Athlete

He was so confident. But underneath that, behind the scenes, I knew Michael Jordan was a country kid from North Carolina, and it was that simple to him. He was a young man, at heart, who wanted to be one of the guys who loved to play and was willing to do whatever was necessary.

For all that Michael Jordan could run, jump and entertain, he is best known for one thing: He won. If you want to be a great player in this league, you have to focus on one thing - the bottom line, which is winning.

He was so confident. But underneath that, behind the scenes, I knew Michael Jordan was a country kid from North Carolina, and it was that simple to him. He was a young man, at heart, who wanted to be one of the guys who loved to play and was willing to do whatever was necessary.

For all that Michael Jordan could run, jump and entertain, he is best known for one thing: He won. If you want to be a great player in this league, you have to focus on one thing - the bottom line, which is winning.

Scottie's game changed with where he was at physically. He wasn't the same player at 21 as he was at 30. Both he and Michael aged gracefully in this league and that's the beauty of being a professional player. You continue to grow and continue to change your game, but you do it to be just as effective.

There's a way to win, and a way to play, and when you play like that, the ball's moving and guys are looking for each other, the game is fun.

The one thing I didn't expect was to learn how much of a sense of humor Jerry Reinsdorf has. He's really funny. I never got a chance to see his sense of humor when I was working for him or playing for him.

Moral victories are really more for coaches than players.

When you're going out with the attitude that you want to win, you can't get caught up in the style of play.

Most players will tolerate their coach, just like the coach will tolerate that player to do what they got to do, but Steve Kerr is unique. Players want to play for Steve Kerr. Everyone who's played in this league, who's coached in this league, who's been a general manager understands exactly what I'm saying - he's one of them.

I just happen to love problems. Because I see problems as opportunities.

Winning is the easiest thing that I ever did in the NBA, but being able to come to the realization of what it means to compete in this league no matter what - win, lose or draw - was the most difficult thing.

Society is fast - fast food, fast cars, fast everything.

Now that I've had a chance to play for a team where we won 30 or 35 games, you understand how special winning is.

It didn't work out for me at Golden State, in terms of wins and losses. Still, I tried to exhibit what a competitor is all about.

No one beat Michael Jordan. No one. You could say a lot of different things, but the man was unstoppable. He was unstoppable. And I will continue to say that.

He made the game look easy. But being Michael Jordan, and all that came with it, that wasn't easy.

I wanted to learn how the business worked. I wanted to see how people got drafted, how players got traded, how they got picked up in free agency, how the salary cap worked, how do you manage an organization, how do you negotiate contracts. The Bulls gave me an excellent opportunity to answer all the questions that I wanted to ask.

Whether you're playing sports, starting a business or anything else in life, you need to identify your talents. Your responsibility is to find what you do better than anyone else. Once you identify what that is, you need to put yourself in the best position to succeed.

I played, but I never got a chance to see how the business worked. How the NBA offices and other teams worked. I learned that when I was an assistant General Manager for five years.