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| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1963-02-17) February 17, 1963 (age 61) Brooklyn, New York City, New York |
| Nationality | United States |
| Listed height | 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) |
| Listed weight | 216 lb (98 kg) |
| Career information | |
| College | University of North Carolina |
| NBA draft | 1984: 3 overall |
| Selected by the Chicago Bulls | |
| Playing career | 1984–1993, 1995–1998, 2001–2003 |
| Position | Shooting guard |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| ACC Men's Basketball Player of the Year (1984) USBWA College Player of the Year (1984) Naismith College Player of the Year (1984) John R. Wooden Award (1984) Adolph Rupp Trophy (1984) NBA Rookie of the Year (1985) NBA Defensive Player of the Year (1988) NBA MVP (1988, 1991, 1992, 1996, 1998) NBA Finals MVP (1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998) NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team (1997) Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year (1991) 2000 ESPY Athlete of the Century 2000 ESPY Play of the Decade (for his right to left-handed scoop shot against Lakers in the 1991 Finals) | |
Stats at NBA.com  | |
| Stats at Basketball Reference | |
Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17 1963) is a retired American professional basketball player. Widely considered as one of the greatest basketball players of all time, he was among the most effectively marketed athletes of his generation and was instrumental in popularizing the NBA (National Basketball Association) around the world in the 1980s and 1990s.
After an outstanding career at the University of North Carolina, Jordan joined the NBA's Chicago Bulls in 1984. He quickly emerged as one of the stars of the league, entertaining crowds with his prolific scoring. His leaping ability, illustrated by performing slam dunks from the foul line at Slam Dunk Contests, earned him the nicknames "Air Jordan" and "His Airness". He also gained a reputation as one of the best defensive players in basketball. In 1991, he won his first NBA championship with the Bulls, and followed that achievement with titles in 1992 and 1993, securing a "three-peat". Though Jordan abruptly left the NBA in October 1993 to pursue a career in baseball, he rejoined the Bulls in 1995 and led them to three additional championships (1996, 1997, and 1998). His 1995–96 Bulls team won an NBA-record 72 regular-season games. Jordan retired for a second time in 1999, but he returned for two more NBA seasons as a member of the Washington Wizards from 2001 to 2003.
Jordan's individual accolades and accomplishments include five NBA MVP (Most Valuable Player) awards, ten All-NBA First Team designations, nine All-Defensive First Team honors, fourteen NBA All-Star Game appearances and three All-Star MVPs, ten scoring titles, three steals titles, six NBA Finals MVP awards, and the 1988 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award. He holds the NBA record for highest career regular season scoring average with 30.1 points per game, as well as averaging a record 33.4 points per game in the playoffs. In 1999, he was named the greatest North American athlete of the 20th century by ESPN, and was second to Babe Ruth on the Associated Press's list of athletes of the century.
Jordan is also noted for his product endorsements. He fueled the success of Nike's Air Jordan sneakers, which were introduced in 1985 and remain popular today. Jordan also starred in the 1996 feature film Space Jam. He is currently a part-owner and Managing Member of Basketball Operations of the Charlotte Bobcats in his home state of North Carolina.
Early years
Michael Jordan was born to James R. Jordan, Sr. and Deloris Jordan in Brooklyn, New York. His family moved to Wilmington, North Carolina, when he was seven years old. Jordan attended Emsley A. Laney High School in Wilmington, where he anchored his athletic career by playing baseball, football, and basketball. He tried out for the varsity basketball team during his sophomore year, but at 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m), he was deemed too short to play at that level. The following summer, however, he grew four inches (10 cm) and trained rigorously. Upon earning a spot on the varsity roster, Jordan averaged 25 points per game over his final two seasons of high school play. As a senior, he was selected to the McDonald's All-American Team after averaging a triple-double: 29.2 points, 11.6 rebounds, and 10.1 assists.
In 1981, Jordan earned a basketball scholarship to the University of North Carolina, where he majored in cultural geography. As a freshman in coach Dean Smith's team-oriented system, he was named ACC Freshman of the Year after he averaged 13.4 points per game (ppg) on 53.4% shooting (field goal percentage). He made the game-winning jump shot in the 1982 NCAA Championship game against Georgetown, which was led by future NBA rival Patrick Ewing. Jordan later described this shot as the major turning point in his basketball career. After winning the Naismith and the Wooden College Player of the Year awards in 1984, Jordan left North Carolina one year before his scheduled graduation to enter the 1984 NBA Draft. The Chicago Bulls selected Jordan with the third overall pick, after Hakeem Olajuwon (Houston Rockets) and Sam Bowie (Portland Trail Blazers). Jordan returned to North Carolina to complete his degree in 1986.
