In the 1984 NBA draft, the Chicago Bulls selected Michael Jordan as the third overall first-round pick after the Houston Rockets and the Portland Trailblazers drafted Akeem Olajuwon and Sam Bowie as the first and second overall picks respectively. Despite not being drafted first, Michael Jordan instantly became the best player in the league, winning the 1984 NBA Rookie of the Year award and later leading Team USA’s ‘Dream Team’ to a gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics games in Barcelona.
Between 1984 and 1990, MJ dominated the league, winning one league MVP award, four scoring titles, a Rookie of the Year award, one Defensive Player of the Year award, six NBA All-star appearances, one NBA All-Star MVP award, and two Slam Dunk Contests, among many other accolades. However, despite all his greatness and stats, Jordan repeatedly failed to win the biggest accolade of them all – a championship ring.
Between 1985 and 1988, the Jordan-led Chicago Bulls failed to get past the first round of the playoffs, losing once to the Bucks, twice to the Celtics (one of the games in which MJ put up a monster 60-point-game performance), and once to the Cavs. In the 87-89 season, the Bulls lost to the notorious Badboy Pistons in the conference semi-finals, who (courtesy of the infamous Jordan Rules) would go on to beat them two more times, denying Jordan and the Bulls a taste of the chip.
It was only during the 91-92 season that MJ finally made his way to the NBA finals and won his first championship ring. The difference this time around: he had Scottie Pippen.
There inevitably came a time when the Chicago Bulls organization realized that they needed to make some organizational changes if they were ever going to win a championship ring with MJ at the helm. For as great as Michael Jordan was, he still could not carry his team to the finals on his own. There just wasn’t a good enough supporting cast around him. During that 91 season, the Bulls acquired Scottie Pippen from the Seattle Supersonics who instantly became MJ’s best supporting act. With Pippen by his side, MJ won three straight championships between 1991 and 1993, and another three straight championships between 1996 and 1999. This time around, Deniss Rodman, once a member of the Badboy Pistons who’d once stopped MJ during his early years in the league, had moved to the Bulls. To illustrate how impressive this feat is, only two other teams have managed to threepeat: the Kobe/Shaq-led Lakers and Larry Bird’s Boston Celtics. MJ’s Bulls threepeated twice!
During the Jordan dynasty, Scottie Pippen ranked second in all categories were Michael Jordan ranked first. There was not a time that MJ went to the NBA finals without Pippen at his side. Likewise, there wasn’t a time that Scottie went to the NBA finals without Michael at the helm. It’s safe to argue that during the Bulls dynasty, Scottie was the second-best player in the league and that when MJ retired from basketball for eighteen months following his father’s death, Scottie was arguably the best player in the league and definitely the best player on the Bulls team. Surprisingly, the best player in the league still failed to get the Bulls to the NBA finals during the 94/95 season when Jordan was in retirement, just as Michael had failed time and again to reach the finals without Scottie by his side.
The fact of the matter is that for all his individual greatness, MJ couldn’t win without his Number 2, and when Scottie was elevated to the Number 1 position on the team, he still couldn’t win a ring because he was not a great Number One. During Jordan’s brief retirement period, Akeem Olajuwon who’d been selected first overall ahead of Jordan in the 84 NBA draft proved to be a better Number 1 compared to Scottie by leading the Houston Rockets to two consecutive championship rings. Scottie had to wait for MJ’s return to have another taste of the gold.
This story illustrates a fundamental truth, that we all have a role to play, and not everyone’s part is to be a leader, or at least, to be the number one leader. Being a number two, or three, or four, or five doesn’t mean you’re not good or outstanding. It just means that you’re the best player for that particular role. The real power lies in discovering what you’re great at and how best to fill in that position for the overall benefit of the team. Not everyone is meant to be the CEO or the Chairperson of an organization or institution. Likewise, some people make better intrapreneurs than entrepreneurs. Some people make great teachers but would make terrible principals. Some people are great soldiers but would make disastrous generals.
The animal kingdom is filled with many illustrations of this concept. When a committee of vultures gathers around carrion, for example, carcass protocol is determined by the formidability of their beaks. Lappet-faced Vultures come first in line. Their large bills rip through and open up the toughest hide, allowing them to devour the offal parts of a deceased animal and expose the inside of the animal to the smaller vultures. White-backed Vultures eagerly await the cleaving of the animal’s skin and then proceed to devour the flesh. Standing at the edge of this carrion buffet are the White-headed Vultures. These are able to eat any part of an animal, except the skin. Regarded as “clean feeders” they ensure there is no blood on their feathers, and therefore prefer picking away at ligaments and bones. It’s not that the second and third set of vultures is inferior, rather, each vulture knows its part in the buffet. As a result of each vulture playing its role, the wild is kept clean and free of bacteria that would otherwise form from dead carcasses, and many animal’s lives are saved.
The moral of the story is that coming in second is not the same as coming in last. Scottie Pippen helped the Chicago Bulls capture six championship rings because he knew how to be the best Number 2. It is therefore no wonder that Michael Jordan started his Hall of Fame induction speech by remarking, ‘I told all my friends I was gonna come up here and say thank you then walk off. I can’t. I have so many people I can thank. In all the videos, you never just saw me. You saw Scottie Pippen in every championship I won.’ Sadly, our current world glorifies the person sitting atop the mountain while overlooking the people who lifted that person to enable him/her to sit on the top.
Life, as in most sports, is a team discipline. Each team needs one person to take the helm as the leader. If you’re meant to be on the lead, then that’s great. But if you’re meant to be Number 2, then you’re probably going to give more value by becoming the second-best player that you can be. Because you can be the second-best player in the league and still be part of the winning team.