“You could tell, Michael Jordan was still the best in the world!”: Tim Hardaway recollects the time when the Chicago Bulls legend came back from retirement

Michael Jordan once practiced with the Golden State Warriors, before his return to the NBA. He took on the main team and crushed them. 

Michael Jordan once famously quit basketball to start a baseball career. While that direction did not work out as he would have hoped to, he was itching to get back on the court.

Jordan wanted to gauge where he was at the time and to do so, he hit up Don Nelson, who was the Golden State Warriors coach at the time. MJ wanted to practice with the team and Nelson obliged.

The next 48 hours that followed were nothing short of a torturous time. The Warriors did not expect Jordan to be at that level and there is no better personality than Tim Hardaway to explain what happened.

Also read: “We have to admit, this Michael Jordan guy is pretty good!”: Bill Walton recalls when the Bulls legend first showed a glimpse of his insane ability

“How good is this Sprewell kid?” Michael Jordan asked before sizing him up

The practice was about to begin and Jordan took over the players with the least minutes. He had a point to prove. “We could see that he was itching to play ball,” said Hardaway.

“he was stealing all the shade, all this all that, we thought he was rusty and he asked, “how good is this Sprewell kid?” Hardaway admits that he was confused by the question.

He then remembers telling Jordan that Sprewell was good, not as good as him but he was an all-star in the league. After hearing that MJ went to work.

“and uh, oh my god, it was ugly, it was ugly. He took over practice!” says Tim, “You could tell, he was still the best in the world”.

As shocking a story as it may seem, we have to remember this is Michael Jordan. Coming back from playing baseball and dominating some of the league’s best players is nothing to be too surprised about.

We call him his Airness for a reason. This story, featured in the NBA75 series illustrates his greatness with great aplomb.