Michael Jordan is considered by many to be the greatest player of all time, but many don’t know why Michael Jordan decided to join the Washington Wizards after leading the Chicago Bulls to the sixth NBA Championship in the 1990s and becoming the most marketable player in United States NBA history.
There are several reasons why Jordan decided to return to the league again, so this is why he decided to play for the Wizards.
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A feud with Bulls management
Michael Jordan never got on well with Bulls management. He got into a fight with the team about the minutes and schedule when he broke his leg in season two. Then, Jordan would take issue with how the franchise negotiated contracts both for himself and for co-star Scottie Pippen, who even demanded to be traded in 1997.
The biggest problem came from Jordan as well as Pippen and head coach Phil Jackson clashing with former Bulls GM Jerry Krause, in large part over one very well-known comment. Krause allegedly made the comment during Bulls Media Day in 1997 and that comment turned out to be the end for the Bulls dynasty.
Jackson, Jordan, Pippen and Dennis Rodman are all in the final years of their contracts leading up to the 1997-98 season and Jackson remains confident that Krause wants to replace him with a new coach. In recent years, players like Pippen and others have talked about how Jackson helped revive them. Just look at the Hall of Fame speech:
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Although the Bulls won their sixth NBA Championship in 1998, Jordan said he would return to the Bulls next year if Jackson was still coach, but Jackson refused to sit on the bench as long as Krause was in charge. In the span of only a few months, Jackson left for retirement. Jordan followed suit and the Bulls swapped Pippen and let Rodman go. The dynasty officially ends in Chicago.
Ownership in DC?
Not long after he left the Bulls, Michael Jordan saw an opportunity to return to the NBA. In 1998-99 he joined the Washington Wizards, getting the team into the playoffs for the first time in nearly a decade in 1997.
But they failed in each of the following years and were on the brink of collapse at the turn of the decade. The owner, Abe Pollin, invited Jordan to become the new president of the basketball operations team and the deal was finalized in January 2000.
However, part of the deal that gives Jordan five years as team president will also allow Jordan’s shareholding to grow by up to 20%, which will give him the largest stake among black owners, including Magic Johnson.
“I’m Back” Part Two
Michael Jordan couldn’t stop himself from playing again. He feels he can do better to help the Wizards on the pitch than inside luxury boxes. At the age of 38, he signed a two-year contract with the Washington Wizards.
With Jordan, there are many advantages to the Wizards such as multiple “40 at 40” games and pursuing the blocks records of former Bulls guard, Ron Mercer. Jordan averaged 21.2 points, 5.9 rebounds and 4.4 assists with a 43.1% percentage shoot overall with Washington.
While he can’t average up to 31.5 points (with a percentage shoot of 50.5%), 6.3 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game like his time with the Bulls, they are still impressive considering his age.
But ultimately Jordan couldn’t save the Wizards and they missed the playoffs when one of Jordan’s two seasons spent with the team as a player (the Wizards played 37-45 in both seasons MJ played for them) and he was unofficially sacked by Pollin. in May 2003.
Jordan’s job as an executive in the nation’s capital is notorious, with the selection of Kwame Brown in the top of the 2001 NBA Draft 2001 one grave mistake. Overall, Jordan had a pretty wild experience but he ended up finding a bit of stability as the main owner of the Charlotte Hornets. Meanwhile the NBA legends still haven’t enjoyed much success at Charlotte and are trying to change that.