Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan emerged in the 1980s as the most famous athlete on the planet. His
ability to leap high and perform acrobatic maneuvers while in the air inspired an entire
line of athletic shoes known as "Air Jordan." His overall skill and competitive drive
carried him to a record 10 National Basketball Association (NBA) scoring titles and six
league championships. His warmth, humor, and accessibility made him a marketing
gold mine. Jordan's accomplishments are so impressive that no less a basketball artist
than Larry Bird has said of him, "I think he's God disguised as a basketball player."
Michael Jeffrey Jordan was born on February 17, 1963, in Brooklyn, New York, the
fourth of five children of James and Delores Jordan. The family moved to Wallace,
North Carolina, when Michael was an infant and settled in Wilmington when he was
seven. There James worked his way up from mechanic to supervisor at a General
Electric plant and Delores made a similar advancement working at a bank.
Jordan's first love as a child was baseball, which was also his father's favorite sport. He
has said that his favorite childhood memory is winning the league Most Valuable Player
(MVP) trophy for his Babe Ruth League team with his lively fastball. He also dabbled in
track as well as in football, until he was scared away by an injury. But eventually, he and
his brother, Larry, who was a year older, began to concentrate on basketball.
James Jordan accommodated them by building them a full-sized basketball court on
their property.
During his early days at Laney High School, Jordan appeared to have made the wrong
choice of sports. As a five-foot-11-inch sophomore, he failed to make the varsity team.
But after adding four inches and improving his skills over the next year, he was able to
join Larry on the varsity for a season. Jordan's admiration of his older brother was
evidenced by his choosing number 23 for his uniform—as close as could get to half of
Larry's number 45. He was further inspired by the aerial artistry of Julius Erving and
began creating his own repertoire of slam dunks.

Jordan's potential became evident in his senior year, and he was recruited by the
University of North Carolina, one of the nation's elite basketball schools. He spent much
of his freshman year learning Coach Dean Smith's system and working on his defense.
He finished third in scoring on the talented Tarheels, who reached the finals of the 1982
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament. Few basketball fans knew
who Jordan was until the final seconds of that game against Georgetown. With his team
trailing by 62-61, it was Jordan—and not his veteran teammates and future NBA stars
James Worthy and Sam Perkins—who was called on to nail the jump shot that gave
North Carolina its first national championship.

Jordan never achieved gaudy scoring numbers in Coach Smith's team-oriented offense.
But even though he averaged barely 20 points per game his sophomore and junior years,
the Sporting News voted him College Player of the Year both seasons. Jordan then
skipped his senior season to play in the NBA. Before turning pro, however, he led the
U.S. Olympic team to a surprisingly easy gold medal victory in the 1984 Olympics. The
Spanish Coach, after watching him lead the dismantling of his team in the finals,
muttered of Jordan, "He's a rubber man. He's not human."

Jordan was the third player selected in the 1984 NBA draft. His new team, the hapless
Chicago Bulls, had modest expectations for Jordan. One team executive warned the
public, "Jordan isn't going to turn this franchise around. He's a very good offensive
player but not an overpowering offensive player." It did not, however, take Jordan long
to prove him wrong. Finding the faster-paced, wide-open NBA game more suited to his
talents than college ball, Jordan poured in 22 points in a single quarter in just his third
game of the season. He scored so often and with such gravity-defying flair that he
quickly became the league's top drawing card. He won the NBA Slam Dunk contest and
finished the season with an average of 28.2 points, six assists, and six rebounds to beat
out Hakeem Abdul Olajuwon easily as the league's Rookie of the Year. The only sour
note his first year was at the All-Star game, when the veteran players on his team,
apparently jealous of Jordan's popularity, deliberately kept the ball away from him.
Just as the six-foot-six-inch guard was establishing himself as the NBA's refreshing new
star, disaster struck when he fractured his foot in October 1985. After missing most of
the season, he stubbornly insisted on coming back to play, against the advice of Bulls'
management and medical staff. Jordan sparked a late-season rally that pushed the Bulls
into the play-offs. Then, against the Boston Celtics, Jordan put on an incredible one-
man show. He scored a play-off record 63 points in one game and averaged more than
43 points for the series, in a losing effort. The Boston coach, K. C. Jones, remarked, "I
thought he was awesome the last time we played against him. I don't have a word for
him this time."

