Michael Jordan, late in his career, gave an interview discussing his life after the NBA. Draymond Green, for one, seems to have taken quite a liking to his answers.
Advertisement
Michael Jordan enjoyed quite a career in the NBA. Popularly regarded as the greatest basketball player, MJ has continued to grace the sport in multiple different ways. Not only is the owner of NBA franchise Charlotte Hornets, but the six-time NBA winner has also done an exemplary job with his brand – Air Jordan.
Air Jordans were introduced in 1984 and have since taken over the world of sneakers. The first of their kind, the Air Jordan 1, are among the highest selling sneaker each year, while the likes of AJ3s and 4s trail not so far behind.
The success of his line, while developed by Nike, got Jordan thinking about life post-NBA. He was quizzed about the same during an interview in the late 1990s.
When Michael Jordan expertly handled the media as they questioned him about Nike’s practices
Through the interview, MJ was asked several personal questions, including inquiries about profits and Nike sweatshops. When asked if he had been indeed preparing for ‘life after basketball’, Jordan said:
“It’s true. I think that’s a good way of looking at it, it is a life after basketball. And if I don’t start to prepare then certainly, when the time happens, then I am not going to be prepared.”
At the time, the Air Jordans had quickly come up as the main rival to Reebok and Adidas and often beat them in the market. The former Chicago Bulls forward was interrogated about his happiness from the same, and if it equated to the same level as winning against their league rivals, namely the New York Knicks and the Seattle Supersonics.
“Not quite the same. But it can mantain me, and my competitive juices.”
Further, a rather investigative question was posed to Jordan about their profits. The interviewer asked whether the €100 million revenue reported by business magazines was accurate.
“Those are estimates. I don’t know (about the revenue), do you think they know? I don’t know (if it’s more or less). Let’s just say I’m happy. How happy? I’m smiling.”
At the time, Air Jordans took the market by storm. So much so, people were beating and even killing each other over them. Jordan, as concerned as he was, did not think it was on him to stop things like that. He said that the parents must teach their kids to not value materialistic things over human life.
MJ was more than ready for all the personal questions that were put forth in front of him. Many of them included topics of controversy, with another one about Nike’s sweatshops in Indonesia and how he is fed up with claims that his shoes were getting people killed.
“I think that’s a cop out. That’s the easy way to look at it. Instead of looking at a mirror and saying, ‘That’s my kid’s doing’. About the sweatshops controversy, I couldn’t voice an opinion till I found out exactly what was happening, and how it impacted me.”
Draymond Green claims that players today would have been offended by the questions asked to MJ
Draymond Green seems to be a fan of this interview. Posting a story of a post that covered it on Instagram, the Golden State Warriors player put forward a question to his audience.
“If a reporter asked one of us these questions today, we would say they were picking on us. Or get upset at the reporter. MJ smiled thr entire time. Controlled the inteview. Was MJ that great of an interviewee? (Seems like it) Was the reporter wrong?”
What Draymond says is quite accurate, but he is citing the example of one of the greatest athletes and businessmen of all time. Furthermore, it was important for MJ to clear the air around the bucketloads of controversy circling Air Jordan and Nike. Any sort of poor response to the questions would have put a dent in the brand’s image at the time.
