Michael Jordan’s competitive streak on the basketball court (and nearly everywhere else) is legendary.
And it didn’t go anywhere when he briefly switched from hoops to baseball.
Jordan’s tenure as a pro baseball player lasted just over a year, but in that brief period of time, he was still obliterating people in pickup basketball games, including two featuring future World Series winning managers.
Before spring training in 1994, Jordan was secretly working on hitting with White Sox legend Bill Melton. Ozzie Guillen was around Comiskey Park, too, when this was going on, rehabbing from an injury. And at one point, he and fellow White Sox infielder Joey Cora played a game of 2-on-1 against the greatest basketball player to ever live.
“We’re talking about baseball, me and Bill, and Michael showed up to hit,” Guillen recalled on the White Sox Talk Podcast. “And I said, ‘Let’s play 2-on-1,’ just me and Joey.
“We scored (the first) three (points), and we started to get cocky. … What, Joey Cora’s 5-4, and I’m 5-11. And all of a sudden, we started making fun of Michael. Michael’s like, ‘OK, whatever guys.’
“All of a sudden, Michael starts beating the crap out of us. I’m like, ‘Hey man, I’m not an NBA player, I’m not Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.’ He was killing us. Game’s over and we’re like, ‘Bro, are you kidding me?’ He said, ‘If I let Ozzie Guillen and Joey Cora beat me in basketball, I’m going to be all over the news about this. … They’re going to be so loud and they’re going to let everyone know about it.’
NBA
“(The final score was) 10-3. We never touched the ball (after the early lead), we never touched him. And I was afraid to guard him because I knew we were going to get hurt.
“He saw us like we were Manute Bol or something, and we hadn’t even touched the ball yet.”
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Not long after Guillen and Cora were dismantled by Jordan in Chicago, there was another pickup game in Birmingham, Alabama, where Jordan was playing with the Barons, the White Sox Double-A team. Terry Francona, who led the Boston Red Sox to the 2004 World Series a year before Guillen won it all with the White Sox, managed that Birmingham team.
As relayed by NBC Sports Boston’s John Tamase, a late-season debate between two Barons coaches over which was the better basketball player ended at a court at Francona’s apartment complex. Jordan came along.
“MJ's eyes lit up,” Francona said. “This is late in the year, and never once has he mentioned basketball. OK. So we get the ball and head over to my apartment. The neighborhood gets wind of it. Everyone hears about it. The court is packed.
“This big kid pushes MJ a little bit,” Francona said. “I remember thinking, ‘Wow, this has got to stop. This is not good.’ But we come down the floor, and I see MJ getting competitive. I set a pick and he looks at me like, ‘Get out of here. Don't even do it.’ So I back up.
“He pointed to a spot and said to the guy who pushed him, ‘I'm going to take the ball right there.’ He got about to the foul line, left his feet, and I'm thinking he's going to embarrass himself. He's too far away. But the ball goes through the hoop, the chain net rattles, the rim bends, and he slams it and says, ‘Don't ever talk to me again.’”
Francona even suffered a dislocated pinky during the game when he couldn’t handle one of Jordan’s passes.
Dude was intense.
For more behind-the-scenes tales from Michael Jordan's baseball career, listen to this recent edition of the White Sox Talk Podcast.
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