 year contract he signed.
He would go on to donate every last cent of his first year contract for the 2001-02 season to 9/11 relief organizations and help in aiding those affected. Quite the nobel deed from the 6x NBA champion.
