- That’s “Con” as in Confidence
NBA basketball Hall-of-Famers Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics and Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls, along with current NBA player Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks, are players that exhibit extreme confidence on the basketball court along with their amazing athletic ability.
Jalen Brunson
OK, so upon first seeing this guy on the court in Madison Square Garden, you figure he must have just walked across town and in the door from the meanest streets of Bed Stuy, the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn or any other borough in New York City.
Simply put, you WILL be in for a straight-out brawl for forty-eight minutes playing against Jalen Brunson of the New York Knickerbockers. Watch his style of play, and you realize that “play” and “fight” are deeply ingrained in his DNA and are one and the same.
And then there is that stare. It’s saying “let’s go,” “bring it,” “don’t mess with me,” and “I will burn you any which way you choose.” It’s the kind of confidence that will knock out his opponents each and every time. KO or TKO, either way.
When facing Brunson on defense, there are at least two scenarios in which you may find yourself:
First, you are akin to a middle linebacker facing off against a fullback you know will come barreling up the middle through the line of scrimmage at you and there are no-holds barred. There will be some form of contact and he will go straight to the hoop. You can foul him or try and draw a foul. Figure something out. The ball is going up to the basket. A figurative first-down will have been surely achieved.
Secondly, if you are guarding him on the perimeter, just know that he will pull the trigger on a three-pointer. And quickly. Your lunging attempt at preventing the “tre” will be just that. More often that not, that ball is going through the hoop.
When he is guarding you, you will work as hard as anything you have ever done to gain progress and make a play. Your offensive skills will be tested as never before. If you score with Brunson guarding you, you’ve earned it. And that’s if you haven’t had your proverbial pocket picked in the process.
And all the while, that stare.
Witnesses have probably rarely seen much if any emotion on that face other than a con-man dead-eye, killer-instinct look.
Go ahead. Make his day.
Larry Bird
He may be the “The Hick from French Lick,” but somebody once said nobody fit the mold better than Larry Bird to don the Celtics uniform and personify Boston grit, and in a city over 1000 miles from his hometown in Indiana to the northeast in New England. That’s it. The blue-collar mold. He was first in the hearts of his countrymen (or Boston folk), right up there with George Washington.
He could beat you a thousand different ways, and it all started not just with his basketball skill set, but with attitude, confidence, heart, ingenuity, and killer-instinct.
Boston Celtics Red Auerbach could toy with opponents and turn the heat up in the Boston Garden, but it was a guarantee that Larry Bird would ratchet the heat up even more on his opponents with his scorching style of play. Bird knew how to instinctively be anywhere on the basketball court at the right time more than any other NBA player before, during, or since his days in the Association. With the roundball in his hands, he could pretty much do anything he wanted any time he wanted to do it. Ask any of his opponents.
Boston Celtics fans know their basketball, and there was no shortage of basketball greats they’d witnessed wearing the Celtic green uniform in the famed Boston Garden before Bird came along: Bob Cousy, Bill Russell, Dave Cowens, and John Havlicek, just to name a few. Bird captured their hearts immediately with his gutsy, smart, and uncanny ability.
He always delivered with his deadly three-point shooting, pinpoint passing, scrappy defense, and elbow-pointing rebounds. And fight? Please. There was nobody with whom Bird wouldn’t stand up to and exchange blows if need be. He could also trash-talk his opponents better than most, and as if his playing did not do the talking, that was just yet another way to get into their heads.
If the Celts weren’t in the game at any point, fans knew they could be in it again at anytime when Bird was on the floor.
His in-game miraculous plays and last-minute heroics are legendary. NBA Championship flags from 1981, 1984, and 1986 fly high in the rafters of the Boston TD Garden, along with Bird’s #33 and others who played with him.
Larry Bird epitomized and personified confidence on a basketball court. That was one of the many attributes and skills that made him one of the greatest to ever grace the parquet, or any, basketball floor.
Michael Jordan
There is not a superlative in the English language that has not been used to describe Michael Jordan, six-time NBA world champion with the Chicago Bulls and Hall-of-Famer. Perhaps the “G” in G.O.A.T. (Greatest Of All Time) is the simplest and most apt. Count me as someone who believes/knows he is the “G.”
After Jordan went off on the Boston Celtics in Game Two of a playoff series loss in the Boston Garden (63 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds, 3 steals), Larry Bird commented afterward “That’s God disguised as Michael Jordan” (Glassbrook). Another “G” word (and a noun, no less), and right up there with “Greatest.”
Along with his Greatness and God-given talent, Michael Jordan possessed the kind of confidence that made him a ruler on the court and helped lead his team to ultimate success. That makes him the C.M.O.A.T as well.
That’s all. To attempt to come up with anything else here about Jordan would be blasphemous. Enough has been written by the basketball experts and justified by fellow players and coaches.
Hail to the C.M.O.A.T.!
CREDITS:
Glassbrook, Harvey. “God disguised as Michael Jordan was the only explanation for a historic performance against the Boston Celtics in 1986.” Sports Illustrated, April 30, 2023. si.com/nba/bulls/old-school. June 24, 2025.
Photo Credits:
Jalen Brunson, Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jalen Brunson.
Larry Bird. Basketball Larry Bird Celebration Photo Picture. Amazon. amazon.com/Basketball-Boston Celtics-Larry-Celebration/dp/B00O2H4CRO.
Michael Jordan. flickr. flickr.com/photos/87966281@N05/8407852706.
