If you’ve watched all the episodes of “The Last Dance,” you’ve no doubt seen George Koehler, whom the production introduced as Michael Jordan’s “best friend.” The story of the meeting between the two men is interesting and dates back to 1984. Koehler had just set up his chauffeur business and was driving a limousine. While looking for a passenger who had requested his services and who ultimately never reported, the former hotel employee came across the young MJ at the Chicago airport, coming from North Carolina.
“I recognized him, but I called him Larry Jordan, it’s a good start, right? He replied that Larry was his brother,” said George Koehler in the Chicago Tribune.
I’d been at it for three weeks trying to keep my head above water. So I offered to take it anywhere he wanted for $25. He was supposed to go to the Bulls hotel on the North Shore for his first training camp. Looking back on it, it’s crazy how scared he looked.
He was just a kid coming out of college and finding himself in a big city where he didn’t know anyone. The Bulls hadn’t even sent a car to pick him up from the airport.”
Why Wilt Chamberlain thought he was stronger than Michael Jordan
In this small portrait dating from 1992, Koehler recounts a scene that recalls, if necessary, how competitive Michael Jordan was in all circumstances. It dates back to 1986, when MJ had just taken the brace off to treat a foot injury that kept him off the pitch for months.
“Two hours after he got out of the brace, he was like, ‘Come on, let’s go. One on one at the Deerfield Multiplex.’
I played basketball and I was a coach. I’m the typical white player. I know how to shoot, I have no trigger and I’m not very fast. Except his leg had been immobilized for months. She was frankly the same size as my arm. So I thought it would be like playing against a handicapped person.
I was leading 6-3 or 7-3, I don’t know. Michael then said, ‘OK, that’s enough’. He won 21-9″.
In 1992, Koehler was already saying that Michael Jordan “would quit sooner than people thought”, because of the media pressure he had to manage on a daily basis. He was not wrong. “His Airness” hung up a year later, before a comeback in 1995 with the success that we know.
