Michael Jordan is a certified golf nut, a man obsessed with the game. That is not breaking news. Just do an Internet search for “Michael Jordan golf stories” and you’ll quickly get down a rabbit hole of nuggets that, if you haven’t already heard, you’d still love to read about again: The 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Playing before epic playoff performances. Playing with presidents. Losing millions in just a few days. Racing Sergio Garcia on the Old Course. His overall ruthlessness. Obsession with the Ryder Cup. Click on any of those previous links to get started.

But that’s not why we’re here. Not exactly, anyway.

In honor of the start of the NBA season, and celebrating His Airness in general, we looked back into the Golf Digest archives and found this gem from 15 years ago, the November 2009 issue, where the six-time NBA champion and five-time league MVP met with Golf Digest to unveil his top 10 rules for maximizing competitiveness.

We won’t spill them all here, but we will sprinkle a few to get you started.

(Golf Digest+ members get access to the complete Golf Digest archive dating back to 1950. Sign up here.)

No. 1 for the former Chicago Bull and Washington Wizard was simply to “focus on the little things.”

In the piece, which can be found in the archives here, Jordan said: During my basketball career, I always told myself to focus on the little things because little things added up to big things. I equate making putts with making free throws, and my biggest mental challenge shooting free throws was in my second year, 1986, when I came back from a foot injury for the playoffs and had a 63-point game against Boston in the Garden. I had to make two free throws to send the game into overtime, and all I focused on was the basics—I’m not gonna be short, I’m gonna extend and reach for the rim—all the fundamentals that I had worked on at home and at practice for all those years. Golf is no different. Don’t assume, for example, that any putt is good. Make sure you putt every three-footer with conviction. And keep score every time you play. I do.

The other nine items are worth your time and range from confidence, to battling nerves, to using loses as motivation and trash talking. Jordan’s final thought was on Tiger Woods and the time he witnessed Woods challenge a playing competitor, a good one, by saying that he could beat him on a hole by playing from his knees.

Yes, seriously. Take a look.

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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com