"I ate and drank all summer" - Michael Jordan on how he spent the summer of 1989 after falling to Pistons Bad Boys

The 1988-89 NBA season was a bittersweet year for Chicago Bulls shooting guard Michael Jordan. Once again, he led the league in scoring with 32.5 points and logged career-highs in rebounds and assists. Despite it all, the Bulls succumbed to the Detroit Pistons' Bad Boys in six games in the 1989 Eastern Conference Finals. Jordan’s groin injury, which had been nagging him for much of the second half of the season, had become worse.

Jordan’s 1989 summer

Instead of locking himself inside the gym and risking his health, Jordan spent the summer resting and recuperating. He understood how recovery is as important as putting in the work. The Bulls shooting guard also took his mind off basketball by playing the other sport he loves: golf.

”I ate and drank all summer and played basketball only about four times and I gained about two pounds,” Jordan said in 1989, via the Chicago Tribune.

”I averaged about 36 holes per day,” Jordan said. ”I just finished up playing five days in Hilton Head. Got my handicap down to about a five this summer.”

Meanwhile, Bulls trainer Mark Pfeil claimed that Jordan may have been too overconcerned about his groin. Part of the reason Jordan still felt pain in his groin was due to a lack of activity. He just needed to play more hoops to loosen it up.​

”It's healed,” Pfeil said. ”It's just that it's stiff now because he hasn't played much basketball. So he's just doing some stretching and taking some heat. We're not treating the groin as much as we are the back.”

Jordan’s cautiousness paid off. Come the 1989-90 season, he was fit and healthy enough to play all 82 regular-season games. He led the league in points and steals per game with 33.6 and 2.8, respectively. Unfortunately, they were also just one win away from defeating the Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Smart approach

MJ’s tactical approach to his health may be one of the reasons he remained healthy during his time with the Bulls. Other than a broken foot he sustained in his second year in the league, MJ was pretty much injury-free and was always ready to suit up for his team. Los Angeles Lakers icon Kobe Bryant revealed some of the techniques his idol used to conserve his energy.

“One of the things I learned from MJ when it comes to doing second nights of back-to-backs or when it’s the fourth game in five nights, you can alter your game a little bit,” Bryant said.

“I might be on the perimeter in the first two games, now I’ll slide down to the post. I’m gonna play a little closer to the basket. I’ll play off the ball a little bit more, right? So there are ways where you can kind of alter your game where you can get rest within the game but still be efficient.”

Work smart, not hard is a credo that Jordan lives by. It enabled him to perform at a high level throughout his NBA career. He was intentional with his training regimens, knowing his body could only take so much, creating a blueprint for aspiring athletes to follow.

Related: Michael Jordan's first coach in Chicago recalled the moment he left him stunned: "Most amazing thing I've ever seen"

This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Nov 27, 2025, where it first appeared in the Old School section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.