Mickey Berkovic vs. Michael Jordan (video shot: Yossi Tsipkis, video editing: Marom Spitzer)
Everyone who followed the NBA in the 80s and 90s carries with them some special memory of the biggest star of those days, Michael Jordan.
This is even truer for the basketball players, who probably watched it from a slightly different perspective.
In honor of Jordan's 60th birthday, we asked some past stars in Israeli basketball to return to the private moment they experienced as fans, admirers or professionals who watched the greatest of them all.
Here is their memoir.
David Blatt: "Even Larry Bird messed up"
"I'll never forget that night in 1986, when Jordan scored 63 points in a playoff game against Boston. He did amazing things there, and to my joy as a fan, the Celtics won. Larry Bird, who didn't exactly respect young players, said, 'Today we saw God Dressed up as Michael Jordan'. That said it all for me."
Jordan on the Dream Team in 1992 with Karl Malone, Magic and Larry Bird (Photo: GettyImages)
Tal Brody: "You are sitting in Michael's chair"
"On one of my visits to Chicago, I arrived at the offices of club president Jerry Reinsdorf and his deputy Erwin Mandel. When I entered, Mandel sat me in a chair and showed me balls from the six championships. Then he asked me: 'You know you are sitting in the chair where Jordan sat when Signed the contract with the Bulls?'. Today, when talking about Michael, the question keeps coming up who is the greatest of all. For me, it is true that LeBron James played more years than him, but Jordan's average was higher than his."
Gal Mekel: "I got up at night to watch it and get excited"
"When I was 6 years old, I had a video tape of Jordan, and I remember every moment of it. He told his life story in it, and I knew everything by heart. It increased my admiration for him, and gave me a crazy drive with passion and desire to play basketball and believe in myself . To this day I have it at my parents' house. When I grew up a little, I would wake up in the middle of the night to watch the live broadcasts of his playoff games, and I will of course not forget his last winning basket for Chicago, which brought a championship to Utah. I was all excited and jumped when I saw it."
Moti Daniel: "I asked Eric, 'What about you and Michael?'"
"In the summer of 1985, I traveled to the USA for the first time in my life, towards the beginning of my studies and career at George Washington University.
On the plane I met the late Eric Hennig, whom I had known before from Bialik School in Holon. Eric said: 'Listen, I'm going to meet Michael Jordan.' Jordan will be the greatest player in the world.' Later, when the assistant coach from Washington met me at the airport, Eric drove us, and the whole way he continued to tell Michael stories. The assistant coach looked at him strangely, but what to do, in the end Eric was right."
No one will ever forget the championship basket in Utah.
Jordan in a Chicago Bulls uniform (Photo: GettyImages)
Doron Shafer: "At first I regretted his return"
"One of the figures that inspired my appreciation and admiration is Michael Jordan, whom I call Michael Jordan. In 2001, a year and a half after my first retirement, while I was in the midst of a deepening spiritual journey in India, Jordan returned from his retirement as a Washington Wizards player. The truth She was the one who regretted his return, because I wanted to remember him in the famous final game in Utah, two and a half years before, scoring the championship basket. What if he lost his next game? I was afraid that his perfect achievements would be tarnished, and I think I projected my fears onto Michael. "He himself was not afraid
.
He was like a child happy to return to his favorite games - and I, a child in myself, looked for a place to watch his return game.
I watched and waited excitedly for the first basket, and my heart expanded at the sight of this basket, which was hit from half a distance, smooth, clean and natural.
It was a satisfying and excellent basket, which proved that at the age of 38, Jordan did what was right and deserved.
"And another thing impressed me and inspired me: Michael Jordan chose to return to the court with a mediocre team, which could not have brought him closer to winning the championship. In this way, in my opinion, he proved true greatness. It was not the desire to win that pushed him, but something greater than that. He himself said This: I'm doing it for the love of the game. That is, it's a love that doesn't depend on the thing, but the love of the thing itself."
Sharon Drucker: "Watching him in training - a crazy experience"
"After I retired, and moved to become an assistant coach at Maccabi Ra'anana, I flew twice to Jordan's games in the USA, once with Lior Arditti and once with Tomer Steinhauer.
A mutual friend who lives in Chicago got us permission from Phil Jackson to go into training, and it was a crazy experience.
To see up close the way Michael trains, full of presence and charisma, ordering the people and telling them what to do.
He just did what he wanted, and also trained hard and stayed behind everyone else on the field."
"He came back in the uniform of a mediocre team, thus proving true greatness."
Jordan in Washington (Photo: GettyImages, Lisa Blumenfeld)
Ido Kozhikro: "I remember from the age of 13 games against Magic"
"When I was 13 years old, my favorite player was actually Magic Johnson. There, in Michael's first Finals series against the Los Angeles Lakers, I had the strongest memory I took from him. In retrospect, this is actually the series that, in my eyes, most marked my change The generations and the change in the game that Jordan brought to the league, at the level of athleticism, attitude and even fashion. The NBA before Jordan and the NBA after it were two completely different things."
Shimon Amsalem: "What is this mutation?"
"A year after Michael started playing in the NBA, I came to Hapoel Tel Aviv. We all followed this mutation that scores 40 points every game, and we immediately understood that he was more than another player. Everything he touched turned to gold. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird more They were considered bigger players than him at the time, but something in his attitude took me back. He was a winner, someone who goes on the field to win and doesn't care about anything around him. "He was
focused at the level of a razor, and came with a kind of mindset that in every game he had to go up and prove himself.
This is an important message not only in sports, but also in other areas, such as the business world: your story is not interesting, but only if you win or lose.
And he was usually on the winning side."
sport
Tags
Michael Jordan