‘I’ll see you tomorrow’: What Michael Jordan’s trainer learned from the 1995 loss—and his three-tier test for winners
In Grover’s words, a Cleaner is “an individual that’s going to get you that end result no matter what’s thrown at them.” His 2021 follow-up, Winning: The Unforgiving Race to Greatness, published by Scribner, returns to that hierarchy.
Key points
- The CEO of Attack Athletics, which he founded in 1989, has turned decades of work with Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and other NBA stars into books, an online training platform, and a pitch to executives that treats winning as a discipline.
- “It’s too many thoughts, ideas in your head that have you overthinking with no action.” Why Grover keeps returning to The Last Dance Much of Grover’s material leans on The Last Dance, ESPN’s 2020 docuseries on the Bulls’ final championship season.
- “I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said, as Grover later recalled to Sports Illustrated.
When his trainer, Tim Grover, told him he’d see him, Jordan didn’t wait for a schedule.
The Orlando Magic had just knocked the Chicago Bulls out of the 1995 playoffs, and much of the criticism landed on Michael Jordan.
Additional details
- In Winning, Grover quotes Jordan’s defense, from the series, of how hard he drove his teammates: “Look, I don’t have to do this.
- Jordan had returned from baseball that spring, and the Magic, led by Shaquille O’Neal and Penny Hardaway, eliminated the Bulls in six games in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
- Coolers, Closers, and Cleaners Grover’s framework starts with his 2013 book, Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable, written with Shari Lesser Wenk.
- It sells for $599 with lifetime access and includes a module titled “Are you a cleaner?” alongside lessons such as “Don’t Think” and “Decide.
- It sorts competitors into three types, and Grover describes the tiers in terms any manager would recognize.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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