NBA legend Michael Jordan believes he won't survive playing in the social media era

In a rare interview, one of the greatest basketball players of all time, Michael Jordan, admitted that he would find it challenging to play in this era.

Many people regard Michael Jordan as the GOAT or the "Greatest of All Time." While Jordan himself never referred to himself as such, many basketball experts including former rivals, believe so.

There's a debate on who is truly the GOAT, but at the very least, anyone who knows anything about basketball would say that Michael Jordan is one of the best players who ever played the game.

But in a recent interview, Jordan said that it would be hard for him to play in this era.

"Tiger [Woods] played at his peak somewhere toward the end of my career. Then, what changed from that timeframe to now is social media — Twitter and all those types of things. And that has invaded the personalities and personal time of individuals. It's to the point where some people have been able to utilize it to their financial gain and things of that nature," he said.

"But for someone like myself — and this is what Tiger deals with — I don't know if I could've survived in this Twitter [era], where you don't have the privacy that you'd want and what seems to be very innocent can always be misinterpreted," he explained.

Jordan, if he played today, would be subject to many criticisms, the way LeBron James is always being criticised now. During his time as a player, Jordan was involved in several controversies, including excessive gambling and refusing to stop smoking. There are rumours around the NBA that those controversies are some of the reasons behind his early first retirement.

Jordan did other things that social media would have blown out of proportion if it happened today. There was that one time when he physically assaulted his teammate and now Golden State Warriors head coach, Steve Kerr. If that happened today, it would not have ended with a simple apology.

According to Yard Barker, Jordan is a notoriously private person. Even in the documentary about his career with the Chicago Bulls, it was emphasised several times that Jordan found it difficult to deal with his fame.

Being an NBA superstar and fame comes hand-in-hand. The way Jordan dominated his peers in the '90s, he would be in social media a lot. It would have affected his game, his professionalism, and, ultimately, his overall reputation.