Like so many other people across the world, Tammy Abraham was gripped by each and every episode of 'The Last Dance' documentary on the legendary Chicago Bulls basketball team.
"That was one thing that stuck in my mind," the Chelsea striker told the Daily Mail. "Michael Jordan lost a game and he made up things in his head about what someone said to him.
"That person didn't actually say it but he used that to go into the next game and to drive him on to be the best."
Unlike Jordan, Abraham does not need to go looking for motivation or to create criticism.
There have always been plenty of people telling him he is not good enough to lead the line for Chelsea. Some supporters would have had no issue with Abraham being sold 18 months ago when Wolves came calling.
When he missed a penalty in the UEFA Super Cup loss to Liverpool at the start of the season, meanwhile, he was subjected to vicious online abuse, some of it racially motivated.
"It's about coming out and proving them wrong," Abraham explained. "It's about being at this club, being the main man, being the striker."
Abraham has been Chelsea's first-choice forward for the majority of the 2019-20 campaign and is the club's top-scorer, with 15 goals in all competitions.
However, he was on the bench for Sunday's 2-1 victory at Aston Villa in what was the Blues' first Premier League fixture after the coronavirus-enforced suspension of play. Olivier Giroud started in Abraham's place and decided the game in Chelsea's favour.
Falling behind the France international in the pecking order could not have happened at a worse time for the England forward, who has now gone six games without a goal – his worst run of the0 campaign so far.
Just three days before the game at Villa Park, Chelsea confirmed the £47.5 million ($59m) signing of RB Leipzig ace Timo Werner, one of the most coveted strikers in Europe.
The news was greeted with glee by Blues fans, not least because the Germany international had for a long time seemed destined to join Liverpool.
However, for Abraham, Werner's imminent arrival at Stamford Bridge not only casts further doubt on his place in Frank Lampard's starting line-up, but his very future at Stamford Bridge.
The Londoner still has two years to run on his current contract, but it is telling that in a season of renewal at Chelsea, during which fellow academy products Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Mason Mount and Callum Hudson-Odoi have all signed extensions, Abraham has yet to agree a new deal with the club.
It is a remarkable state of affairs, given Abraham looked to have well and truly broken the curse of the No.9 shirt when he scored a Didier Drogba-like winner at Arsenal back in December.
At that point of the season, Giroud had already made up his mind to leave Chelsea for Inter. Now, six months on, he has extended his stay at Chelsea until 2021 and is back spearheading the attack.
Now, it is Abraham who will be increasingly cautious about agreeing on new terms until the picture becomes more clear.
He clearly loves the club he joined at eight years of age and has a strong bond with Lampard, who has demonstrated his commitment to giving youth a chance at Chelsea by handing out a record eight debuts to homegrown players this season.
However, Lampard is a winner first and foremost, and Chelsea's recruitment of not only Werner, but also Hakim Ziyech, prove that he is willing to sign top talent from elsewhere in order to compete with Liverpool and Manchester City for the Premier League table.
Of course, much will depend upon on what formation the Blues play next season. It is certainly possible that Werner and Abraham could feature alongside one another, given the German's fondness for drifting out to the left.
There will be plenty of competition for places out wide, though, with Ziyech arriving from Ajax this summer, and Christian Pulisic and Hudson-Odoi hopefully having put their minor injury issues of late firmly behind them.
The bottom line is that Lampard will have plenty of attacking options next season and he has made it clear to Abraham – and the rest of the squad – that no player can afford to take their starting spot for granted.
"I have spoken to Tammy before about competition," the Chelsea boss told reporters on Friday. "I don’t have to address every player if another one comes in. It’s how it has been in the (Roman) Abramovich era.
"Tammy has been fantastic this season but he has to sustain his form and improve because at Chelsea we have demands."
The onus is now on Abraham to meet those demands by finishing the campaign as strongly as he started it.
There are plenty of people who think Werner will be Chelsea's first-choice forward next season. But if Abraham's admiration of Jordan teaches us nothing else, it is that he knows exactly what it takes to be the "main man" in any team.
