TODAY’S SPORTS JOURNALISTS work in a culture where it can be a challenge to interview an amateur Gaelic football player before a junior club final, so closely guarded has access to performers become.
As a result, supporters rarely get to know their their favourite sports people – at least not to the extent that was typical in different times.
Names don’t come bigger than Michael Jordan, but to speak to the greatest exponent of one of the world’s most popular sports during his rise was far more straightforward than many would imagine now.
Journalist Sam Smith, basketball writer and author of the controversial diary of the Chicago Bulls’ 1990/91 season, The Jordan Rules, told Gavin Cooney how he conveyed to readers what the basketball phenomenon was really like.
The pair were speaking on the Behind the Lines podcast, which is available to The42 members and gleans sharp insights on the biggest names in sport such as Jordan, Lionel Messi and Tiger Woods from those who have covered their exploits meticulously.
This episode is available for free, but to hear the entire conversation and sign up for membership, click here and enter the promo code BTL10 at checkout to receive €10 off the price of an annual membership.
The first time Smith met Jordan, was shortly after he joined the Bulls in 1984, having been drafted from North Caroline, his college team.
“I went to his apartment, a small townhouse in the north suburbs of Chicago, where the practice facility was. I went in and he had an ironing board set up,” Smith said.
He asked Jordan whether this was a stunt so the writer would have some colour for his piece.
“He said, ‘No, no I do my own ironing’. He said ‘When I was in high school I was always embarrassed by my looks. I had these really big ears and I was awkward with girls, I never thought I’d get married so I took a home economics course. So he said I do my own sewing and ironing and I cook’.”
Advertisement
Smith added: “And I think a part of his competitiveness, this legendary competitiveness he has, stems from when he was a kid his dad was closer with his older brother Larry because Larry worked on cars and Larry had this mechanical ability that Michael didn’t and Michael was always yearning competitively to be accepted by his dad that way and his dad used to say, because he couldn’t fix anything when they were messing with the car, ‘You go in with the women’. And I actually think that had a lot to do with Michael’s competitive gene he developed. Of course he pushed it to excessive extents.”
Smith said the Jordan of the 1980s before he won six NBA championships in the 1990s was “fun to be around, natural, comfortable”.
“He had a lot of humanity; relaxed, joking, kind of fun, with a hard edge to him, but great company, and that’s how he was when he first came to the Bulls. Great fun to be around, challenging, invigorating really,” Smith said.
Smith relished covering the NBA due to the access he enjoyed and the nature of the characters who played the game professionally, compared to the other big US sports.
“It was extraordinary . . . the NBA was always so open,” he said. “This is another reason I was attracted to the NBA, not only because I like basketball, but I liked the people in the NBA best.
“Our football is very militaristic, very closed and secretive… and our baseball players tend to be . . . they play in small towns before they get to the majors so they tend to be mostly unsophisticated and closed, and the basketball players grow up mostly in urban areas. At a young age they’re exposed to large crowds, agents, street hustlers, all sorts of stuff. Basketball players tend to be the most sophisticated and independent of all the athletes, as a result they’re the most talkative.”
Smith remembers travelling on the team bus to games with players or, when the hotel was close to the arenas, the press corp and players would stroll to the venue together.
“I used to walk over to the games with Michael Jordan. You had that incredible intimacy with players, it was just one big travelling family.”
To hear Smith’s unique insight as to what Jordan was really like, and his description of the fallout from the Jordan Rules you can listen to this special episode for free. But if you’d like to listen to the full episode with Smith, or any of the other great episodes in our Behind The Lines archive, we’ve a special offer for any new members who sign up this week.
Click here and enter the promo code BTL10 at checkout to receive €10 off the price of an annual membership.
Once you’ve signed up, you can start enjoying more than 100 episodes of Behind the Lines and all of our other great benefits including our Rugby Weekly Extra, Football Family and GAA Weekly podcasts, as well as our journalists’ exclusive analysis on rugby, soccer, GAA, boxing and more delivered straight to your inbox.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Close
Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy
here
before taking part.
