Read the full transcript of Michael Jordan’s speech upon being enshrined to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2009.
Editor’s Note: In this iconic Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinement speech, Michael Jordan reflects on his storied career, emphasizing that his legendary competitive drive was fueled by his family and the various challenges he faced from coaches, teammates, and rivals. He concludes with a heartfelt tribute to the game of basketball, describing it as his lifelong refuge and source of inspiration.
Michael Jordan’s Opening Remarks
MICHAEL JORDAN: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I told all my friends I was going to come up here and say thank you and walk off. I can’t. There’s no way. I got too many people I can thank. In all the videos, you never just saw me, you saw Scottie Pippen. Every championship I won.
Why David Thompson?
I’ve had a lot of questions over the last four weeks and everybody’s saying, well, why did you pick David Thompson? I know why, and David knows why, and maybe you guys don’t know why, but as I grew up in North Carolina, I was 11 years old in 1974, I think, when you guys won the championship, and I was an anti-Carolina guy. I hated UNC. And here I ended up at UNC.
But I was in love with David Thompson, not just for the game of basketball, but in terms of what he represented. We all, as Vivian said, we go through our trials and tribulations, and he did. And I was inspired by him. And when I called him and asked him to stand up for me, I know I shocked the shit out of him. I know I did. But he was very, very kind and said, yeah, I’d do it.
And that wasn’t a disrespect to any of my Carolina guys. They all know them. I’m a true blue Carolina guy to the heart, you know, Coach Smith, Larry Brown, Sam Perkins, James Worthy, you know, all of those guys.
Getting to Know the Other Inductees
Well, it all starts with my parents. You guys see all the highlights. What is it about me that you guys don’t know? As I stand up here and I watch all the other recipients stand up here and they give their history and so many things I didn’t know about Jerry Sloan. I know he lived on the farm, but I didn’t know he was in a small classroom from first grade to the eighth grade. And David Robinson, I’ve known David for some time and, you know, I found some things out about him. And even with John, I found some bad things or good things about him. And even Viv, I’ve known Viv for years and her and my father and my mom spent a lot of time on the Nike trips. And, you know, I found out a lot of good things about her.
What You Don’t Know About Me
But what about me that you guys don’t know? I got two brothers, James and Larry. They’re 5’4″, 5’5″ in height. They gave me all I could ever ask for as a brother in terms of competition. You know, you would think that, you know, my brother Larry is an ideal situation where small things come in small packages. This dude fought me every single day and to the extent that my mother used to come out and make us come in because we were fighting way too much. And my older brother was always gone. He served in the Army for 31 years.
And the competition didn’t stop there. My sister, who’s one year younger than me, Roz, never wanted to be home by herself. She took classes, extra classes to graduate from high school with me, to go to university in North Carolina with me, and to graduate prior than me.
And you guys sit and ask me where my competition or my competitive nature came from? It came from them. It came from my older sister. She was not here today. And my father, who’s not here today, obviously he’s with us in all of us.
The Fire Within
I mean, my competitive nature has gone a long way from the first time I picked up any sport, baseball, football, ran track, basketball, anything that missed class, I played it. When you think about it, they started the fire in me. You know, that fire started with my parents. And as I moved on in my career, people added wood to that fire. Coach Smith, and what else can I say about him?
The Motivators Who Shaped His Competitive Fire
You know, he’s a legendary, and he’s, you know, in the game of coaching. And then there’s Leroy Smith. Now, you guys think that’s a myth. Leroy Smith was a guy, when I got cut, he made the team on the varsity team, and he’s here tonight. He’s still the same 6’7 guy, he’s not any bigger, he’s probably, his game is about the same.
But he started the whole process for me, because when he made the team and I didn’t, I wanted to prove not just to Leroy Smith, not just to myself, but to the coach who actually picked Leroy over me. I wanted to make sure you understood, you made a mistake, dude.
And then there’s Buzz Peterson, my roommate. Now, when I first met Buzz, all I heard about was this kid from Asheville, North Carolina, who’s a player of the year. I’m thinking, well, he ain’t never played against me yet. So how did he become player of the year? Is that some type of media, you know, exposure?
