“When he retired in ’93, he had to have had the thought in the back of his mind that when you retire at 30, at the top of your career, you’re going to have pangs to come back. Whether you act on those impulses is a different issue. I’m not sure that I ever had a player who loved the game more than he loved it,” said Jordan’s longtime agent, David Falk in the days leading up to the 25th anniversary of Jordan’s return. “Everyone has these conspiracy theories about why he does things, which is interesting because he’s so popular. When he does something against the norm, everyone has an explanation as if it’s a tsunami coming or something supernatural. That’s Michael. Michael made that decision (to come back) because he missed basketball. He wanted to play.”