“Michael Jordan was toying with us at 30%”: When the Bulls legend eviscerated ‘average Joes’ at pick-up games following his first retirement from the NBA

When Michael Jordan would play against regular people following his first retirement from the NBA and easily beat them at 30% of his normal self. 

Michael Jordan was already one of the greatest players in the history of the NBA by the time the 1993 NBA season had come to a close. The Bulls legend had won 3 MVPs, 3 Finals MVPs, had various All-NBA and All-Star selections, and simply put, had the entirety of the league on chokehold. 

As insane as it sounds, but it wasn’t clear to teams on whether or not the Chicago Bulls could be beat. They had the perfect blend of talent and fit with players knowing their exact roles to a ‘T’. However, a potential ‘4-peat’ had to be put on a halt as Michael Jordan shockingly announced his retirement from basketball following his 1993 NBA title.

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Much has been said about this first retirement of his. The main conspiracy theory behind it was that David Stern secretly banned Jordan from the league due to his gambling habits. This does not make all too much sense as ‘His Airness’ was the biggest star in North American sports at the time. There is no way the league would give up on someone who’s as marketable as him. 

Michael Jordan demolished regular people at pick-up games after his first retirement. 

The more logical reason for why Jordan left the league was that he wanted to try out baseball because his father had always wanted him to become a baseball player. His passing merely accelerated Michael’s desire to fulfil his father’s wish. 

Despite the fact that Michael Jordan wasn’t playing professional basketball any longer, his love for the game still remained at an all-time high. This demonstrated by the fact that he would routinely show up at random gyms to play pick-up basketball with anybody that was on the court at the time.

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This meant your regular, ‘average Joes’ had the task of guarding Michael Jordan, probably after a long and tiring day at work. Of course, Jordan dominated against every single person he met at these pick-up games and according to one of his opponents, he wasn’t giving it his all in the slightest. 

“Michael Jordan is going about 30% but that’s only because he wants to. He can go to 100% just like that in a heartbeat. Everything’s there. He’s playin’ with us. He can easily go back tomorrow and play with the best.”