Jordan's domination of the NBA scoring title began in the first game of the 1986–87
season when he scored 50 points. He finished the year with a 37.1 average, the highest
ever by an NBA guard and second only to Wilt Chamberlain in league
history. Jordanrepeated as scoring champ the following year with an average of 35.0.
Almost lost in the excitement over his offensive displays was the fact that Jordan had
become one of basketball's top defensive players. He led the league in steals that season
and became the first person ever to win the scoring title and be voted Defensive Player
of the Year in the same season. Jordan also reeled in his first MVP Award.
Jordan continued to win scoring titles over the next several years, but the Bulls kept
bowing out early in the postseason play-offs despite Jordan's heroics. The Bulls' star
came under criticism for being a ball hog who could not blend in with his teammates to
be successful. Such perceptions stung Jordan, who was fiercely competitive and a
tireless perfectionist in practice.

The Bulls gradually gathered a strong supporting cast for Jordan, who then showed he
could be both a scoring star and a team player. In 1990–91, the Bulls won 61 games, best
in the league, and then beat their longtime nemesis, Detroit, to make the finals.
There, Jordan sank 12 consecutive shots in one game and buried a last-second shot to
send another game into overtime to lead the team past the Los Angeles Lakers for their
first title. Chicago then went on to win the next two championships, silencing Jordan's
critics once and for all.
Jordan's wonderful world was rocked in the summer of 1993, when his father was
reported missing and found weeks later, murdered. Jordan abruptly announced his
retirement before the next season, then stunned fans even more by attempting a widely
publicized baseball career. The venture met with limited success in the Chicago White
Sox minor league organization, and in March 1995, Jordan pulled another stunning
about-face by returning to basketball. The effects of the year-and-a-half layoff were too
great to overcome that season, but Jordan returned to his old form in 1995–96. He
regained his scoring title with a 30.4 average and led the Bulls back to the NBA
championship. Jordan retained his scoring title as the Bulls repeated as NBA champions
the following two seasons.

Jordan's performance against the Utah Jazz in the finals of 1998 solidified his exalted
status in sports. With the Bulls trailing by a point in game six of the finals with seconds
to go and the ball in the hands of Utah's Karl Malone, Chicago appeared to be doomed to
defeat. But, taking a reckless gamble, Jordan left his man and stripped Malone of the
ball, then calmly drained a jump shot to win the game and the title.
It was a perfect note on which to finish the most illustrious career in NBA history. In
addition to his 10 scoring titles, Jordan led the NBA in steals three times, was named to
the All-Defensive team nine times, won the NBA MVP Award five times, and won the
NBA Finals MVP Award another five times. He retired from basketball again, well set for
life as the most recognizable pitchman in the nation with an income from endorsements
exceeding $30 million per year.
Unable to stay out of basketball, Jordan became president of the Washington Wizards in
January 2000. The team's inept performances eventually pushed Jordan's competitive
nature to its limit, and in 2001 he again shocked the basketball world by announcing he
would play for the Wizards. Most experts thought the 38-year-old Jordan, who had been
out of the game three years, was taking on too great a challenge this time, and many
feared he would embarrass himself. But after a rough start, Jordan performed yet
another miracle by guiding the once-woeful team back to respectability.
In 2003, at the age of 40, Jordan proved he could still bring it by scoring 43 points in a
game. He retired for good at the end of the season, widely regarded as the finest
basketball player ever. He has been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame twice: in
2009 for his individual career, and in 2010 as a member of the 1992 U.S. men's Olympic
basketball team.

References and Further Information

Halberstam, David. Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made. New
York: Random House, 1998.

Jordan, Michael. For the Love of the Game. New York: Crown, 1998.

Jordan, Michael, and Mark Vancil. Driven from Within. New York: Atria, 2006.

Leahy, Michael. When Nothing Else Matters: Michael Jordan's Last Comeback. New
York: Simon & Schuster, 2005.

Smith, Sam. The Jordan Rules. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.

———. Second Coming: The Strange Odyssey of Michael Jordan from Courtside to
Homeplate and Back Again. New York: HarperCollins, 1995.