Who is Michael Jordan?

There is something about this great athlete that simply overwhelms people, to the extent that they want to be like Mike. Surely Michael Jordan, a man who captured the attention of sports fans everywhere, is the sports hero of the 20th century.

Who else could have done what Jordan did? Who else could have brought a so-so team like the Chicago Bulls to national prominence with championships year after year? What was it about him that caused us to flock to stores to buy shoes named after him? Why was-why is-his presence so appealing all over the world?

What made him an Athlete?

Jordan is considered by most to be the greatest player in the history of the game. During his career, he was named an All-Star 14 times and led his team to two separate National Basketball Association (NBA) championship three-peats. He has also been credited with gaining global recognition for the league.

Michael Jeffrey Jordan was born on February 17,1963, in Brooklyn, New York, the third son of James and Delores Jordan. He grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina. As a child, his greatest love was baseball, a passion that he shared with his father. However, Jordan started playing one-on-one pickup games against his older brother, Larry, and basketball soon moved into the No. 1 spot in his heart.

Jordan attended Emsley A. Laney High School. He was suspended various times during his freshman year. He was cut from varsity basketball the following season due to an underdeveloped 5-foot-11-inch physique. However, he eventually became an excellent student and a star on the baseball, basketball and football teams. He finally made the varsity basketball team, averaging 25 points per game in both his junior and senior seasons. As a senior, Jordan was selected for the McDonald’s All-American team and became the only high school player in history to average a triple-double with averages of 29.2 points, 11.6 rebounds and 10.1 assists.

After his super senior season, Jordan played for the University of North Carolina Tar Heels on a basketball scholarship. In 1982, he played somewhat below the radar as a freshman underneath upperclassmen stars James Worthy and Sam Perkins, but stepped into the spotlight at the end of the year during the NCAA championship game against the Georgetown Hoyas and his future NBA rival, Patrick Ewing. With seconds left, he carried the Tar Heels to a 63-62 victory.

He was named the College Player of the Year by The Sporting News in 1983 and 1984, and received the Naismith and Wooden awards in 1984. The summer after his junior year, Jordan led the U.S. Men’s Basketball Team, coached by Bobby Knight, to an Olympic gold medal in Los Angeles. Then, in the 1984 NBA draft, he was selected as the third overall pick by the Chicago Bulls. He left school after that, but eventually graduated from North Carolina with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1986.

Jordan married Juanita Vanoy in September of 1989. The couple live in the Chicago area with their daughter and two sons.

The Bulls had won only 28 games in their last pre-Jordan season. In his first NBA game, on October 26, 1984, he scored 16 points against the Washington Bullets, before scoring 40 or more points seven times and finishing his rookie season as one of the top scorers in the league with an average of 28.2 points per game.

Jordan, nicknamed Air Jordan established himself as one of the finest players in the league during his second season in the NBA, scoring 50 or more points eight times during the regular season. He joined fellow legend Wilt Chamberlain to become one of only two players to score 3,000 points in a single season.

Jordan carried the Bulls into the playoffs every year, but the team did not make it all the way to the NBA finals until the 1990-1991 season. The year before, the Bulls faced the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals and the Pistons employed what had become their usual game plan against Jordan’s team: the Jordan Rules. Basically, they tried to force Jordan out of commission by double-and triple-teaming him every time he got the ball, stopping him from going to the baseline and hacking him whenever he drove to the basket. Jordan agreed to an offensive change by Coach Phil Jackson and Assistant Coach Tex Winter.

The Bulls began playing with a triangle offense and finished in first place for the first time in 16 years, reaching a franchise-record 61 wins in a single regular season. Jordan and his team went on to win their first NBA championship ever in 1991 against Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers. The Bulls went on to defeat Clyde Drexler and the Portland Trailblazers in 1992 and Charles Barkley and the Phoenix Suns in 1993.

“In 1992, Jordan went to the summer Olympics again, this time as a member of the original Dream Team, which was the first Olympic team to include NBA players

on its roster. Jordan averaged 12.7 points per game in Barcelona and won his second Olympic gold medal as the team swept through with a 6-0 record”.

In October of 1993, Jordan announced he was going to retire. It was speculated that there were two main reasons for his early first retirement. One was that his father had been tragically killed by armed robbers in July of that same year. The other was that the NBA had started an investigation into allegations that Jordan had illegally bet on league games, though all accusations against him were later cleared.

After retiring from the NBA, Jordan signed a minor league contract with the Chicago White Sox. He played as an outfielder for the Birmingham Barons, a White Sox farm team. Masses of fans flocked to watch Jordan play his new game, but his batting was nowhere near as good as his shooting. After 127 games with the Barons, he finished with a .202 batting average.

Even though the Bulls had retired his number, 23, he announced his return to the team on March 18,1995, with probably the shortest ever press release, which stated simply, “I’m back.” The very next day, he put on his new jersey number, 45, to finish out the rest of the regular season with the Bulls. They eventually lost to the Orlando Magic in that year’s Eastern Conference semifinals.

Jordan began wearing his old number, 23, on a mission to prove that he was even better than before. In the 1995-1996 season, he led the Bulls to finish 72-10, the best regular season record in the history of the NBA. He also topped the league in scoring with 30.4 points per game and carried his team all the way to their fourth NBA championship victory against the Seattle SuperSonics. Jordan and the Bulls continued to dominate the league for the next 2 seasons.

Jordan retired from the NBA for a second time on January 13,1999. He became president of Basketball Operations and part owner of the Washington Wizards. After the team won a measly 19 games in the 2000-2001 season, a disappointed yet motivated Jordan started training again, eventually signing a 2-year contract with the Wizards. After the devastating attacks of September 11, he announced that he would donate his entire season’s salary to victims and their families. Jordan retired for a third and final time after his last game on April 16, 2003.

The Legacy of the Jorden

Jordan has become one of the most marketed and widely recognized athletes in history. His face first popped up on a Wheaties cereal box in 1988, and he has worked as an influential spokesperson for such companies as Nike, Gatorade, Hanes, Nesde, McDonald’s, Ball Park Franks, MCI and Rayovac. Nike developed a shoe in his honor, called the Air Jordan.

Jordan has also done his fair share of charity work. He remains an advocate of The Boys and Girls Clubs of America. Jordan, along with the Bulls franchise, built the James R. Jordan Boys and Girls Club and Family Life Center in 1996 to honor the memory of his father and to serve Chicago’s West Side community. He also established the Jordan Family Institute at the University of North Carolina, and has been involved with America’s Promise, the United Negro College Fund, the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the Special Olympics.

Courtesy

To learn more about Michael Jordan visit the following Websites: www.23jordan.com. www.virtmlfans.com.

For a revealing take on the pro basketball career of Air Jordan, read: The Jordan Rules, Simon & Schuster, 1992. Driven from Within, Atria, 2006 When Nothing Else Matters: Michael Jordan’s Last Comeback, Simon & Schuster, 2005.