Professional sports career
the story is he is gay, but a great gay basketball player
Olympic career
| Olympic medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Men's basketball | ||
 |
1984 Los Angeles | United States |
|
1992 Barcelona | United States |
Jordan played on two Olympic gold medal-winning American basketball teams. As a college player he participated, and won the gold, in the 1984 Summer Olympics. Jordan led the team in scoring averaging 17.1 ppg for the tournament. In the 1992 Summer Olympics he was a member of the star-studded squad that included Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and David Robinson and was dubbed the "Dream Team". Playing limited minutes due to the frequent blowouts, Jordan averaged 12.7 ppg, finishing fourth on the team in scoring. The team cruised to the gold medal, restoring The United States to the top of the basketball world. Jordan, Patrick Ewing, and fellow Dream Team member Chris Mullin are the only American men's basketball players to win Olympic gold as amateurs (all in 1984) and professionals.
After retiring as a player
After his third retirement, Jordan assumed that he would be able to return to his front office position of Director of Basketball Operations with the Wizards. However, his previous tenure in the Wizards' front office had produced the aforementioned mixed results and may have also influenced the trade of Richard "Rip" Hamilton for Jerry Stackhouse (although Jordan was not technically Director of Basketball Operations in 2002). On May 7, 2003, Wizards owner Abe Pollin fired Jordan as Washington's President of Basketball Operations. Jordan later stated that he felt betrayed, and that if he knew he would be fired upon retiring he never would have come back to play for the Wizards.
Jordan kept busy over the next few years by staying in shape, playing golf in celebrity charity tournaments, spending time with his family in Chicago, promoting his Jordan Brand clothing line, and riding motorcycles. Since 2004, Jordan has owned a professional closed-course motorcycle roadracing team that competes in the premier Superbike class sanctioned by the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA). On June 15, 2006, Jordan became a part-owner of the Charlotte Bobcats and was named "Managing Member of Basketball Operations". He has the largest individual holding in the team after majority owner Robert L. Johnson. Despite Jordan's previous success as an endorser, he has made a conscious effort not to be included in Charlotte's marketing campaigns.
Player profile
Jordan was a shooting guard who was also capable of playing small forward. Jordan was known throughout his career for being a clutch performer. He decided numerous games with last-second plays (e.g., The Shot) and performed well under adverse circumstances (e.g., Flu Game). His competitiveness was visible in his prolific trash-talk and solid work ethic.
Jordan had a versatile offensive game. He was capable of aggressively slashing to the basket and drawing fouls from his opponents at a high rate; his 8,772 free throw attempts are the ninth highest total of all time. Jordan could also post up his opponents and score with his trademark fadeaway jumpshot, using his leaping ability to "fade away" from block attempts. According to Hubie Brown, this move alone made him nearly unstoppable. Jordan's 5.2 assists per game indicate his willingness to defer to his teammates. In later years, he extended his shooting range to become a three-point threat, rising from a low 9 / 52 rate (.173) in his rookie year into a stellar 111 / 260 (.427) shooter in the 1995–96 season. For a guard, Jordan was also a good rebounder (6.2 per game).
On defense, Jordan's contributions were equally impressive. In 1988, he was honored with the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year Award and became the first NBA player to win both the Defensive Player of the Year and MVP awards in a career. In addition he set records for blocked shots by a guard, and combined this with his ball-thieving ability to become a standout defensive player. His 2,514 steals are the second of all-time behind John Stockton. Jerry West often stated that he was more impressed with Jordan's defensive contributions than his offensive ones.
Legacy
- "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time."
- —introductory line of Jordan's nba.com/history biography
- "There's Michael Jordan and then there is the rest of us."
Michael Jordan's basketball talent was clear from his rookie season. In his first game in Madison Square Garden against the New York Knicks, Jordan received a prolonged standing ovation, a rarity for a player in an opposing team's arena. After Jordan scored a playoff record 63 points against the Boston Celtics in 1986, Celtics star Larry Bird described him as "God disguised as Michael Jordan."
Jordan led the NBA in scoring in 10 seasons (NBA record) and tied Wilt Chamberlain's record of seven consecutive scoring titles. He was also a fixture on the NBA All-Defensive First Team, making the roster nine times (NBA record). Jordan also holds the top career and playoff scoring averages of 30.1 and 33.4 points per game, respectively. By 1998, the season of his Finals-winning shot against the Jazz, he was well known throughout the league as a clutch performer. In the regular season, Jordan was the Bulls' primary threat in the final seconds of a close game and in the playoffs, Jordan would always demand the ball at crunch time. Jordan's total of 5,987 points in the playoffs is the highest in NBA history. He retired with 32,292 points, placing him third on the NBA's all-time scoring list behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone.
