Tiger Woods felt a connection to Michael Jordan long before he ever met him.
In 1990, MJ was an NBA MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, three-time scoring champion, and the new face of basketball after Larry Bird and Magic Johnson.
Eldrick Tont ‘Tiger’ Woods, meanwhile, was a precocious young golfer barely in his teens.
However, even back then Woods was in the process of becoming a legend, something the man, or boy, himself was acutely aware of.
During an interview with Trans World Sport in 1990, Woods boldly suggested he might end up being bigger than Jack Nicklaus, and could even be the Michael Jordan of golf.
“I might be sort of like a Michael Jordan in basketball, or something like that,” the young Woods asserted.
Woods’ words turned out prophetic as he revolutionized the sport of golf and became a global icon in the process.
His meteoric rise was not unlike that of Jordan’s in the 1990s, and the sporting legends became close through their common sponsor, Nike.
Woods explained that he reached out to his childhood idol thinking he was tracking on a similar path, and lo and behold the basketball GOAT was receptive to his advances.
“I guess my association with Nike did help that,” Woods recalled.
“But Mike’s in position where I think my life is going. And I went through some problems, I didn’t know how to handle certain situations. Like dealing with visibility, loss of privacy, articles, just people in general, and Mike helped me out because Mike has already been there.
“He’s established himself as probably the best basketball player that’s ever lived, and he’s so well-known that what better person to relate to me than not a movie star, celebrity or anything like that but a guy who’s down to earth, who’s an athlete, who can relate to another athlete.
“And Mike is almost like my big brother right now.”
Jordan and Woods developed a close friendship, but ‘Air Jordan’s’ competitive fire still underlined their brotherly relationship.
Woods got the chance to see Jordan’s intensity up close, playing golf with him the day of a playoff game in 1997.
“They were playing the Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals,” Woods explained. “I went up there and hung out with him for a few days. It was neat to be a part of…the mindset—I can relate to that. I can relate to the intensity.”
After winning his fifth NBA championship later that year, Jordan was asked by SLAM Magazine if he ever played basketball with Woods. While Jordan admitted Woods had talent, MJ revealed Woods was too scared to play him in a real game.
“He’s scared. I’ll knock his brains out. I’m in a contact sport,” Jordan said. “He can’t hit me on the golf course. Basketball, I’d knock him out. But I could see his talents. That goes without question. He’s a good kid. He doesn’t intimidate me on the golf course.”
‘His Airness’ always reserved some sympathy for Tiger, who like a prime Mike was constantly in the limelight and faced many of the same social pressures and responsibilities.
“He doesn’t know what he’s got to deal with,” Jordan said. “It’s unbelievable. And in terms of the hype and the expectations that I created, in terms of sports in America and the sports arena, his is gonna be 10 times harder than mine.
“In an individual sport, he doesn’t have support systems to help him overcome a bad day. If I have a bad game, we still can win. He has a bad game; he’s gonna be crucified on TV. It’s totally unfair. He’s in a game where he represents minorities in all respects. He’s certainly feeling — he carries those types of social pressures.”
Jordan won six NBA titles with six Finals MVPs and ten scoring titles. For many, he’s the greatest basketball player who ever lived, and in the conversation with Muhammad Ali and Babe Ruth for the most impactful sportsman of the 20th century.
Woods left his own indelible mark on golf, becoming the sports’ first truly global icon en route to winning 15 major championships and claiming 82 PGA Tour wins — tying him with Sam Snead for the most all time.
Jordan sung the praises of his friend in an article from ESPN’s The Magazine back in 2001.
Jordan wrote: “The ability to perform in the clutch comes from having the confidence to know that you can. Where does that confidence come from? From having done it in the past. Of course, you have to do it that first time, but after that, you’ve got a model you can always relate back to. It gives you comfort doing something you’ve done before.
“The athlete today with more of that kind of confidence than anyone is Tiger Woods. Look at his record. If he’s got a lead, he keeps it. If he needs a big shot, he makes it. And the more he does it—the more he comes through when he has to—the more confident he is he can do it again.’
Speaking about Woods’ winning mentality, Jordan added: “Tiger’s confidence is so high because of his work ethic and his past success. And he performs the way he does in the clutch today because he has such confidence. If he wants to hook it around the damn tree, he’ll do it. The rest of us don’t have that confidence, or that past success, so when we hook the stupid ball, it hits the tree.’
The two remained close for years, playing golf together or hanging out socially.
“I would say 1A, 1B, myself and Michael,” Woods once replied when asked to rank their competitiveness.
“He’s more, I think, outwardly competitive than I am. But I have my tendencies to be a little competitive at times.”
“We can relate on so many different levels,” Woods added after they played golf together in 2007.
“Not too many people have gone through the same things we’ve had to go through, and he actually did it first. So because of that, I’ve been able to basically cherry-pick all the knowledge that he’s accumulated over the years.”
However, their relationship eventually deteriorated amid Woods’ well-documented personal problems and injuries that saw him take a break from golf.
Still, the two have publicly retained a mutual affection over the years.
After Woods completed his epic comeback with a win at the 2019 Masters, MJ was full of praise for his former friend after completing what he called arguably “the greatest ever comeback in sporting history.”
“I never thought he’d get back physically. He didn’t think he’d get back physically. But he did it. No one expected him to be back the way he is now,” No. 23 said.
“He’s probably the only person who believed he could get back. To me, that’s a major accomplishment. To me, it’s unbelievable. Mentally, you always think you can. But you can’t answer to what your body has to deal with.”
Their relationship may not be what it once was, but Jordan and Woods are two of the greatest sportsman who ever lived.
Although bold at the time, a 14-year-old Tiger’s words turned out to be not too far off the mark in the end.
