“I’m cursed,” Michael Jordan Opens up about his Competitive Streak

Michael Jordan offered a telling look at the mindset that fueled his basketball legacy. In a recent CBS interview, he admitted he still feels “cursed” by the competitive streak that made him one of the fiercest athletes in sports history. Jordan said that even in retirement, the instinct to turn everything into a contest has never really left him.

Jordan sounded like a familiar echo of the player the sports world remembers best. His relentlessness, obsessiveness and incapability to switch off, defines who he has been on the pitch. But this time, the six-time NBA champion was not talking about the Bulls, the Finals or his old rivals. He was reflecting on the way competition still shapes his daily life, whether in business, at home or in his latest sporting obsession, NASCAR.

The comments come at an interesting moment for Jordan, whose post-playing life is again tied to winning in a very visible way. His 23XI Racing team has opened the 2026 NASCAR Cup season in dominant form. His current successes in a different field is just proof to the fact that even decades after his last Bulls title, Jordan still seems wired to chase competition wherever he can find it.

Jordan’s reputation has always been built as much on mentality as on numbers. His six championships, five MVPs and scoring titles tell one story. The mythology around him, i.e., the internal grudges, the refusal to concede anything, the ability to manufacture fuel from almost any slight, tells another. He sounds like the same engine, just running in a different arena.

1. Michael Jordan Says His Competitive Nature Never Truly Switches Off

For Jordan, competition is his constant instinct, woven into everything from major challenges to the smallest routines. “I’m competitive in every aspect of my life,” Jordan said. He did not describe that drive as a choice or a habit, but almost as something built into him. “The joy of seeing competition, right. I’m a very competitive person. I think I’m cursed.” That wording stood out because it framed his intensity not just as a strength, but as something so deep-rooted that it follows him everywhere. Jordan then leaned into the personal side of that idea by explaining how far that mindset extends beyond sports. “I’m cursed with this competitive gene that anything that I do, if it’s getting dressed, I gotta get dressed before my wife gets dressed,” he said. For Jordan, competition is not limited to basketball courts, scoreboards, or trophies. It is part of how he experiences daily life. That helps explain why Jordan’s edge became such a defining part of his identity. What made him different was not just that he wanted to win championships, but that he seemed wired to turn nearly everything into a challenge.

2. Jordan is Still Chasing Wins, Now in NASCAR

What makes Jordan’s admission more than just nostalgia is the setting in which he made them. He is no longer competing on the floor, but he is still deeply invested in one of the most competitive environments in American sports through 23XI Racing. And at the moment, that team is not merely participating; it is winning. 23XI opened the season with four victories in the first six Cup races, including the Daytona 500, an early stretch that turned Jordan’s ownership project into one of the biggest stories in NASCAR. According to NASCAR’s official Cup standings, Tyler Reddick stands first in points entering this week, while Bubba Wallace sits third, giving 23XI two drivers near the very top of the board. Jordan also made clear in the interview that his connection to NASCAR is not passive. He told CBS that the sport “keeps me alive,” which is probably the strongest clue in the entire conversation. For a competitor like him, retirement was never likely to mean withdrawal. It meant finding another place where risk, pressure and weekly results still matter. NASCAR has become that place. There is also a business edge to all of this. Jordan and 23XI were central figures in the recent legal and financial battle over NASCAR’s charter system, with a settlement before the 2026 season delivered evergreen charters and improved economic terms for teams. It shows Jordan’s competitive instinct extending beyond race day. Not only is he trying to win on the track, but he is also trying to reshape the conditions under which his team competes.

3. 23 years Since Retirement, Jordan is Still GOAT

During his playing years, across 15 seasons with the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards, Jordan averaged 30.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 2.3 steals in 1,072 regular-season games, while also winning six NBA championships, six Finals MVPs and five regular-season MVP awards. Those numbers and honors remain the foundation of his legacy and still place him firmly in the center of any all-time debate. His scoring record remains especially untouchable. Jordan still owns the highest career regular-season scoring average in NBA history at 30.1 points per game, ahead of Wilt Chamberlain, and he also holds the highest playoff scoring average at 33.4 points per game. Just as significantly, he won 10 scoring titles, the most in league history, including seven straight from 1987 through 1993. Jordan was a 14-time All-Star, a 10-time All-NBA First Team selection, a nine-time All-Defensive First Team pick, the 1988 Defensive Player of the Year and a three-time steals leader. ESPN’s all-time steals leaderboard currently lists him fourth in NBA history with 2,514 steals, which underscores how fully he impacted games on both ends of the floor. There are also single-season achievements that still stand out. In 1986-87, Jordan became just the second player in NBA history to score more than 3,000 points in a season, averaging 37.1 points per game. He paired elite scoring with elite defense in rare ways, including becoming the first player to post 200 steals and 100 blocks in the same season. Those records explain why Jordan still carries weight decades after his final game.

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