Just before making his return from the first of three retirements, the Chicago Bulls all-time great shooting guard Michael Jordan actually played for another team in practice. The Golden State Warriors reportedly had Jordan at practice with their team before he got back with the likes of Hall-of-Fame forward Scottie Pippen and the Bulls that year.
According to a podcast from “Sports Uncovered” (part of NBC Sports), Jordan returned to an NBA team practice with the Warriors before he did the Bulls during the 1994-95 season. And apparently the reason for his early return to practice with the Warriors before the Bulls that season was the ability to get work in against NBA greats such as Tim Hardaway, Chris Mullin, and Latrell Sprewell.
It wasn’t all that long that Jordan practiced with the Warriors before re-joining the Bulls during the 1994-95 season. He only practiced with the Warriors team for roughly two days before returning to the Bulls. And it sounds like this was just a motivational tactic for Jordan to get back in the right mindset upon his NBA return.
Michael Jordan’s NBA return to the Chicago Bulls
Jordan was getting back from his stint in the mid-1990’s playing baseball in the Chicago White Sox organization. He did play 17 regular season games during the 1994-95 campaign for the Bulls upon his NBA return. And during that campaign, he averaged 26.9 points per game, 6.9 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 1.8 steals, and 0.8 blocks.
And the 1994-95 campaign was the lone season that Jordan had in his NBA career where he was not an All-Star selection.
Even though the Bulls did not make a super deep playoff run in 1995, this level of motivation that Jordan had to get back in the swing of things could be what vaulted this team among the best in NBA history in 1995-96. The Bulls would win three more NBA Championships following the return to the league for Jordan in 1995.
Jordan and the Bulls would win six titles in total in the 1990’s. It’s hard to imagine what more they could’ve done if he had played for the entirety of the 1994-95 season, and didn’t go through the process of his second of three retirements following the 1997-98 campaign.