Millions knew Michael Jackson for his dancing, but according to two men who guarded him during his final years, he had another physical habit that almost never made headlines.
Michael liked to shoot basketball by himself.
Former bodyguards Bill Whitfield and Javon Beard said that while Michael was living in Las Vegas, he would sometimes head outside, pick up a basketball and simply shoot hoops for long stretches of time.
There was no audience.
No music video being filmed.
No competition.
It was reportedly something he did alone to relax.
Whitfield and Beard protected Michael during much of the final two and a half years of his life, a period when he was living more privately with Prince, Paris and Blanket. They later documented those years in Remember the Time: Protecting Michael Jackson in His Final Days.
Basketball, however, had been around Michael long before those quiet Las Vegas evenings.
Photographs from September 30, 1972 show the Jacksons playing basketball alongside members of The Temptations and Marvin Gaye. Other surviving photos from the same era show Michael and his brothers playing on the court at their Los Angeles home.
So the game was not something Michael suddenly discovered later in life.
It had been part of his world since his teenage years.
Michael Jackson and Michael Jordan Face Off in “Jam”
In 1992, Michael turned that connection to basketball into one of the most memorable short films of the Dangerous era.
For “Jam,” he teamed up with Chicago Bulls superstar Michael Jordan.
The idea was simple and perfect for two global stars with the same first name.
Jordan tried to teach Jackson basketball.
Jackson tried to teach Jordan how to dance.
The official video was filmed in Chicago and turned their playful one-on-one exchange into one of Michael’s most recognizable sports-related moments.
But the stories from Whitfield and Beard reveal a much quieter side of that interest.
Years after the cameras stopped rolling on “Jam,” Michael apparently still enjoyed standing outside with a ball and repeatedly taking shots by himself.
There is something fitting about that.
Michael built his career by practicing movements again and again until they looked effortless.
His private basketball habit involved the same basic idea: take the shot, retrieve the ball and try it again.
For someone whose life was constantly surrounded by security, attention and noise, a basketball court could offer something unusually simple.
Michael Jackson could spend hours entertaining millions onstage, but sometimes relaxing meant nothing more than standing alone with a basketball and working on his shot.