Michael Jordan Didn’t Like Being Considered A Role Model While Playing For Bulls: ‘It’s Like A Game That’s Stacked Against Me, It’s Never Gonna Be Enough For Everybody’

NBA legend Michael Jordan didn’t want to be considered a role model while playing for the Chicago Bulls. 

During his prime years with the Bulls, Jordan was the most popular athlete in America. 

“If I had the chance to do it all over again, I would never wanna be considered a role model,” Jordan said in The Last Dance doc. “It’s like a game that’s stacked against me. There’s no way I can win.”

Contrary to popular belief, Jordan didn’t enjoy being famous. He had no privacy in public and was always in the news. 

“My fame was good at the beginning,” Jordan said in a commercial during the ’90s. “Any time people talk about you in a positive way, yeah it’s great to hear those comments. But now that you are on a pedestal, it’s not just the positive talking that you hear. You hear some points and some people taking shots at you. And that really changes the whole idea of being out there for people to see you. You wanna get behind closed doors so people don’t know you as much.”

Jordan caught some heat from the African American community when he didn’t publicly endorse Harvey Gantt during the 1990 North Carolina Senate Race.

Jordan, one of the top players in NBA history, infamously said, “Republicans buy sneakers too.”

“I don’t think that statement needs to be corrected,” Jordan said in The Last Dance. “I said it on a bus with Horace Grant and Scottie Pippen and it was thrown off the cuff. My mother asked to do a PSA for Harvey Gantt. And I said, ‘Look Mom, I’m not speaking out of pocket about someone I don’t know, but I will send a contribution to support him.’ Which is what I did.

“I never thought of myself as an activist. I thought of myself as a basketball player. I wasn’t a politician when I was playing my sport. I focused on my craft. Was that selfish? Probably. But that was my energy, that’s where my energy was. 

“It’s never gonna be enough for everybody. I know that. I realize that. Everybody has a preconceived idea in terms of what they think I should do or what I shouldn’t do. The way that I go about my life is I set examples. And if it inspires you, great. I will continue to do that. If it doesn’t, then maybe I’m not the person that you should be following.”

The beginning of “The Last Dance” docuseries showed an old Jordan commercial where the NBA icon spoke about his life not being as fun as everybody thought it was. If you value your privacy, being Jordan when he was the most popular athlete in the world in the ’90s would have been a nightmare.

“It’s funny, a lot of people say they’d like to be Michael Jordan for a day or for a week, but let them try to be Michael Jordan for a year, see if they like it,” Jordan said in the commercial. “I don’t think you can see the true Michael Jordan for just a day. I don’t think they quite understand it’s no fun.”

Jordan has career averages of 30.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 2.3 steals and 0.8 blocks with the Bulls and Washington Wizards. He won five MVPs, one Rookie of the Year Award, one Defensive Player of the Year Award, six championships, six Finals MVPs, 10 scoring titles and three steals titles. 

Jordan is first in NBA history in points per game, fourth in steals, fifth in field goals and second in player efficiency rating. He holds the NBA record for most points (63) scored in a playoff game.