'Michael Jordan was fun to be around, challenging, invigorating really'
TODAY’S SPORTS JOURNALISTS work in a culture where it can be a challenge to interview an amateur Gaelic football player before a junior club final, so closely guarded has access to performers become.
As a result, supporters rarely get to know their their favourite sports people – at least not to the extent that was typical in different times.
Names don’t come bigger than Michael Jordan, but to speak to the greatest exponent of one of the world’s most popular sports during his rise was far more straightforward than many would imagine now.
Journalist Sam Smith, basketball writer and author of the controversial diary of the Chicago Bulls’ 1990/91 season, The Jordan Rules, told Gavin Cooney how he conveyed to readers what the basketball phenomenon was really like.
The pair were speaking on the Behind the Lines podcast, which is available to The42 members and gleans sharp insights on the biggest names in sport such as Jordan, Lionel Messi and Tiger Woods from those who have covered their exploits meticulously.
This episode is available for free, but to hear the entire conversation and sign up for membership, click here and enter the promo code BTL10 at checkout to receive €10 off the price of an annual membership.
Highlights from The42 Membership / SoundCloud
The first time Smith met Jordan, was shortly after he joined the Bulls in 1984, having been drafted from North Caroline, his college team.
“I went to his apartment, a small townhouse in the north suburbs of Chicago, where the practice facility was. I went in and he had an ironing board set up,” Smith said.
He asked Jordan whether this was a stunt so the writer would have some colour for his piece.
“He said, ‘No, no I do my own ironing’. He said ‘When I was in high school I was always embarrassed by my looks. I had these really big ears and I was awkward with girls, I never thought I’d get married so I took a home economics course. So he said I do my own sewing and ironing and I cook’.”
Smith added: “And I think a part of his competitiveness, this legendary competitiveness he has, stems from when he was a kid his dad was closer with his older brother Larry because Larry worked on cars and Larry had this mechanical ability that Michael didn’t and Michael was always yearning competitively to be accepted by his dad that way and his dad used to say, because he couldn’t fix anything when they were messing with the car, ‘You go in with the women’. And I actually think that had a lot to do with Michael’s competitive gene he developed. Of course he pushed it to excessive extents.”
Smith said the Jordan of the 1980s before he won six NBA championships in the 1990s was “fun to be around, natural, comfortable”.
“He had a lot of humanity; relaxed, joking, kind of fun, with a hard edge to him, but great company, and that’s how he was when he first came to the Bulls. Great fun to be around, challenging, invigorating really,” Smith said.
Smith relished covering the NBA due to the access he enjoyed and the nature of the characters who played the game professionally, compared to the other big US sports.
“It was extraordinary . . . the NBA was always so open,” he said. “This is another reason I was attracted to the NBA, not only because I like basketball, but I liked the people in the NBA best.
“Our football is very militaristic, very closed and secretive… and our baseball players tend to be . . . they play in small towns before they get to the majors so they tend to be mostly unsophisticated and closed, and the basketball players grow up mostly in urban areas. At a young age they’re exposed to large crowds, agents, street hustlers, all sorts of stuff. Basketball players tend to be the most sophisticated and independent of all the athletes, as a result they’re the most talkative.”
Smith remembers travelling on the team bus to games with players or, when the hotel was close to the arenas, the press corp and players would stroll to the venue together.
“I used to walk over to the games with Michael Jordan. You had that incredible intimacy with players, it was just one big travelling family.”
To hear Smith’s unique insight as to what Jordan was really like, and his description of the fallout from the Jordan Rules you can listen to this special episode for free. But if you’d like to listen to the full episode with Smith, or any of the other great episodes in our Behind The Lines archive, we’ve a special offer for any new members who sign up this week.
Click here and enter the promo code BTL10 at checkout to receive €10 off the price of an annual membership.
Once you’ve signed up, you can start enjoying more than 100 episodes of Behind the Lines and all of our other great benefits including our Rugby Weekly Extra, Football Family and GAA Weekly podcasts, as well as our journalists’ exclusive analysis on rugby, soccer, GAA, boxing and more delivered straight to your inbox.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Behind The Lines Michael Jordan Sponsored By The42 Membership