A trainer hand-wrote fourteen letters to Chicago Bulls players in the late 1980s after reading that Michael Jordan wanted to get stronger. One letter reached Jordan's locker, triggering a background check. Three months later, the Bulls arranged a meeting at Jordan's home, launching an unexpected partnership.
Literally, I had to create a new industry, but I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Read a little article in the paper that said Michael Jordan's tired of taking the physical abuse from the Detroit Pistons and is looking to get stronger. Hmm. Huh. Okay. So go home. Remember back then, no computers, no email, no emails. Handwrote 14 letters. There's 15 players on a basketball team. 14. The one person I didn't write a letter to was Michael Jordan. In my mind, I was just like, you know what, he's already the best, he's already one of the top players in the league on the team. They're not gonna let somebody from the outside work with him, but if I can get with some of the other players, maybe they'll see the results, just kind of what I did in the gym. And back then, you take the letters to the post office, you put them in the mailbox, and hopefully they arrive as fan mail. Yeah. So they throw them in the guy, they throw them in the lockers. I got one reply back. Michael Jordan. The guy you didn't send a letter to. The guy I didn't send a letter to. What did you say about cold calling, making phone calls, going in there? Right. All right. I didn't know it was him. How did it unfold? I didn't know. So he saw the letter in somebody else's locker. Yeah. And you know, he's as competitive as he is. He's probably like, "How come this guy didn't send me this?" Yeah, yeah. Everybody else got one? That was actually a really good strategy. Every marketing mind's like, "Hmm." I didn't get one. So he gave it to the athletic trainer and the team doctor at the time. And they said, hey, find out what this, what this person's about. Do a background check. Yeah, do a background check. Yeah. So 3 months later, after they did not only a background check, more extensive training and drilling than I ever had, than I had in all my college days. They wanted to make sure I actually went to college and learned what I was supposed to do and all this other stuff. Well, Tim, they're like, you can't hurt our prized possession. Yes. Like, you can't screw this up, man. Exactly. A little pressure there on their part. Exactly. So then 3 months go by. They say, hey, they give me an address. They say, hey, I still don't know who this person is. Yeah. All right. They give me an address. They're like, client wants to meet you today. All right, no problem. So I drive out there, ring the doorbell once, no answer. Ring it twice, no. Ring it third. I said, oh, they messing with me. Ring it third time, Michael, door opens up. It's Michael Jordan.
