Play hard, practice harder (

There was a perception of Michael Jordan that he could never survive retirement because there wouldn't be 20,000 fans cheering him at the golf course or gas pump.

But if you believed that, then you never saw him at practice, where all that mattered was the kill.

If you believed that, then you never saw him shooting in an empty Chicago Stadium, where all that mattered was the shot.

Ego is to the great athlete what petroleum is to gasoline. You can't have one without the other. Ego fueled Michael Jordan as much as anything. It made him want to beat his big brother Larry in the backyard and it made him want to embarrass Magic Johnson in the NBA Finals.

Jordan was also an entertainer who understood when the bus pulled into Sacramento or San Antonio, cities where fans would get to see him only once a year, that the flu, no matter how miserable, should not and would not keep him from performing.