Jordan, Michael 1963-

JORDAN, MICHAEL 1963-

Basketball legend

Air Jordan

Michael Jordan's spectacular style of play set the standard for athletic creativity and earned him a special place in basketball history. Jordan had the ability to make the apparently impossible routine and to remain air-borne as long as necessary to score a graceful or explosive basket. Even as a rookie with the Chicago Bulls in 1984, Jordan was compared to such celebrated and legendary basketball acrobats as Elgin Baylor, Connie Hawkins, David Thompson, and Julius Erving. The comparisons proved prophetic, for Jordan dominated professional basketball—offensively, defensively, and aesthetically—during the latter part of the 1980s and into the 1990s. With the guidance of agent David Falk of ProServe, the affable Jordan also made his mark in the advertising world. He served as a spokesperson for Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Wheaties, and Gatorade. Because Jordan was so enthusiastically embraced as an athlete-endorser, Steve Wulf quipped, "Sometimes with Jordan, you don't know where the reality ends and the commercial begins." Nowhere was this blurring more evident than in Jordan's association with the Nike athletic shoe company. By selling Jordan's spectacular athleticism and approachable personality, Nike successfully marketed both an air-sole sneaker and the Air Jordan persona, creating an American icon. For many he was viewed as someone who "transcended race." According to Jack McCallum, Jordan "crossed all lines—gender, race, age—as smoothly as he crossed over his dribble. He had no hidden agenda, no dark side, and so his appeal was uncomplicated and thoroughly wonderful." In the process of arguing that Jordan had become "our new DiMaggio," novelist John Edgar Wideman wrote, "Perhaps MJ is proof there are no rules about race, no limits to what a black man can accomplish in our society." Sociologist John Hoberman saw this phenomenon more critically and suggested that Jordan's "cross-over" appeal represented "virtual" integration. While race relations during the 1980s proved to be volatile, Jordan was among only a handful of African American men and women wholeheartedly embraced by white America.

Cut from the Team

The genesis of Michael Jordan's carefully crafted, highly marketable image begins with an often-told tale. As a sophomore Jordan was cut from his high-school varsity basketball team. But by honing his skills all summer Jordan turned that setback to his advantage and emerged as a great player the following season. Said Jordan, "When a lot of people figured I couldn't do something, that gave me the challenge to do it." Jordan's commitment to hard work and his competitive desire attracted the attention of University of North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith. Though Jordan was not initially heavily recruited, Smith offered him a basketball scholarship. Smith's faith would be rewarded a year later when Jordan made the winning jump shot during the final seconds of the 1982 NCAA national championship game. As a collegian Jordan was a two-time all-American and was twice named The Sporting News National Player of the Year, before forsaking his final year of eligibility to play professionally. The summer before his rookie season Jordan was the leading scorer on the 1984 Olympic gold medal-winning U.S. basketball team. Jordan's professional accomplishments were even more impressive. Selected number three in the NBA college draft behind Hakeem Olajuwon (Houston) and Sam Bowie (Portland), Jordan finished his first season by being named the NBAs Rookie of the Year. Jordan won the NBAs regular season MVP award three times, was on the All-Star team nine times, won seven consecutive scoring titles, and was named Defensive Player of the Year in 1988. Prior to the 1986-1987 season, when Jordan scored 3,041 points, Wilt Chamberlain was the only other player in NBA history to score 3,000 points in a season. Jordan scored his 10,000th career point in his 303rd game, reaching that mark faster than any other player except Chamberlain. Jordan averaged 32.3 points per game during the first nine years of his career. After Jordan scored an NBA playoff-record 63 points in a losing cause against the Boston Celtics in 1986, fellow superstar Larry Bird remarked that "he's God disguised as Michael Jordan."

Triumph and Tragedy

Despite his achievements and appeal, Jordan received his share of criticism as well, including charges of individual basketball selfishness. According to some basketball afficionados, the measure of greatness in sport is winning; but for all of Jordan's skills he had trouble leading his team to an NBA championship. Jordan silenced his critics in 1991, leading the once-hapless Chicago Bulls to the NBA title. After this triumph the world gained a glimpse of his humanity: in the locker room after the game Jordan clutched the championship trophy and cried unashamedly and uncontrollably. Despite his squeaky-clean image Jordan could not escape controversy and came under media fire for his expensive gambling habit. Said Jordan, "I guess people just got tired of seeing me succeed." Tragedy also struck on 3 August 1993, when the body of Jordan's father, James, was pulled from a South Carolina creek. Reportedly despondent over his father's murder and media allegations that his own high-stakes gambling activities might have had something to do with the tragedy, Jordan stunned the athletic world on 6 October 1993 by announcing his retirement from professional basketball. Having led the Chicago Bulls to three consecutive NBA championships, Jordan was then at the peak of his athletic career. He also left the game an extraordinaily wealthy man. Even with his retirement from basketball, it was estimated that Jordan's 1993 "Madison Avenue" income topped all other athletes at $32 million. Insiders insisted that his father's murder and the pressures of living up to the phenomenal standards he had established for himself both figured into his retirement decision. His agent, David Falk, and NBA commissioner David Stern both dismissed suggestions that Jordan's retirement was linked to the continued investigation into his gambling activities. The day after he retired from basketball, a press release issued from the commissioner's office exonerated Jordan of any wrongdoing in connection to gambling and professional basketball. Jordan preferred to place a more philosophical and triumphant spin on his retirement: "I just feel that I don't have anything else to prove." He left at the top his profession, on his own terms. After Jordan's retirement Jack McCallum wrote, "no one in history has played the game of basketball as spectacularly well as Michael Jordan. Game after game, year after year, the man was better than his hype. And that is his most enduring accomplishment." Six months later Jordan was pursuing a baseball career. As an outfielder with the minor-league Birmingham Barons he was a .200 hitter. He returned to play for the Chicago Bulls in the latter part of the 1994-1995 season.

Sources:

Jack McCallum, "Michael Jordan," Sports Illustrated, 81 (19 September 1994): 52-53;

John Edgar Wideman, "Michael Jordan Leaps the Great Divide," Esquire, 114 (November 1990): 138-145, 210-216;

Steve Wulf, "Two champs are back," Time, 145 (3 April 1995): 56-57.