"Don't ever tell me you got a problem"- When Michael Jordan exploited an opponent's injury to drop 51 points at 38 years of age
Michael Jordan has had several praiseworthy performances over the course of his illustrious career. However, amongst all these, one, in particular, stood out during his stint with the Washington Wizards.
During the 2001-02 season, Jordan was acting as part owner of the Wizards. However, after making some personnel changes, MJ himself announced that he would be coming out of retirement to play for the club. While this was impressive in itself at the age of 38, Jordan still had more up his sleeve.
During an interview, former Wizards head coach Doug Collins spoke about Jordan's greatness even at that stage in his career. After a disappointing game against the Indiana Pacers that season, Jordan saw his streak of 866 games with double figures come to an end.
However, Collins mentioned that Jordan wasn't phased by it in the slightest. Instead, "His Airness" made preparations for the next game early after they returned to Washington.
When speaking about the game itself, he said that he and MJ had an understanding after he got going early on. Jordan wasn't to be taken out of the game until he specified it. Collins then added:
"Two minutes to go in the game, he gives me the sign, like, that's enough. I take him out of the game. He walks over to the bench, I'm like, 'Michael, what happened tonight?' He said, 'Well, the guy who was guarding me tonight was telling me his back was hurting. Don't ever tell me you got a problem.' He said, 'I'll make you pay for that.'"
Jordan went off for 51 points at the age of 38 against the Charlotte Hornets. To follow it up, MJ dropped 45 against the New Jersey Nets in the next game.
With 96 points in two games, Jordan showed the league that he could still get it done when he wanted to.
Read: Watch: 38-year-old Michael Jordan has 51-point game for Washington Wizards, 20 years ago on this day
Michael Jordan eventually went on to own the Charlotte Hornets
Michael Jordan owned the Charlotte Hornets on that night in December 2001. However, he officially became the owner of the team only in 2010, when he bought a stake for $275 million.
Unfortunately, Jordan's time as owner of the team wasn't necessarily the most successful one. In light of this, MJ recently sold his majority stake in the team to a group led by Gabe Plotkin and Rick Schnall. Jordan still retains his minority stake in the team. However, he is moving one from a lot of the duties.