"Dummy."

The word perhaps would have broken a lesser man. Horace Grant embraced it with sheer willpower, vowing to turn insult into inspiration.

Upset when the Chicago Bulls drafted Grant in 1987, Michael Jordan had told General Manager Jerry Krause: "What the hell? You took that dummy?"

The piercing sting of that motivational slap is now etched in a legacy that spans 14 years, 1,029 games and four NBA championships. By all accounts, it seems that Ol' Dummy has aced his NBA curriculum, despite the critical noise.

"That stuck on me over the years," Grant said. "I don't want to say he was the motivational factor but he had something to do with it just by making those remarks."