Choosing Your Teammates

Michael Jordan - Even the Greatest of all Time Needs a Team   

The great thing about team sports is that they require a team. A team is more than just five, nine, or eleven individuals.  Teammates must work together to execute strategies and win games.  No matter how awe-inspiring an athlete may be, he or she needs the right teammates to succeed.

Michael Jordan, often considered the best basketball player of all time, spent the first part of his professional career putting up remarkable individual statistics, but playing on only an average team.  With every heartbreaking playoff loss, Jordan tried to take more of the burden on himself, thinking he could win the game all on his own.  This alienated his teammates who, according to him, just were not quite good enough.

After 7 seasons as a great individual player, in the 1990-91 season, the Chicago Bulls put together a true team, one with the chance to win an NBA Championship.  The team included many talented players each serving a vital role, not just Jordan, but also Scottie Pippen, Horace Grant, Bill Cartwright, B.J. Armstrong, and John Paxson.  In the Eastern Conference Finals, the Bulls beat the Detroit Pistons who used the “Jordan Rules” defense – two or three players defending Jordan at a time, leaving other players open.  The Bulls won because Jordan worked as a team player, passed the ball, and trusted his teammates to make open shots. 

This unselfish team play continued in the NBA Finals and the Bulls won the Title, defeating the Los Angeles Lakers, with Jordan averaging over 11 assists per game.  It was not enough that Jordan had good players supporting him, he needed to learn how to become a better teammate himself before the Bulls could win a championship.

Michael Jordan was a once in a lifetime athletic talent, but even he could not win an NBA Championship by himself, he needed teammates.  Similar to basketball, we need to choose the best possible teammates in our lives, and the choice is completely up to each of us.  True teammates, our friends, do not judge us, or pressure us to make bad choices.  They embrace us for who we are and who we strive to be, and help us to be stronger more positive people in sports, and in our lives.

Discussion Questions:

1.    How do you think Jordan felt about himself and his teammates while the Bulls were losing?
2.    What made Jordan decide to become more unselfish as a player?  What did he have to do personally to become a better teammate?
3.    What are some characteristics we should look for in our friends?  How can we be better teammates to our friends?