I donāt believe for a second that Michael Jordan gave a shyt about playing 82 games for the fans. It sounds good. I just donāt believe it.
I believe he played all those games because he was a fierce competitor and because in his era, players just didnāt take games off. And it probably didnāt occur to coaches to sit players anyway, barring injury of course.
Also, and I donāt understand why todayās fan refuses to acknowledge this, the modern NBA player covers more miles per season than ever before. The demands are simply greater. Thatās not an opinion. Thatās a statistical fact.