Why Michael Jordan turned down the chance to play for Team USA at the 1996 Olympics
Michael Jordan is one of the finest NBA stars of all time.
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Topics: Michael Jordan, Olympics, NBA, Basketball
Marcus Chan
Topics: Michael Jordan, Olympics, NBA, Basketball
Michael Jordan has revealed why he declined the chance to play for Team USA at the 1996 Olympics.
American superstar Jordan is often regarded as one of the NBA’s greatest players of all time.
During a stunning career, Jordan got his hands on six NBA championships whilst playing for the Chicago Bulls.
After his retirement, Jordan continued to be one of the biggest sportspersons in the world as a result of his work with Nike.
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During his playing days, Jordan won the Olympic gold medal on two occasions, in Los Angeles in 1984 and in Barcelona in 1992.
However, Jordan declined an invitation to take part in the 1996 Olympics, which was held in Atlanta.
It was believed that Jordan declined due to the Olympics taking up large parts of what would usually be the NBA offseason rest.
As reported by The New York Times, Jordan said: “I think it’s going to be easy to get guys to play, but your top players, it may be a different story.
“I don’t know if the clubs will want them to do it. You see those of us who played getting the nagging injuries, getting banged up so early in the season. You have to give some of that to playing in the Olympics.”
In 2012, speaking in an NBA TV documentary, Jordan revealed he wanted to decline the chance to represent Team USA at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games.
He said: “I was trying to figure out a way, graciously, that I could decline.”
During his career, it was reported that Jordan once made Kobe Bryant so mad that he didn’t speak to his teammates for two weeks.
According to former Washington Wizards player Gilbert Arenas, Jordan annoyed Bryant after a match in which Jordan won whilst Kobe was wearing ‘Jordan 8’s’.
It is believed that Jordan said to Bryant after the match: “You can wear the shoes but you’ll never fill them.”
Arenas said, as per Essentially Sports: “So what happened next is, during that time after Kobe got, so Kobe didn’t say anything to anybody. So, for like two weeks they said, Kobe was just mute.
“Like, he didn’t talk to his players, didn’t talk to his teammates. Just, they said he was in a, like, focus mode. Like it was straight. Like practice was just so intense. Right? So, the players were like, ‘yo is he mad at us? Did we do something to him?’”