Everyone dreams of having the mentorship of an all-time great in their corner for their respective sport. And that’s exactly what Jason Richardson got when he was on the Charlotte Bobcats in 2007-08 when Michael Jordan became a minority owner of the team. Years later, he opened up about why nobody will ever reach MJ’s level.
Advertisement
When Richardson joined the Bobcats in ‘07, they were not a good team. They were coming off a losing season and a coaching change. Despite the addition of J-Rich and the new coach, Charlotte still finished with a losing record that year.
But one thing that paid off during Richardson’s time with the team was having access to Michael Jordan for mentorship. And when he joined Paul George for his latest podcast, the former NBA guard revealed what those conversations were like.
“We had conversations on certain things he would do or how he approached the game. But you know, that’s Mike. Mike is just different, he’s cut different,” Richardson told George on Podcast P.
“But you just tried to pick up on any little thing of how he approached it. Even being around him when he wasn’t talking about basketball, just how competitive he was, his nature of just wanting to win. Nothing matters more than winning. And you tried to pick up all the little stuff like that,” he added.
It’s no secret that Jordan is one of the most competitive humans on the face of the earth. Anyone who’s seen The Last Dance has watched him talk smack to a Chicago Bulls security guard over losing a game of quarters. We also saw him have some choice words for Larry Bird following a heated game against the Pacers when Larry-Legend was a coach.
But at the end of the day, Richardson doesn’t think anyone can be as competitive as Jordan. So in a sense, there was no point in trying to pick up on it during mentorship.
“In reality, you just didn’t have the God-given ability he had. You could have the work ethic, but he was blessed with something that nobody else was blessed with… He had that ‘It’. Some dude’s just got it,” Richardson concluded.
The “It” factor in sports is an intangible and unquantifiable ability that some NBA athletes have had over the years. Jordan was certainly one of them. Others that come to mind include Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Nikola Jokic. It’s a mix of star power and charisma, but above all else, they have to be amazing with the ball in their hands.
It’s perhaps why Jordan has remained in the GOAT conversation after all these years. Because he never lost an NBA Finals, and he did it through his sheer competitive spirit and unwillingness to lose. Meanwhile, LeBron has lost as many NBA championships as Jordan has won. That’s a hard thing to overlook.
All in all, Richardson was lucky to have MJ’s mentorship as a young player finding his way in the NBA. It was the year he averaged the second-most points per game in his career. Obviously, something Jordan was telling him worked. But J-Rich never thinks anything he can bestow will be enough to turn a player into an NBA legend of MJ’s caliber.