You know, I came from Wilmington, you know, we had two channels, Channel ABC and Channel Seven, Channel NBC, that was it. I never saw NBA sports at all when I grew up.
It didn’t have CBS affiliated in North Carolina, in Wilmington. So Buzz Peterson became a dot on my board.
And when I got the chance to meet Buzz Peterson on the basketball court, Buzz was a great person. It wasn’t the fault of his, it was just my competitive nature, I didn’t think he could beat me, or he was better than me as a basketball player, and he became my roommate. And from that point on, he became a focal point, not knowingly, he didn’t know it, but he did.
Coach Smith and the Sports Illustrated Snub
And Coach Smith, the day that he was on the Sports Illustrated and he named four starters and he didn’t name me, that burned me up, because I thought I belonged on that Sports Illustrated. Now he had his own vision about giving a freshman that exposure, and I totally understand that, but from a basketball sense, I deserve to be on that Sports Illustrated, and he understands that.
And it didn’t stop there. You know, my competitive nature went right into the pros.
Early Days With the Chicago Bulls
I get to the Bulls, which I was very proud that at the time Jerry Reinsdorf didn’t own the team, it was another organization, and Rob Thorn drafted me, Kevin Loughery was my first coach. Kevin used to take practices and put me in the starting five, and he’d make it a competitive thing where the losing team have to run. So now I’m on the winning team, and halfway in the game, halfway in the situation, he would switch me to the losing team.
So I take that as a competitive thing, but you’re trying to test me, and by nine times out of ten, the second team would come back and win, no matter what he did. So I appreciate Kevin Loughery for giving me that challenge, you know, providing that type of fire within me. He threw another log on that fire for me.
Jerry Reinsdorf. I mean, what else can I say? The next year I come back, I broke my foot, I was out for 65 games, and when I came back, I wanted to play. You know, he and the doctors, they came up with this whole theory that you can only play seven minutes a game, but I’m practicing two hours a day, you know, I’m saying, well, I don’t think, I don’t agree with that math, you know.
And back then, it was about whoever had the worst record get the most balls and the ping-pong balls, and, you know, you can decide what pick you’re going to have, but I didn’t care about that. I just wanted to win. I wanted to make the playoffs. You know, I wanted to keep that energy going in Chicago.
The “Love of the Game” Clause and Jerry Krause
So I had to go in his office and sit down with him, and I said, “Jerry, I feel like I should play more than 14 minutes, I’m practicing two hours.” He says, “MJ, I think I have to protect the long-term investment that we’ve invested in you.” And I said, “Jerry, I really think I should be able to play.” He says, “Let me ask you this.” He said, “If you had a headache, and, at that time, it was about 10 percent chance that I can re-injure my ankle or my foot, if you have a headache, and you’ve got 10 tablets, and one of them is coated with cyanide, would you take the Tylenol?”
And I looked at him, I said, “How bad is the headache? Depending on how bad the headache.” Jerry looked at me and said, “You okay? I guess that’s a good answer. You can go back and play.” He let me go back and play.
Jerry provided a lot of different obstacles for me, but at the same time, the guy gave me an opportunity to perform at the highest level in terms of basketball. And the Bulls, the whole Bulls organization, they did a great justice for me and for all my teammates. Believe me, I had a lot of teammates over the 14 years that I played for the Bulls. I respected each and every one of them. I just wanted to win, no matter how you look at it.
Doug Collins and the Contract Fine Print
And then along came Doug Collins, who was caught in the whole mix of this — Jerry Krause and Jerry Reinsdorf. And when I was trying to play in the summertime, he said, “You’re a part of the organization. The organization said you can’t play in the summertime.” I said, “Doug, you haven’t read the fine print in my contract.” And my contract said I had the love of the game clause. That means I can play any time I want, any place I want. And Doug looked at me and said, “Yeah, you’re right, you’re right.” And that’s how we became a little closer in terms of Doug Collins and myself.
