Driven from Within Read online

  We had one television in our home, and the only time they could look at television was Saturday morning. Other than that, it was studying. We knew where everybody was going. We knew who their friends were, and we knew their parents. We were involved in their lives.

  COACH HERRING WAS THE FIRST ONE TO SEE IN ME WHAT I SAW IN MYSELF.

  I relied on my high school coach, Clifton “Pop” Herring. He picked me up every morning my junior year, took me into the gym before school and worked me out. He was more or less my pusher. He was one of those coaches who just talked to you.

  “YOU HAVE TO STAY FOCUSED, MJ.”

  “YOU CAN’T DO THIS, MJ.”

  “GRADES, MAN, GRADES.”

  Those where the things he would talk to me about every day.

  I had tried out for Coach Herring’s varsity team when I was in 10th grade. The team was stacked, but I felt like I was good enough to contribute. Coach Herring had another idea. I ended up playing junior varsity that whole season. When the JV season ended, players could be invited up to the varsity. But Coach Herring didn’t move me up then either, even though I had averaged 26 or 27 points a game.

  SO I ASKED TO BE STATISTICIAN. I WAS WILLING TO DO JUST ABOUT ANYTHING TO BE A PART OF THE VARSITY.

  Coach Herring allowed me to go on trips, but the only way I could get into the visiting gym without buying a ticket was to carry somebody else’s uniform so it looked like I was part of the team. When my parents heard I was going to the varsity game, they thought I had been pulled up. They got into their car, drove to the game. I never even got into uniform. I had so much confidence that I could help the team. I knew I could play.

  Coach Herring could see that I had ability, but he also saw that I was a little slow in my development because I was growing. He knew I would make the varsity team that fall, but he wanted to start early. So he told me to stop playing football, which was fine with my parents. Then Coach Herring convinced them that picking me up every morning and working me out before school would be good for me. My parents agreed, but they had different motivations. They figured it would be a good way to make sure I got to school on time.

  MOST DAYS I ENJOYED IT.

  SOME DAYS I DIDN’T FEEL LIKE GOING.

  BUT THOSE WERE THE DAYS COACH HERRING WOULD PUSH ME.

  He’d pick me up at 6:30. We’d shoot jump shots, play one-on-one, and work on ball-handling drills because I couldn’t handle the ball at all. We would work for an hour, then I’d shower and go to class. He made this big ol’ poster with all the drills listed, and we went through them every single day. That’s how it got started. Those mornings created a bond between us. He was a great guy, a YMCA kind of guy. He would counsel me on everything in life. He would give you the shirt right off his back and never ask for a thing in return. And he loved challenging me. He could shoot pretty well, so we’d play knockout, h-o-r-s-e, all those games. He’d stay out there as long as I would.

  A lot of it was just high school. The way I looked at it, if you didn’t have status in high school, then you really weren’t anybody.

  I DIDN’T HAVE STATUS. I DIDN’T HAVE ANY GIRLS.

  I wasn’t a great athlete at the time, though I wanted to be. Playing sports was my way of being able to move up the ladder. It wasn’t just about fitting in—I wanted to really fit in. I wanted to be admired, respected. I wanted the girls to respect me, too. I didn’t want to just carry their books. All of that drove me a lot more than most people think. I didn’t want to be excluded from a grouping, or laughed at because I didn’t have any status. If that’s what you saw, I was going to prove you wrong. Just watch me—that was my mentality.

  We have to adjust our expectations for players because times have changed. When I was growing up in Wilmington, North Carolina, we could only see two television stations, NBC and ABC. I never watched NBA basketball as a kid. I watched college games; we couldn’t pick up an NBA game. Most of what I did growing up was born out of a desire to be the best player in Wilmington, or the best player in the park that day. I didn’t have any sense of being the best player in the world, or playing in the NBA because I didn’t have any idea what it took. I didn’t even know what it looked like.

  BUT I HAD NO DOUBTS OR FEARS BECAUSE I NEVER HAD EXPECTATIONS THAT WERE OUT OF CONTEXT WITH MY SKILL LEVEL.

  My expectations were very low. I wanted to be the best player at the park in Wilmington. I wanted to be better than my brothers, or the other guys in the neighborhood. These were my expectations: make the varsity team, impress the coach, get a four-year scholarship to a major college.

