At the height of his powers, Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan retired from the NBA after the 1993 Finals to play baseball. MJ made the switch to baseball as a way to honor his father, who was tragically murdered in June of the same year.
Jordan played baseball as a kid but his chances of making it to the big leagues appeared bleak.
Still, the Bulls icon was determined to give it a shot, even though his trainer warned him that baseball workouts would ruin his basketball abilities.
Tim Grover, Jordan's legendary trainer, told MJ back in 1993 that baseball training wasn't going to be good for his basketball skills if he was going to come back to the league later on, per the latest installment of the The Last Dance series:
“The workouts are going to be totally different,” Tim Grover told Michael Jordan. “Two totally different methods of training your body and muscles. This is going to be detrimental to your basketball career.”
Jordan ended up hitting .202 in 127 games with the Birmingham Barons. He hit three home runs and had 51 RBIs.
Fortunately for the Bulls, Jordan came back to the NBA near the end of the 1995 season and proved Grover wrong. He was still the best basketball player in the world despite taking a year off and playing a different sport.
MJ averaged 26.9 points for the Bulls in the 17 games he played in 1995. Chicago, though, lost to the Orlando Magic in the second round of the '95 playoffs. That was the only playoff series Jordan lost from 1991-1998.
During the summer of 1995, Jordan trained harder than ever before and came back with a vengeance during the 1995-96 season. He won the MVP award and guided the Bulls to 72 wins and the NBA title.
Michael Jordan and the Bulls won three rings in a row to end their dynasty in the '90s.
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