Michael Jordan was oozing with confidence when he made his third and final NBA return in 2001 as a member of the Washington Wizards. Unfortunately, the six-time NBA champion realized early on that willpower and competitive spirit weren't enough to win games.

According to Wizards play-by-play announcer Steve Buckhantz, Jordan boarded the team's plane livid about their blowout 94-75 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Having scored a team-high 18 points, "His Airness" felt like his teammates were immature and uncommitted to winning.

For added context, it was the Wizards' 10th loss of the 2001-02 season, worsening their already poor start to 3-10. Understandably, Michael was furious and opted to sit at the back of the plane alongside the Wizards media personnel.

"F**k those motherf*****s," Buckhantz remembers Jordan saying. "I'm gonna sit back here with the grownups."

MJ realized he made a mistake

At the time, fans and experts met Jordan's NBA return with a mixture of excitement and skepticism. Despite his legendary status and previous championships with the Chicago Bulls, MJ's time with the Wizards was marked by challenges that left him expressing regret about his decision to make a comeback.

For Jordan, who was also a part owner of the Wizards back then, his return did not yield the expected success, not because of Father Time -more importantly, because he struggled to get his younger teammates to buy into the same mentality that he had.

"One of the bad decisions I made was to go back and play," the Hall of Famer once confided. "Even though I was soothing an itch that I had, I also thought I was being innovative in my job by going down and evaluating the talent firsthand. I thought it would be a good idea to play against them, see what their tendencies were and what we were paying for. But at the same time, I became more critical of them because of the way I played the game and the way I'd approached the game, and the players didn't respond to that."

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MJ didn't fail in Washington after all

After two seasons with the Wizards, Jordan called it quits and officially retired for good. Today, many remember Michael's stint in Washington as quite entertaining but ultimately disappointing.

However, numbers tell a different story, though. With MJ, the Wizards notably improved from finishing the 2000-01 season with an underwhelming 19-63 record on a .232 winning percentage to 37-45 on a .451 winning rate.

Washington never made it to the playoffs during Jordan's time, but teams back then knew they competed hard for it. Above all, it's always worth noting that MJ was nearly 40 years old at the time.

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