Michael Jordan Still Flying High

This story originally aired on Oct. 23, 2005.

Michael Jordan is one of the most recognized names in the world, and among the most dominant and gifted athletes ever to play professional sports.

But how does a man who has been called the most competitive person alive still compete when there are no more games to play, no more championships to win? It's a question Jordan tries to answer in his new book, Driven from Within, which came out last October.

In his first major television interview since he left the spotlight more than three years ago, he talks candidly — and sometimes painfully — with correspondent Ed Bradley about the game he loves, the business empire he has built, the murder of his father, his problems with gambling, and his hopes for a quieter, more private life.

"From the public, you know. For years, you find yourself doing things for them, trying to appease them. When you're out in the public they come up and they want to meet and greet, say hello, sign autographs. But I want them to understand this is my time. This is not your time. This is my time now," Jordan says.

For almost two decades, Michael Jordan belonged to his fans, millions of them, who watched from the sidelines as he led the Chicago Bulls to six NBA championships. He became the ultimate sports icon, one of the best known athletes in the world, who literally defied gravity.

At times, it appeared as if Michael Jordan could fly on the court. "Well, I mean we all fly. Once you leave the ground, you fly. Some people fly longer than others," Jordan says.

Today, Jordan is still flying but at lower altitudes. 60 Minutes caught up with him last year in Las Vegas at the annual Michael Jordan Senior Flight School. It's a four-day training camp, where middle-aged guys who love the game pay $15,000 to get the full Michael Jordan experience: to play ball with him, to get fouled by him and to get abused by him.

"What does he say to you on the court?" Bradley asks one participant. "It's like playing against my son. You're a midget," the participant replied. "'Mouse in the house,' anything to try to humiliate you."

With competition like this — against guys who play mostly on the weekends — it's surprising that Jordan even broke a sweat, but he did, playing with intensity, pulling on shorts and talking trash.

He also teaches the group what he did so well in the NBA — bending the rules without getting caught by the referee.

The guys have the opportunity to pick Michael Jordan's brain not only about basketball but also about life.

"Michael, I have a 9-year-old who has a passion for the game. The thing that gets in his way more than anything is the emotion of failure and losing," one participant says.

"As a parent, you have to simplify it as much as possible to show them that, either way, I still love you if you miss that shot. It's tougher for me than you. Because my oldest thinks he should be the next Michael Jordan. Just by birthright. And to try to talk him out of it, my wife and I are driving ourselves nuts to say, 'Hey kid, just have a good time.' There's only one Michael Jordan," Jordan says.

Although it may be hard to believe now, Michael Jordan was an unlikely champion. He didn't make the varsity team in high school until his junior year. Jordan says no one in his family ever expected him to amount to much, and that is what fueled his will to win.

In his book, Jordan wrote that that attitude and his competitive drive came from being in a family where he felt he had to prove to his parents that he could succeed because, of all the kids in the family, he was the least likely to succeed.

"I felt that. I wasn't really a work conscious type of person. I was a player. I loved to play sports. And in their wildest dreams, they never thought that I would be a professional athlete," says Jordan. And he also didn't think he would go pro.

That all changed in 1982 when Jordan was a skinny freshman at the University of North Carolina. He made the shot that won the NCAA title in the final seconds of the game.

"That put Michael Jordan on the map. As my mother or my father would say, that changed Mike Jordan to Michael Jordan," says Jordan.

Michael Jordan became more than a name. He became a name brand whose face has sold everything from soft drinks to sneakers, from fast food to underwear. Endorsements earn him an estimated $35 million a year, even though he is no longer playing basketball.

Over the years, he has written four books, including Driven from Within, which came out last fall. The book is published by Simon and Schuster, a sister company of CBS.

Jordan also oversees the Jordan brand, a subsidiary of Nike with revenues of $500 million a year. It includes accessories, a full line of clothing, and, of course, sneakers. Jordan has final approval on everything and when he meets with his design team, there's no detail too small for him.

Jordan says he doesn't just offer up his name to companies. "Oh no, no. … I like control. I like control with my involvement."

He runs his corporate empire from high atop Chicago, the city that made him famous.

Bradley asks if Jordan ever imagined when he started playing basketball that one day he would be running a half-billion dollar company.

"No, I never really thought about it. All I thought about was doing what I was good at and letting that open up a lot of opportunities for me and choosing from that point on," Jordan says.

Jordan spends just two days a week in the office and travels occasionally to charity events and meetings with his team at Nike in Oregon. But a large chunk of his time is spent on the golf course, which has replaced the basketball court as his proving ground.

He has worked his handicap down to a four, and says he is addicted to the sport, often playing from sunrise to sunset, fifty four holes a day.