A Message to Jerry Krause
Jerry Krause is right there — and Jerry’s not here. Obviously, I don’t know who invited him. I didn’t. But I hope he understands. I hope he understands it goes a long way. And he was a very competitive person. I was a very competitive person. He said, “Organization wins championships.” I said, “I didn’t see organization playing with the flu in Utah. I didn’t see them playing with the bad ankle.”
Granted, I think organization put together a team, but at the end of the day the team’s got to go out and play. So, in essence, I think the players win the championship and the organization has something to do with it — don’t get me wrong. But don’t try to put the organization above the players, because at the end of the day the players still got to go out there and perform. You guys got to pay us, but I still got to go out and play.
To His Children
Obviously, you see my kids — Jeffrey, Marcus, Jasmine. I love you guys. I think you guys represent a lot of me, a lot of different personalities. Your mom, you represent her as well. I think that you guys have a heavy burden. I wouldn’t want to be you guys, because of all the expectations that you have to deal with.
I mean, look around you. I’m charging $1,000 tickets for this game, for this whole event. It used to be $200. But I paid it. I had no choice. I had a lot of family, a lot of friends I had to bring in, so thank you, Hall of Fame, for raising the ticket price, I guess. But you guys, I love you guys.
Words From the Heart: Family, Rivals, and Respect
You guys just don’t know you got a whole host of people supporting you, family, friends, people that you don’t know, relatives coming out of the woodworks, you know, no matter how you look at it. But I think we taught you right, your mom and I, and hopefully you can make the right decision when the time comes.
A Tribute to His Mother
My mom, what else can I say about my mom? My mom never stays still. You think I’m busy. She’s always on the go. And without her, she’s a rock. She’s unbelievable. Right now she takes over two jobs. She’s an unbelievable woman.
I mean, if I got anybody that’s nagging me each and every day, it is her. And she constantly keeps me focused on the good things about life, you know, how people perceive you, how you respect them, you know, what’s good for the kids, what’s good for you, you know, how you perceive publicly, second thought, take a pause and think about, you know, things that you do. That all came from my parents, you know, it came from my mom.
And she’s still at this stage. I’m 46 years old. She’s still parenting me today. And that’s the good thing about that lady. I love her to death. I love her to death.
Thanking the Unexpected: Isaiah, Magic, and George Gervin
And I’m going to thank a couple of people that you guys probably wouldn’t even think that I would thank. Isaiah Thomas, Magic Johnson, George Gervin. Now they say it was a so-called freeze-out in my rookie season. I wouldn’t have never guessed, but you guys gave me the motivation to say, you know what, evidently I haven’t proved enough to these guys. Prove to them that I deserve what I’ve gotten on this level.
And no matter what people may have said, if it was a rumor, I never took it as truth. But you guys never froze me out, because I was just happy to be there, no matter how you look at it. And from that point forward, I wanted to prove to you, Magic, Larry, George, everybody, that I deserve to be on this level as much as anybody else. And hopefully, over the period of my career, I’ve done that, without a doubt. Even in the Detroit years, we’ve done that.
Pat Riley: A Competitor’s Respect
Pat Riley, I mean, you and I, we go way back. I still remember in Hawaii. You remember in Hawaii, where you and I, I was coming in, you were, I guess, leaving, and you decided to stay a couple extra days. But you were in my suite, and they came, and they told you you had to get out of my suite. And you slid a note underneath my door, although you had to move, you did move. You slid a note saying, “I enjoyed the competition, congratulations, but we will meet again.”
And I take the heart in that, because I think, in all honesty, you are just as competitive as I am, even from a coaching standpoint. And you’ve challenged me every time I played the Knicks, the Heat, and I don’t think you were with the Lakers, but any time I played against you, you had Jordan Stoppers on your team.
You had John Starks, who I loved. You even had my friend Charles Oakley saying, “We can’t go to lunch, we can’t go to dinner, because Pat doesn’t believe in fraternizing between the two of us.” And this guy hit me harder than anybody else in the league, and he was my best friend.
Patrick, you and I had the same age, and we came out the same time, but we couldn’t go to lunch. Why is this, you think I’m going to play against Patrick any different than I play against anybody else? No, no.
