Michael Jordan is exactly the type of man who would hold a grudge against someone after a whole 365 days had passed since the initial incident. Jordan is also maniacal enough to want to ride a bike on 2 hours of sleep after a painstakingly awful 6,604 kilometer trip across the Pacific Ocean. Howard White, an executive at Nike, had to learn about MJ’s competitiveness the hard way when he went on a trip to Hawaii with him
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White and Jordan shared a great relationship with one another. The former was the one who initially planted the idea of meeting with MJ’s mother, Deloris Jordan, in Sonny Vaccaro’s head as in White’s eyes, the moms ran black households.
Clearly this advice did not go in vain as Jordan ditched Adidas and went with Nike in 1984, forever changing the landscape of the realm of basketball sneakers. Along the way, he built solid rapports with various executives at the company, including Howard White.
Howard White on how competitive Michael Jordan was
Howard White wasn’t your ordinary, run-of-the-mill business conglomerate executive. He stayed active and kept himself fit. During an interview with Nick DePaula, he revealed one incident back in the 80s or 90s where he went biking with former Chicago Bears player, Richard Dent.
Dent came back and told Jordan that they had just come back from a 30-mile bicycle ride to which MJ responded, “Ok cool.” Over a year later, both Michael and Howard were in Japan where MJ would suddenly get the urge to ride bicycles with him. He was reassured that their layover in Hawaii would have bicycles ready for them.
After making the 6,604 kilometer trip to Hawaii for what was considered to be a time of leisure, Jordan woke White up after 6am and told him he needed to get on the bicycle with him. “You were trying to leave me. You were going to try and leave me and go riding without me,” said the Bulls star, accusing him of trying to sneak away.
After White pleaded his case and said he was just trying to sleep, the two would go on their bicycle run. Jordan made sure to ride for much further than ‘just’ 30 miles as he wanted to beat the distance White and Dent travelled together.
According to the Nike exec, this was yet another moment that made him feel as though the 6’6 guard from UNC was cut from a different cloth in comparison to other athletes.
White was a father figure of sorts to ‘His Airness’
Michael Jordan, despite having strong parental guidance from Deloris and James, needed someone in the professional realm to help him navigate through life. According to Charles Barkley, this is where White came into the picture.
During an episode of ‘The Steam Room’, Chuck revealed that Howard made sure him and MJ didn’t do anything stupid and then went on to admit that he was the stupider of the two so White had to be extra careful with him.