  WITH EACH PROGRESSION I GAINED CONFIDENCE.

  Even when I went to Chicago, no one knew my true ability because I had played within a system at North Carolina. Coach [Dean] Smith’s system wasn’t about excelling at one phase of the game. He was about excellence in every phase of the game: scoring, rebounding, passing, playing defense.

  But in this era, the process is flipped.

  NO ONE HAD TO MARKET MICHAEL JORDAN. I MARKETED MYSELF BY WHAT I DID ON THE COURT.

  It’s easy to see a guy averaging 30 points a game and then use him as a marketing tool for your product. It’s a lot more difficult to take a guy you hope can play, market him as a 30-point scorer, and then find out he’s not nearly the player your marketing platform promised. You can’t fake out the consumer. Some of these kids today can never live up to the expectations created for them.

  COACH HERRING LIED TO GET ME INTO THE 5-STAR BASKETBALL CAMP IN PHILADELPHIA BETWEEN MY JUNIOR AND SENIOR YEARS IN HIGH SCHOOL. I WASN’T ON ANYONE’S LIST. YOU COULDN’T FIND ME RANKED ANYWHERE BECAUSE NO ONE KNEW I EXISTED.

  I LITERALLY CAME OUT OF NOWHERE.

  That’s impossible today. There are scouting services evaluating 12-year-olds. Back then, no one was looking for basketball players in Wilmington, North Carolina. I grew almost four inches to 6-foot-3½ that summer. I was really kind of clumsy. But I had a great junior year, so Coach Herring decided he needed to get this kid some publicity. The only way you could get into the 5-Star camp was by being one of the best-ranked players in the country. I wasn’t ranked anywhere by anybody.

  COACH HERRING TOLD THEM I AVERAGED 35 POINTS, 20 REBOUNDS AND EIGHT ASSISTS, SOMETHING LIKE THAT. AND THAT’S HOW I GOT IN.

  When my father drove me up to Philadelphia to drop me off, that was the first time I had ever been to a basketball camp. I won five trophies the first week. So before my father came back to get me, they asked him if I could stay another week. Howard Garfinkel, who ran the camp, told my father, “Mr. Jordan, if you let him stay, I guarantee you he will get a full four-year scholarship. He might even be a McDonald’s All-American. It would be financially so much better for you to let him stay another week.” That’s the only way I stayed for that second week.

  MOM It was hard work and commitment between Mr. Jordan and me when Michael and his siblings were growing up. We really learned how to budget. We did it together. Each week we would sit down and figure out what bills we were going to pay. We had paid for one week of basketball camp, and when Mr. Garfinkel called, we told him we only had money in the budget for that one week. Mr. Garfinkel just let us have it. He told us we didn’t know the skills of our son.

  I said, “Sir, that’s OK. We paid for one week and we’re coming to get him.” He said, “I’ll give him the money.” We said, “We don’t know you and we can’t take your money.” Then he said he would give Michael a job washing the dishes to pay for the second week. We had a budget, and we had to stick to it.

  I was full of energy after that second week. I thought I must be doing something right. All I wanted to do was to improve, to keep getting better.

  IT WAS LIKE THE BLOOD STARTED RUSHING.

  I became a sponge. I got a glimpse of what success looked like. I saw where I fit with the best players in the country, and they were all there: Chris Mullin, Patrick Ewing.

  That’s when my parents started to believe that this kid could amount to something. They starte
d supporting me and pushing me. My mother was very adamant about me making the grades.

  If I didn’t make the grades, then she wouldn’t let me play basketball. My father just kept saying, “Keep playing, keep working.” My mother never believed sports should be ahead of education—she still believes that today. My father was beginning to see the same things I was seeing.

  HOWARD “H” WHITE Michael Jordan is very, very astute and very intelligent. He had something that a lot of kids don’t have: a mother and a father. So he came from a family, a family that had direction, discipline, the kind of foundation that can give people a chance in life.

  A lot of kids today need reinforcement. They need a pat on the back. Back in those days, if you didn’t get the pat, you better pat yourself and keep moving. At least it was that way for me. And that knowledge helped me understand some things. I told myself that whatever I did in life was going to be done my way. I knew I had to abide by the basic rules—I knew right from wrong. I wanted to be different. When it came time for me to decide on colleges, I had all kinds of people telling me to go to the Air Force Academy, or to a smaller college where I would be assured of playing. I’m saying,

  “I’VE GOT HIGHER DREAMS THAN THAT.

