2x champion takes a swipe at Michael Jordan for quitting basketball to avoid his Rockets

Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan had retired from the NBA ahead of the 1993 season to play baseball to honor his slain father.

2x champion takes a swipe at Michael Jordan for quitting basketball to avoid his Rockets

Houston Rockets legend Vernon Maxwell and Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan appeared in six NBA Finals and won all of them. That dominating run made him possibly the greatest basketball player of all time. Fans and media members still talk about those six years when he delivered what would be known as the greatest performances by an athlete over a certain period.

Many still use that argument to keep LeBron James‘ GOAT claims at bay. They believe that Jordan’s dominance in that period has established him as the GOAT. Those six championships from six Finals appearances can hold off any arguments others make about his lackluster performances before he reached his first finals.

But in between those two three-peats, there was a gap of two years when Michael Jordan was not dominating basketball. He retired after the first three-peat as he wanted to play baseball to honor his slain father.

He came back from retirement to rejoin the Chicago Bulls late in the 1994-95 season. It was too late to get back to game fitness and rhythm, and the Bulls lost to the Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference semis. But Vernon Maxwell believes Jordan ran away from the game to avoid playing his team.

If you quit once, it becomes a habit. Never quit. Unless it’s to play baseball so you don’t have to play the Rockets.

Vernon Maxwell wrote

This was the two-time champion’s way of saying that Michael Jordan quit basketball because he was about to face the upcoming Houston Rockets. Notably, Maxwell was part of the team that won both NBA titles when Jordan was out of the game. It might be just a taunt, as both were rivals back in the day.

Michael Jordan retired due to exhaustion

Michael Jordan might not have wanted to leave basketball. He was too invested in the game and had surrounded his personal life with everything the game had to give him. But in 1993, two teenagers murdered his father, James R Jordan Sr., in a carjacking incident.

Three months later, His Airness announced his retirement from basketball and proceeded to play baseball for the Chicago White Sox minor league team. He wanted to honor his father, who had envisioned his son becoming a baseball player.

That stint did not turn out well, and the then-three-time NBA champion struggled to make a name in the game. Later in The Last Dance documentary, Jordan clarified that he was exhausted both physically and mentally from basketball and the stardom associated with it.

Once Jordan came back to full form, he helped the Bulls set a then-NBA record 72 wins in a regular season. That season, he stated that he did not want to be compared to past greats as a way to avoid the burden of superstardom.

Would Maxwell’s Rockets win against Jordan’s Bulls?

The time when Vernon Maxwell’s Houston Rockets won two NBA titles, they were one of the strongest teams in the league. They defeated the Patrick Ewing-led New York Knicks to win the first title and Shaquille O’Neal‘s Magic the following season.

In that last season, O’Neal’s Magic defeated Michael Jordan’s Bulls to reach the Eastern Conference Finals. Therefore, it is possible that the Rockets, who had Hall of Famer Clyde Drexler that season, could beat Jordan’s Chicago Bulls.

The Bulls understood they needed a big man who could absorb the physicality of the Magic and Rockets. That is where Dennis Rodman came in. His addition helped the team elevate to become one of the greatest regular-season teams to ever play in the game.

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