Ok, I am late to this party.  I didn't follow basketball at the time of Jordan.  I didn't get into basketball until the Kings, Divac, Peja, Hido, Bibby, Webber, Jackson era.  But I have been listening to some sports talk podcasts and they were discussing how Jordan at a near peak of his career left for 20 months to go play baseball.  


Now, from what I have been told by some Jordan fanboys at work is that there is talk he left basketball to go play baseball because he was gambling on basketball and this was the NBA's way of shutting him up.  This seems like a wonderfully larger than life idea of how to handle a situation.  Not only was Jordan close to the peak in the sport but also close to the peak in fame.  Seems like the NBA had about as much to lose as Jordan would have.  And what a grand conspiracy to have to sell to all of his sponsors.  But what drives one of the more competitive guys in the game to leave?  Did he accomplish everything that he set out for and was looking for new challenges? I can oddly see that theory.

Where do you sit?  Educate me on this, and your theory.  I am way behind.

Feb 25, 2019 14:41:37 GMT theend said:

Ok, I am late to this party.  I didn't follow basketball at the time of Jordan.  I didn't get into basketball until the Kings, Divac, Peja, Hido, Bibby, Webber, Jackson era.  But I have been listening to some sports talk podcasts and they were discussing how Jordan at a near peak of his career left for 20 months to go play baseball.  


Now, from what I have been told by some Jordan fanboys at work is that there is talk he left basketball to go play baseball because he was gambling on basketball and this was the NBA's way of shutting him up.  This seems like a wonderfully larger than life idea of how to handle a situation.  Not only was Jordan close to the peak in the sport but also close to the peak in fame.  Seems like the NBA had about as much to lose as Jordan would have.  And what a grand conspiracy to have to sell to all of his sponsors.  But what drives one of the more competitive guys in the game to leave?  Did he accomplish everything that he set out for and was looking for new challenges? I can oddly see that theory.

Where do you sit?  Educate me on this, and your theory.  I am way behind.

Michael Jordan's dad was murdered the summer after the third championship. Obviously this shook Jordan so he decided to go after his father's dream for him, to become a pro baseball player. That's pretty much Jordan's first retirement in a nutshell.

There are a ton of theories out there about this , including his dad was murdered because of the gambling debts he might have had - that one seems a little far fetched but gambling is a hell of an addiction and he could have been in that much I suppose.

I do think where there is smoke there is some fire though and something more was going for him to just up and leave basketball only to turn right around and come back. I think it might have been Sterns way of suspending him under the radar while saving face for the leagues biggest star - of course thats just speculation.

in absence of any real evidence to the contrary of the most plausible theory, I just presume he was burnt out and his dad died and it led to him quitting basketball. He’s certainly got the personality to burn himself out, he’d just went on an exhausting run of three finals, and his dad was murdered.

I don’t think there is much reason to believe the gambling suspension thing other than that it’s fun to believe.

The rational part of my brain is in line with mikec and the others, but the part of my brain that believes in tons of conspiracy theories and doesn’t trust anyone in power totally thinks the “retirement” was a cover.

I think the NBA didn’t know how bad his gambling was until his dad got killed, or at least turned a blind eye until that went down the way it did. I think they knew they had an image to protect and that the league was changing solely because of Michael Jordan.

I think they approached Jordan and while maybe not bringing up a suspension, heavily insinuated that maybe he take time off to collect himself, grieve, get his personal life in order, etc. And while Jordan probably made the decision on his own, the league helped him along.