This is the seventh installment from Hall of Fame writer Sam Smith's new book "There Is No Next: NBA Legends on the Legacy of Michael Jordan."
Though I occasionally get mentioned as such, I am not a Jordan biographer. My book, "The Jordan Rules," at the time of publication in 1991 was viewed as negative toward Jordan, though I likened the reaction more like when I saw Willie Mays on the old "Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson.
The sports story of the day was Jim Bouton's book, "Ball Four," the first sort of baseball insider tell-all book that was pretty mild, considering this era's publications. For the time, though, it was surprising, if not shocking, as was The Jordan Rules. Mays was going on about how he hated Ball Four. Carson asked him which part, and Mays said he hadn't read it — but knew from what he had heard he didn't like it.