Michael Jordan

Also known as: Michael Jeffrey Jordan, Air Jordan

BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY

Tar Heel Roots. Michael Jeffrey Jordan was born 17 February 1963 in Brooklyn, New York, but he attended high school in Wilmington, North Carolina. His high school coach did not recognize Jordan as a budding basketball star, however, and he was cut from the team as a sophomore. Despite this shaky start, he was recruited by the University of North Carolina, leading them to the national championship as a freshman in 1982. Two years later he was named College Player of the Year (1984), winning both the Naismith and Wooden awards. After his junior season, he was drafted by the Chicago Bulls, the third overall pick in 1984.

Air Jordan. There was something transcendent about Jordan’s movements on the court, and he inspired commentary, even from jaded sports reporters, that bordered on adulation. After Jordan set a National Basketball Association (NBA) playoff record for most points scored in a game (63), Boston Celtic forward Larry Bird said, “That was God disguised as Michael Jordan.” Having conquered every challenge available on the basketball court, including NBA Rookie of the Year (1985), three MVP awards (1988, 1991, 1992), Olympic gold medals (1984 and 1992), and three NBA Championships (1991-1993), Jordan shocked the world by retiring from basketball on 6 October 1993, at the peak of his career. The death of Jordan’s father, during a 1993 robbery attempt, may have helped push the basketball star to other pursuits. Success did not, however, always follow him off the court.

Basketball to Baseball, and Back Again. His venture into professional baseball was, in many ways, no different than that of thousands of other middle-age men in a mid-life crisis who paid good money to attend fantasy baseball camps for the opportunity to see how they might do in competition with former big leaguers. Because he was the most famous–and perhaps wealthiest–athlete of the decade, he got a chance not normally accorded men of his age. Playing with the Birmingham (Alabama) Barons in AA minor league ball, he batted .204, proof that he was mortal. When Jordan once again picked up a basketball, all questions about his incomparable domination of the sport were forgotten. One news report said that when speculation arose that Jordan would return to the Chicago Bulls after his year in baseball, the stocks of five companies whose products he endorsed climbed $2.3 billion dollars in three days. Returning on 19 March 1995, after a hiatus of one-and-a-half seasons, Jordan and the Bulls managed to reach only the second round of the playoffs, but then proceeded to win three more consecutive NBA titles (1996, 1997, and 1998). Jordan also captured MVP honors in 1996 and 1998. Each year the Bulls won the title, before and after his aborted retirement, Jordan won the MVP award for the Finals. He scored more points (5,987) than anyone else in the history of the NBA playoffs. His per-game average during the post season (179 games) was also the highest (33.4); Jordan was the only player, appearing in a minimum of twenty-five playoff contests, to top thirty points per game. His regular season stats were equally impressive. He averaged 31.5 points per game, 6.5 rebounds and 5.3 assists during his career. He led the league in scoring (1988-1993, 1996-1999). He was an NBA All-Star twelve times and Defensive Player of the Year in 1998. Jordan has been on the cover of Sports Illustrated forty-seven times, more than any other athlete. Jordan re-retired on 13 January 1999. Darryl Howerton, in a Sport magazine article, designating Jordan one of the five best athletes of the century, referred to Jordan as omnipresent. Even in other sports, people said of up-and-coming stars, “This could be the Michael Jordan of (fill in the blank).”

This retirement, too, was destined to be short-lived. Jordan bought an ownership stake in the Washington Wizards in 2000, intending to work in their front office as president. However, he decided to return to the court in the 2001-2002 season, in an attempt to whip the poorly-performing Wizards into shape as mentor, teacher, and inspirer. He played for the Wizards for two seasons, and although they did not make the playoffs either time, their performance did improve. Jordan also accounted himself well, proving wrong the critics who said that he was too old and his knees were too bad for the rough-and-tumble of NBA play. His knees did force him to cut back on his playing time and even to sit out several games, but he often racked up over twenty points per game when he did play, and in December 2001 he even became the oldest player ever to score over fifty points in one game. Jordan retired again, for the third and final time, at the end of the 2002-2003 season.

Jordan returned to the NBA, in a front-office position, in June of 2006, when he bought the second largest share of the Charlotte Bobcats. He became president of the team, with decision-making authority for the ownership group and input into moves such as trades and free agent signings. Despite the comeback, 2006 ended on a different note for Jordan: on December 29, he and his wife Juanita announced that they were divorcing amicably after 17 years of marriage.

Business Interests. Basketball was not the only field in which Jordan excelled. He was featured in an animated movie feature, Space Jam (1996), with costar Bugs Bunny, a character hardly more ethereal than Jordan. In addition to his athletic prowess and entertainment appeal, Jordan had a strong influence in the business world. He opened a restaurant in Chicago, had a cologne named for him, and graced the cover of Wheaties cereal boxes. Jordan’s “star” quality was clearly indicated by his endless television and media endorsements, for products ranging from basketball shoes to hamburgers to long-distance telephone services.

UPDATES
April 6, 2009: Jordan was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. Source: Chicago Tribune, <http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/chi-michael-jordan-hall-of-fame-090306,0,7097516.story>, April 6, 2009.

July 1, 2009: The 1992 Dream Team on which Jordan played was chosen for the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame. Source: Associated Press, <http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gWaOwCNYeP98V_nQ5FkYc_5f3r6QD995CBFO0>, June 30, 2009.

March 17, 2010: Jordan’s bid to buy a majority interest in the Charlotte Bobcats was approved by the NBA’s Board of Governors. Source: Los Angeles Times, <http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/17/sports/la-sp-nba-report-20100318>, March 18, 2010.

FURTHER READINGS

* Chicago Tribune, June 16, 2006, sec. Sports, p. 1; December 30, 2006, sec. News, p. 27.

* Bob Greene, Rebound: The Odyssey of Michael Jordan (New York: Viking, 1995).

* Darryl Howerton, “Michael Jordan,” Sport, 90 (December 1999): 42-43.

* “Jordan Not Returning to Wizards as President; Thanks Fans for Support,” Jet, 103 (May 26, 2003): 50.

* Lisa Kulman, “Wounded by His Knee,” U.S. News & World Report (April 15, 2002): 10.

* NBA.com, Internet website.

* L. Jon Wertheim and David Sabino, “Three’s a Charm: In His Third Incarnation, Michael Jordan Is Showing That He Can Still Perform Feats of Magic–Like Turning the Wizards into Winners,” Sports Illustrated, 96 (January 14, 2002): 48.