BJ Armstrong played in the NBA for 11 years, a handful of which he spent with the Chicago Bulls and the GOAT of the era, Michael Jordan. BJ is an excellent storyteller and has been sharing anecdotes from his time with Jordan for a while now. While the small guard was not expected to shoot a lot, Armstrong illustrated a time when it became abundantly clear that even “not a lot” was too much.
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As part of Air Time, a show that Armstrong runs exclusively to tell stories about Jordan, the longtime starter revealed a threat he once received from Jordan. Armstrong said that one of his favorite little games to play with his teammates was asking them what they’d do if he looked them off and just pulled up from deep.
It’s a funny question. There are players who would handle it privately, players who would explode in anger, players who would encourage their teammate. But none were like Jordan, who had an extreme solution.
“I would’ve traded you.” BJ remembered Jordan’s answer, conjuring laughs from the crowd. Jordan regularly held sway over GM Jerry Krause, including one time when Jordan threatened to retire in order to keep Scottie Pippen on the team, but demanding punishment of fringe starters is a funny bit of overreaction.
Armstrong went on the compare that response to the current world of the NBA, in which players are empowered to shoot more, especially from distance. Whereas he would’ve been benched and apparently cut for taking a pull-up three back then, it is a regular occurrence in today’s NBA.
In a phrase that many old heads have shared, Armstrong claimed that too many players think they are on the level of Steph Curry, that if their self-confidence is on the same level of the greatest shooter ever, their abilities are as well. According to BJ, it’s a habit that starts in practice and ends up having adverse effects for the teams in the playoffs.
Practice is the start and center point of preparation for teams. Even in Armstrong’s era, before offseason workouts were standardized and demanded, one player trained at a modern level before it was expected.
His name was Michael Jordan.
“He never cheated the game,” Armstrong said of Jordan
Armstrong once remembered when Jordan would completely obsess over the smallest details, leading to workouts and practice sessions so intense that no one could keep up.
Armstrong wished people could’ve seen these sessions, as he described them much in the way one would describe a religious experience. Watching the man work became inspirational for Armstrong who remembers it to this day, continuing to fixate on its sheer impressiveness.
One thing is for certain, Jordan certainly did not get to his high standing without an equal level and amount of work to enable it. Practice always paid off for the GOAT.
