Patrick Ewing narrates how Michael Jordan has ribbed him for his playoff losses to the Bulls over the years despite retiring from the game.
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Beating Michael Jordan was one of the biggest obstacles on anyone’s championship path. Even as a sophomore in the league, MJ had a reputation as a killer. A player no less than 3-time MVP Larry Bird called him a basketball God at the time.
Even so, the amount of dominance Jordan and his Bulls teams displayed over the rest of the league at his peak is a thing to remember. The likes of Cleveland, New York, Indiana and Miami found themselves at the receiving end several times.
Jordan and Ewing have been friends since their high school day – nearly 45 years of a personal and professional association.
Patrick Ewing talks about his relationship with Michael Jordan
In a recent interview with ESPN’s Mike Greenberg, Ewing talked about MJ and his competitive streak:
“You know it’s funny, Michael and I are very good friends. As a matter of fact, he was the one who got me into coaching. He started my coaching by giving me an opportunity here with the Wizards.”
“But back then, we have known each other from high school. “But we had some remarkable, great battles and the crazy thing is, he talks so much trash that even today he lets me know that I was never able to beat his team.”
“It was like, ‘The only time you beat the Bulls was the year that I retired’. If it wasn’t for him and his team, I might have been able to possibly have an opportunity to win one, maybe two rings. But he was just so dominant and such a great competitor, that it wasn’t in the cards for me.”
Overall, very few players from Jordan’s time have a winning record against him. Once MJ began to have a capable supporting cast, the sky was truly the limit for his Bulls teams. No team other than them has won 2 separate threepeats since ths Celtics in the 60s.
