Charles Barkley explains why MJ deserves to be the GOAT because of his rivalry against the Pistons: “He kept coming until he got stronger, got bigger” originally appeared on Basketball Network.
Hall of Famer Charles Barkley has always picked his former buddy, Michael Jordan, as his GOAT over LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, or any other NBA superstar. Barkley entered the NBA in the same Draft that Jordan came in with, and Chuck saw Mike’s NBA career from its beginning to “The Last Dance.”
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According to Barkley, what impressed him the most about Jordan was MJ’s path to victory. He talked about how he endured their losing years and never gave up when the Detroit Pistons kept beating his Bulls before 1991.
“That’s the one thing that I admired about Michael,” said Barkley. “He just kept bigger and stronger and like ‘Nah!’ And I played with some guys who like ‘No, I’m not going in there,’ and that’s one reason I always Michael. Like ‘We’re going in there brother.’ And he kept coming until he got stronger, got bigger and knocked that wall down.”
Michael Jordan wanted to bulk up
Before the 1990-91 NBA season, the Pistons and Bulls met in the playoffs each time in the last three years. And every year, Chicago’s season ended at the hands of the Motor City Bad Boys, including twice in the Eastern Conference Finals in 1989 and 1990. But after their Game 7 loss to Detroit in 1990, Jordan figured out that the only way to beat the Pistons was to meet fire with fire.
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“I knew I had to get stronger,” Jordan said, via the Chicago Magazine. “If I was going to go into the post, then I was going to have to play like a big guy. I still had my quickness, so I knew if I got stronger, I could turn the tables. Teams such as the Pistons and Knicks had figured the only way to throw me off my game was to throw me out of the air. I’d had enough. I wanted to start dishing out the punishment instead of taking it all the time.”
So Mike hired a trainer, Tim Grover, that summer, and the two plotted out a master plan to enable the Bulls superstar to get bigger and stronger. Grover revealed that MJ gained 15 pounds that offseason to prepare himself for another rugged showdown against Detroit.
The Bulls finally got over the hump in 1991
The Bulls started the 1990-91 season strong, scoring 32-14 at the All-Star break. Chicago finished the regular season with a 61-21 record and was the No.1 seeded team in the 1991 Eastern Conference playoffs.
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In the postseason, the raging Bulls swept the New York Knicks in the first round. Then, in round two, they dropped only one game against the Philadelphia 76ers to advance to their third straight Eastern Conference Finals, where they met an all-too-familiar foe.
With Michael bigger and stronger than ever, the Bulls rampaged in the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals and went on to sweep the then-defending champions Pistons in the championship series. That was only the beginning as once MJ figured out the Pistons, there was no stopping him from taking over the league and solidifying his GOAT status.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jun 19, 2025, where it first appeared.