NBA legend Michael Jordan had some advice for young players attempting to navigate the environment and crowd at New York’s famed Madison Square Garden.
“Be you,” he told NBC Sports’ Mike Tirico (3:13 mark). “Be you. You are you 365 days of the year. What they are trying to do is get you to not be you. And to me, that is a challenge for a young kid. But it’s a privilege, it’s an honor. If they’re coming and yelling at you, you’re an impactful player. That means if they feel like they can take you out of your game, then they have a better chance of winning. So if I’m talking to the young kids of today, if you’re an impactful player on your team, shut ’em up. Go out there and be you. If you be you, then they can’t say anything. But if you’re not you, they win.”
Jordan said that MSG crowds weren’t so much “hostile” as they were trying to get opposing players “off their game.” He said that he generally didn’t focus on fans at all when he was playing and took it as a challenge to either keep fans in the Big Apple quiet or even play so well that they eventually felt compelled to cheer for him.
Jordan certainly had a number of huge games in Madison Square Garden, as the Chicago Bulls and New York Knicks were huge rivals in the ’90s. He got the best of those matchups, as his Bulls went on to win six titles. The Knicks, meanwhile, haven’t won an NBA title since the 1972-73 season.
In fact, Jordan’s Bulls never lost a series against Patrick Ewing’s Knicks during Chicago’s legendary run in the ’90s. It was a heated rivalry, no doubt, but it was about as one-sided as it gets.
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