Why did Michael Jordan never become a coach?

Michael Jordan is considered the greatest basketball player of all time for all the good things he did with the Chicago Bulls in the 90s, winning six titles shared in two three-peats while leading one of the biggest dynasties the NBA has seen.

Jordan’s success has been unmatched as he remains a huge deal around the NBA world. Following the end of his career, everybody thought he could have the tools to be a good coach in the NBA, but that never came to fruition.

Instead, His Airness opted to get an executive job, first with the Washington Wizards (infamously signing himself to the team), which meant the beginning of a new journey in the NBA for Jordan. He never planned to be a coach, as he repeatedly stated but now we know the reasons behind that decision.

Michael Jordan says he has no patience with younger generations

During an old interview in 2017 with Cigar Aficionado, MJ revealed the reason why he never intended to become a coach and try to emulate the success of the great people that coached him in college and the NBA.

“No,” Jordan said when asked by Shanken if he ever wanted to be a coach. “I have no patience for coaching. My biggest problem from a competitive standpoint is the focus of today’s athlete and the focus of where I saw the game, how I pursued the game it changes and it’s totally different.”

“So for me to ask that individual on the game the way I played the game in some ways would be unfair for that kid to have to endure that. And if he didn’t do it, no telling where my emotions would be. I don’t think I would have the patience for it.”

“So in essence coaching is something that I’ve never really felt I could do from an emotional standpoint because I’m much different and I have a different perception about things than what the kids do today.”

Seeing how passionate MJ was with his own teammates during his active days, it wouldn’t be crazy watching him in a worse mood with his players. He wanted everything to be perfect and seeing how some things are done nowadays, MJ would have had a hard time understanding what is going on.

Well, he decided to go for a higher job and bought the then Charlotte Bobcats in 2010, serving as the majority owner since then. Still, it would have been good to see MJ at least taking the reins of one NBA team and see how he would’ve fared.