There were many influences in Michael Jordan’s life, but there might have not been one bigger than his personal trainer, Tim Grover.
Throughout his storied and epic NBA basketball career, Michael Jordan would eventually find the ingredients of how to win championships. He was fierce, competitive, and had a do whatever it takes attitude. He wanted to win at all costs.
Apart from the number of coaches and teammates that helped propel him into the greatest NBA player of all-time, his personal trainer and friend, Tim Grover, had an immense influence on Michael Jordan’s career.
Apart from one really big injury, in which he broke his foot, during his sophomore season in the NBA, Jordan never really got hurt. In fact, during his 13-year career before his comeback in 2001, Jordan played at least 80 games on 10 occasions. He played 78 games one season, returned after the all-star break in another, and then broke his foot. Those account for the three seasons in which he didn’t play at least 80 games.
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In a way, Jordan was extremely durable. Something that we really don’t see all that much of in today’s NBA. A bit part of that was Grover.
You can make a case that Grover was ahead of his time. Grover is known for specifying on specific body parts, rather than just focusing on overall speed and strength as was the norm at the time. Essentially, Grover was focused on strengthing the weak parts of a player’s body, in an attempt to avoid future injury. Safe to say, it worked.
Despite all the punishment that Jordan would go through in his career, his body never truly broke-down.
Grover began working with Jordan in 1989 and eventually would lead to him working with other members of the Bulls too. There are many people in Michael Jordan’s life that would go on to influence him into the player that he would become. However, you can make a case that without Tim Grover, he might’ve not been as durable.
And if Jordan would not have been durable, who knows if he would’ve been able to accomplish all that he did during his time with the Bulls.
Tim Grover would go on to train other Basketball greats, such as Charles Barkley, Hakeem Olajuwon, Dwyane Wade, and the late, Kobe Bryant.