  “I’m going to North Carolina. I’m going to a place no one else from my town has ever gone. You can say whatever you want, but I’m going. If I have to sit on the bench, at least I’m going to learn how to sit on the bench with the best.” One teacher said, “You’ll be back here in Wilmington pumping gas if you don’t go to the Air Force Academy.” Yeah? We’ll see about that.

  My parents just wanted me to get a scholarship so they didn’t have to pay. My mother was going to make sure I had the right focus academically. My father more or less thought, “At least this guy isn’t going to be home for the rest of his life. He may just get out and do something.”

  MOM At the University of North Carolina, we had an opportunity to see Michael’s skills and the passion he had playing. Prior to Chapel Hill, for us it was all about education. No matter how much money you make, education is something no one can take away from you. No doors can close in your face; you have all the tools. That was the number one priority for us when Michael went to North Carolina. Everything with basketball was gravy. I remember thinking, “You mean we aren’t going to have to worry about tuition?”

  There were a lot of doubters when I was deciding on schools. But my father didn’t waver. His position was, “Go for it all. Go for the big one. Go to North Carolina.”

  Coach Smith would challenge you mentally. I remember my first mistake. I went baseline and tried to do a reverse move, and he just yelled, “Where do you think you are? Do you think you’re back at E.A. Laney High School? You’re not. You’re in college. Do you think that was a good shot?” Obviously you can’t say yes. He made you think. He never cursed at anybody. He was the perfect guy for me. He kept me humble, but he challenged me. He gave me confidence by giving me compliments when he thought I needed them.

  But I was totally afraid of Coach Smith, because he was a big name in the state of North Carolina, and I was this kid from a small city. I never even thought about calling him anything other than Coach Smith. It was intimidating the way he controlled practice. I have never seen practice controlled the way it was at North Carolina. Every minute was thought out. If a drill was supposed to end at 3:10, it ended at 3:10, and the next one started. I never thought he was the kind of guy to get down on the floor the way he did in practice. He screamed and yelled. He never did that in a game. I was shocked at how he got into practice, how he controlled every minute, how he taught. They made practice challenging, which was right down my alley. They made it fun to learn.

  When I got to North Carolina, there had only been four freshman starters: Walter Davis, Mike O’Koren, Phil Ford and James Worthy. I just wanted a chance to get out on the floor and make an impact. I’m listening to what the coaches want, and I’m competing my ass off. I’m trying to impress all of them. I’m not trying to con anybody. I’m competing, and I’m trying to earn the highest accolades. I wanted them to know that I listened, that I applied what I was learning, that I worked hard every single day. I wanted them to know I would be the first guy onto the floor and the last one to leave.

  COACH SMITH What you saw in Michael was his work ethic. He would compete in every drill. I’d seen other great athletes, but Michael also had the intelligence, the court savvy.

  I CAME TO CHICAGO WITH NO EXPECTATIONS. NONE.

  THE ONLY PRESSURE I FELT WHEN I WENT TO THE NBA WAS TO PROVE I DESERVED TO PLAY ON THAT LEVEL.

  And that was easy because it was a step-by-step process: playing hard every day in practice, playing against veteran teammates, making the starting five, then playing against NBA players in games. No one knew what I was capable of scoring, and no one tried to define me by putting a number to those expectations.

  No one had in mind what would be acceptable for me. After the first year, the expectations came, but by that time I had positive habits. I had built a foundation for my game, so it wasn’t a surprise to me.

  I UNDERSTOOD THAT THE REASON I WAS GETTING ATTENTION WAS BECAUSE OF THE WORK I HAD PUT IN UP TO THAT POINT, NOT BECAUSE OF WHAT I HAD DONE TO MEET OTHER PEOPLE’S EXPECTATION FOR ME.

  ROD HIGGINS

  YOU COULDN’T HELP BUT NOTICE THIS GUY WAS DIFFERENT FROM ALL OF US WHO WERE ALREADY THERE WITH THE BULLS. HIS PRACTICE HABITS WERE UNMATCHED.