"For a competitive junkie like me, golf is a great solution because it smacks you in the face every time you think you have accomplished something. That to me has taken over a lot of the energy and competitiveness for basketball," says Jordan.

At the height of his stardom in the NBA, Michael Jordan walked away from a game he conquered to a game that conquered him.

He retired from basketball in 1993 and tried his hand at baseball with the Chicago White Sox. Over the course of his one full season in the minors, he struck out 114 times, and made 11 errors. Most would consider that a failure, but for Jordan it was just another challenge.

He didn't consider his experience in baseball a failure.

"But people would look at those numbers and say, 'Hey man, you couldn't cut it,' " Bradley says.

"That's people's perception of what the standard is. I wasn't expecting myself to be Babe Ruth or Barry Bonds or anyone like that. I was trying to understand and play the game, enjoy the game, and see if my skills could compete on that level," Jordan says.

His newest testing ground is motorcycle racing; he sponsors a team and enjoys speeding around the track at up to 150 miles an hour. Despite being dangerous, Jordan says he enjoys the rush of the sport.

Jordan seems to live his life on the edge, knowing that it could all end at any moment. In 1993, his father James Jordan, his first coach and closest confidante, was robbed and murdered, at random, in North Carolina.

"The thing that I looked at when my — the death of my father, unfortunately, it happened at the hands of another human being. Which in essence, that is very difficult to deal with. Just the notion of being able to kill someone. But I had him for 32 years and he taught me a lot in 32 years. You know how many kids get that opportunity? Very few in today's society get the chance to spend that much time with their parents, and get that type of influence," Jordan says.

Jordan says his mother, Delores, and his late father were his biggest role models — hardworking, generous and disciplined. He says fans should look closer to home for inspiration, rather than looking to big name athletes for direction.

"We can give impressions, we can give examples. But to implement those you have to be people closer to them, to see that individual, see those kids day in and day out," says Jordan.

What does Jordan say to those who criticized him for not being more outspoken on political and social issues like Mohammad Ali, Arthur Ashe or Jackie Robinson?

"It's a heavy duty to try to do everything and please everybody. My job was to go out there and play the game of basketball as best I can and provide entertainment for everyone who wanted to watch basketball. Obviously people may not agree with that, again I can't live with what everyone's impression of what I should or what I shouldn't do," says Jordan.

One stain on Jordan's otherwise clean image was the allegation that he had a compulsive gambling problem. The NBA cleared him in 1993, after conducting two investigations. But today, Jordan admits he's made some reckless choices at the gambling table with his money.

"Yeah, I've gotten myself into situations where I would not walk away and I've pushed the envelope. Is that compulsive? Yeah, it depends on how you look at it. If you're willing to jeopardize your livelihood and your family, then yeah," says Jordan.

"And you're not willing to do that?" Bradley asks.

"No," Jordan replies.

Jordan's father said his son didn't have a gambling problem, but a competitive problem.

"I want to win. I want to go out on a limb and win," says Jordan. "And sometimes that can take you past the stage that you know you probably should take a step back from. Sometimes I don't look at that line. I just step over that line. But once I step over it and I feel the lack of success, it's very embarrassing things. So you look at yourself in the mirror and say, 'I was stupid. I was really stupid.' But we all are. But you have to be able to look in that mirror and say that you're stupid."

Perhaps Jordan's biggest professional failure was his tenure with the Washington Wizards. In 2000, he became a part owner and top manager of the team and then decided he could make a bigger contribution by going back on the court. Although he had moments of greatness, his knees began to fail him and he announced he was done as a player.

Soon after, the Wizards unceremoniously fired him.

"Did you see getting fired coming?" Bradley asks.

"No. If that was the case I obviously wouldn't have went back to play," Jordan says. "Because I felt like I played injured, I went through surgery. And I didn't have to do it, but I did it with the benefit of trying to help an organization to get back on their feet. And the gratitude that was given, it was your service is no longer wanted or needed. So I felt like I was used in a sense. But we've all been in situations where we've been used. And we regret what we've, you know, but you learn."

And after his long career, Jordan can't keep silent about the state of basketball today. He says that too many young players are overpaid and overindulged, affecting their work ethic and hurting the game he loves so much.

"The kids today, they are being given things that they haven't earned," Jordan says. "I don't want to seem like an old-school, traditional, bitter type of guy. You ask me and I'm telling you. I think the game is being cheated because of the success that's being given prior to them earning it. Simple as that."

Michael Jordan is not ready to walk away from basketball completely. He hopes to own an NBA team someday. And while he knows he'll never play again, he is cocky enough to think he could.

Asked, if at age 42 he could play again in the NBA and make a contribution, Jordan says, "Oh, yeah. Sure. Even though, physically I can't do it. The mind says, 'Yeah, I can still do it. And I still think I can do it better than most in the NBA."