Michael Jordan Disliked Being Considered Role Model While Playing For Bulls: ‘It’s Like A Game That’s Stacked Against Me, It’s Never Gonna Be Enough For Everybody’

During his prime years with the Bulls, Jordan was the most popular athlete in America. 

“If I had the chance to do it all over again, I would never wanna be considered a role model,” Michael Jordan said in The Last Dance doc. “It’s like a game that’s stacked against me. There’s no way I can win.”

Contrary to popular belief, Jordan didn’t enjoy being famous. He had no privacy in public and was always in the news. 

“My fame was good at the beginning,” Jordan said in a commercial during the ’90s. “Any time people talk about you in a positive way, yeah it’s great to hear those comments. But now that you are on a pedestal, it’s not just the positive talking that you hear. You hear some points and some people taking shots at you. 

“And that really changes the whole idea of being out there for people to see you. You wanna get behind closed doors so people don’t know you as much.”

Jordan caught some heat from the African American community when he didn’t publicly endorse Harvey Gantt during the 1990 North Carolina Senate Race. MJ, one of the best players in NBA history, infamously said, “Republicans buy sneakers too.”

“I don’t think that statement needs to be corrected,” Jordan said in The Last Dance. “I said it on a bus with Horace Grant and Scottie Pippen and it was thrown off the cuff. My mother asked to do a PSA for Harvey Gantt. And I said, ‘Look Mom, I’m not speaking out of pocket about someone I don’t know, but I will send a contribution to support him.’ Which is what I did.

“I never thought of myself as an activist. I thought of myself as a basketball player. I wasn’t a politician when I was playing my sport. I focused on my craft. Was that selfish? Probably. But that was my energy, that’s where my energy was. 

“It’s never gonna be enough for everybody. I know that. I realize that. Everybody has a preconceived idea in terms of what they think I should do or what I shouldn’t do. The way that I go about my life is I set examples. And if it inspires you, great. I will continue to do that. If it doesn’t, then maybe I’m not the person that you should be following.”