  That’s what stood out right away. He comes into the first drill, and usually a rookie has to feel his way through. Not Michael. I don’t think he ever had the mindset of feeling his way through. Whoever was in front of him, Michael was trying to beat that guy. It didn’t matter who it was. He didn’t say a lot initially. But his level of effort, his level of competing stood out. Then the physical attributes were evident. It was right in your face—he couldn’t see any other way of playing. He always wanted to take it to the next level. If the other guys didn’t take their effort up, then Michael had no problem embarrassing them.

  GEORGE KOEHLER You ever see Star Wars? Yoda is this little ugly thing, but he’s the Jedi Master. He’s the guy who taught everybody. Everybody went to Yoda for knowledge. When you sit around talking to any older person who has lived their life to the fullest, they have great stories to tell because they have had great experiences.

  MICHAEL IS YODA. HE’S ALWAYS BEEN AN OLD SOUL.

  When I met Michael he was 21 years old, but he wasn’t 21 to me. I was 29 at the time, but he was so mature at such an early age. That’s probably attributable to the education he got from his parents, the education he got from Dean Smith, and then the Olympics with Bobby Knight. He was more mature than the average 21-year-old kid coming into the NBA. It’s an inner thing with Michael. I’m still amazed at him, just like everyone else, and I’ve seen the entire show.

  MOM When it came time to go to Nike, Michael said he wasn’t sure he liked their product. Mr. Jordan and I said, “Why don’t you try all of them before you make a decision.” So we had an appointment to go to Portland, and Michael calls me the night before the trip. He said, “I’ve made up my mind. I’m not going to Portland.” Mr. Jordan got on the phone and told Michael he had to go. Then he handed me the phone, and I said, “Michael, when we pull up to the airport tomorrow, you better be ready to get on the plane. You are going, and you are going to sit and listen. Whether or not it’s your choice, you always need to show respect and listen.”

  I had so much respect for Rob Strasser, who was a Nike marketing executive at that time. He believed in Michael. The whole time, Rob and his group were sharing their storyboards, and telling us how Nike would make it all work. Michael sat over in the corner and would not say a word. Mr. Jordan and I just ignored him and carried on the conversation. We went to lunch, and Michael was still pouting. I just told Mr. Jordan not to pay Michael any attention if he didn’t want to be a part of the conversation.

  DAVID FALK They had created a video of Michael to th
e song Jump. It was like an early music video. Strasser walks in, and his wearing a thin tie. He’s a big guy, and he can’t get the VCR to work, so he’s just dripping sweat because his boss, Phil Knight, is about to come in. Michael’s got his business face on because he’s not prepared to like the presentation.

  I WATCHED MICHAEL’S FACE THE ENTIRE MEETING, AND HE NEVER TWITCHED A MUSCLE.

  I was convinced he was either mad because he didn’t want to be there, or he thought the whole thing was hokey. So everything moves to the second phase, and Phil comes in. Everyone knew Michael liked cars. At a key point during the presentation, Strasser tells Michael that these come with the deal, and he reaches into his pocket and pulls out two little model cars. Knight literally has his hands over his heart, because to that point guys were making like $10,000 an endorsement. He thinks Strasser is about to give Michael the keys to not one, but two Mercedes. We all cracked up.

  It was a really early, high quality marketing presentation. Nike got it, and they delivered a coordinated line of athletic apparel and shoes. I asked Michael what he thought, and he said it was awesome. I would never have guessed that would be his response. I would have sworn he hated it. He didn’t want to see anyone else, and he never did.

  I DID NOT WANT TO GO TO THE NIKE MEETING.

  I DIDN’T KNOW NIKE.

  I DIDN’T THINK I LIKE NIKE.

  HOWARD “H” WHITE I walked up to this meeting, and there was Mr. Jordan, Mrs. Jordan and Michael. Everybody else at that meeting was white. We all kind of hit off. I saw they wanted something true and real for their son. It was a leap of faith on both sides because Nike was presenting something that hadn’t been done before. At the time, Michael loved Adidas. He wore Converse all through college. Nike was pretty foreign to Michael. The fact is, all Adidas had to do was come close to what Nike proposed, and Michael would have gone with them. They wouldn’t do it. Converse told Michael they had a line of players, and he’d have to wait. It was amazing how it all came together.