And then you had your little guy who was on your staff, who became the next coach after you, Jeff Van Gundy. You remember that? He said, I conned the players, I defended them, and then I attacked them on the basketball court. Where did that come from? I just so happened to be a friendly guy.
Competitive Fire and the Drive to Win
I get along with everybody, but at the same time, when the light comes on, I’m the most competitive than anybody you know. So you guys, I must say thank you very much for giving me that motivation that I desperately needed. Thank you.
Phil Jackson and Tex Winter
Phil Jackson. Phil Jackson, to me, he’s a professional Dean Smith. He challenged me mentally, not just physically. He understood the game, along with Tex Winter. They taught me a lot about the basketball game. Tex being the specialist, I could never please Tex. And I love Tex. Tex is not here, but I know he’s here in spirit.
I can remember a game coming off the basketball court, and we were down, I don’t know, five, 10 points. And I go off about 25 points. We come back and win the game. And we’re walking off the floor, and Tex looked at me and says, “You know, there’s no I in team.”
I said, “Tex, there’s not. It’s not an I in team, but it’s I in win.”
I think he got my message. I’d do anything to win. You know, if that means we play team format, we win. If that means I have to do whatever I have to do, I’m going to win, no matter how you look at it.
Media Naysayers as Motivation
And then you had all your media naysayers. “Oh, scoring champion can’t win an NBA title.” Or, “You know, you’re not as good as Magic Johnson. You’re not as good as Larry Bird. You’re good, but you’re not as good as those guys.” You know, I had to listen to all this. And that put so much will in that fire that it kept me, each and every day, trying to get better as a basketball player.
Now, I’m not saying that they were wrong. I may have looked at it from a different perspective. You know, but at the same time, as a basketball player, I’m trying to become the best that I can. You know, and for someone like me, who achieved a lot over the time of my career, you look for any kind of messages that people may say or do to get you motivated to play the game of basketball at the highest level. Because that is when I feel like I excel at my best.
Brian Russell: One Last Example
And my last example of that, and the last one that you guys probably have seen, I hate to do it to him, but he’s such a nice guy. And when I first met Brian Russell, John and Carl, you should remember this, I was in Chicago in 1994. I was working out for baseball. They came down for a workout and shoot around. I came over to say hello. And at this time, I had no thoughts of coming back and playing the game of basketball.
And Brian Russell came over to me and said, “You know what, man? Why did you quit? Why did you quit? You know I can guard you. If I ever see you in a pair of shorts, if I ever see you in a pair of shorts, you remember this, John?”
And so when I did decide to come back in 1995, and then we played Utah in 96, I’m at the center circle. And Brian Russell’s sitting next to me, and I look over to Brian. I said, “You remember this conversation you made in 1994 about when you, I think I can guard you. I can shut you down. I would love to play against you. Well, you about to get your chance.”
And believe me, ever since that day, he got his chance. I don’t know how successful he was, but I think he had his chance. Believe me, I relished on that point. And from this day forward, if I ever see him in shorts, I’m coming at him.
Closing Remarks
I know you guys got to go. I know I’ve been up here a lot longer than I told my friends I was going to be up here. I cried. I was supposed to get up here and say thank you and walk off, and I didn’t even do that.
Closing Remarks
So I appreciate it. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you.
As I close, the game of basketball has been everything to me. My refuge, my place I’ve always gone when I needed to find comfort and peace. It’s been a source of intense pain and a source of most intense feelings of joy and satisfaction, and one that no one can even imagine.
It’s been a relationship that has evolved over time and has given me the greatest respect and love for the game. It’s provided me with a platform to share my passion with millions in a way I neither expected nor could have imagined in my career.
I hope that it’s given the millions of people that I’ve touched the optimism and desire to achieve their goals through hard work, perseverance, and positive attitude.
Although I’m recognized with this tremendous honor of being in the Basketball Hall of Fame, I don’t look at this moment as a defining end to my relationship with the game of basketball. It’s simply a continuation of something that I started a long time ago.
One day you might look up and see me playing the game at 50. Oh, don’t laugh. Don’t do that. Never say never. Because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.
Thank you very much. I look forward to it.
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