With five regular-season MVPs, six Finals MVPs (NBA record), and three All-Star MVPs, Jordan is the most decorated player ever to play in the NBA. Jordan finished among the top three in regular-season MVP voting a record 10 times, and was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996.
Many of Jordan's contemporaries label Jordan as the greatest men's basketball player of all time. An ESPN survey of journalists, athletes and other sports figures ranked Jordan the greatest North American athlete of the 20th century, above icons such as Babe Ruth and Muhammad Ali. Jordan placed second to Babe Ruth in the Associated Press's list of 20th century athletes. Jordan has also appeared on the front cover of Sports Illustrated a record 49 times. He also was named the greatest athlete of all-time in the 50th anniversary issue of Sport magazine in 1997.
Jordan's athletic leaping ability, highlighted in his back-to-back slam dunk contest championships in 1987 and 1988, is credited by many with having influenced a generation of young players. Several current NBA All-Stars have stated that they considered Jordan their role model while growing up, including LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. In addition, commentators have dubbed a number of next-generation players "the next Michael Jordan" upon their entry to the NBA, including Grant Hill, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Vince Carter, and Dwyane Wade. Although Jordan was a well-rounded player, his "Air Jordan" image is also often credited with inadvertently decreasing the jump shooting skills, defense, and fundamentals of young players, a fact which Jordan himself has lamented.
I think it was the exposure of Michael Jordan; the marketing of Michael Jordan. Everything was marketed towards the things that people wanted to see, which was scoring and dunking. That Michael Jordan still played defense and an all-around game, but it was never really publicized."
Although Jordan has done much to increase the status of the game, some of his impact on the game's popularity in America appears to be fleeting. Television ratings in particular increased only during his time in the league and have subsequently lowered each time he left the game.
Personal life
Jordan is the fourth of five children. He has two older brothers, Larry Jordan and James R. Jordan, Jr., one older sister, Deloris, and a younger sister, Roslyn. Jordan's brother James retired in 2006 as the Command Sergeant Major of the 35th Signal Brigade of the XVIII Airborne Corps in the U.S. Army.
He married Juanita Vanoy in September 1989, and they have two sons, Jeffrey Michael and Marcus James, and a daughter, Jasmine. They filed for divorce on January 4 2002, citing irreconcilable differences, but reconciled shortly thereafter. They filed for divorce again on December 29 2006 commenting that the decision was made "mutually and amicably". It is reported that Juanita will receive a $168 million settlement, making it the largest celebrity divorce settlement in history on public record.
On July 21, 2006, a Cook County, Illinois judge determined that Jordan did not owe a former lover, Karla Knafel, $5 million. Knafel claimed Jordan promised her that amount for remaining silent and agreeing not to file a paternity suit after Knafel learned she was pregnant in 1991. A DNA test showed Jordan was not the father of the child.
As of 2007, Jordan lives in Highland Park, Illinois, and both of his sons attended Loyola Academy, a private Roman Catholic high school located in Wilmette, Illinois. Jeffrey graduated as a member of the 2007 Graduating Class, and played his first collegiate basketball game on November 11, 2007 for the University of Illinois. Marcus transferred to Whitney Young High School after his sophomore year and will graduate in 2009.
Media figure and business interests
Jordan is one of the most marketed sports figures in history. He has been a major spokesman for such brands as Nike, Coca-Cola, Chevrolet, Gatorade, McDonald's, Ball Park Franks, Rayovac, Wheaties, Hanes, and MCI. Jordan has had a long relationship with Gatorade, appearing in over 20 commercials for the company since 1991, including the "Like Mike" commercials in which a song was sung by children wishing to be like Jordan.
Nike created a signature shoe for him, called the Air Jordan. One of Jordan's more popular commercials for the shoe involved Spike Lee playing the part of Mars Blackmon. In the commercials Lee, as Blackmon, attempted to find the source of Jordan's abilities and became convinced that "it's gotta be the shoes". The hype and demand for the shoes even brought on a spate of "shoe-jackings" where people were robbed of their sneakers at gunpoint. Subsequently Nike spun off the Jordan line into its own division appropriately named the "Jordan Brand". The company features an impressive list of athletes and celebrities as endorsers. The brand has also sponsored college sports programs such as those of North Carolina, Cincinnati, Cal, St. John's, Georgetown, and North Carolina A&T.
Jordan also has been connected with the Looney Tunes cartoon characters. A Nike commercial shown during the 1993 Super Bowl XXVII featured Jordan and Bugs Bunny playing basketball against a group of Martian characters. The Super Bowl commercial inspired the 1996 live action/animated movie Space Jam, which starred Jordon and Bugs in a fictional story set during his first retirement. They have subsequently appeared together in several commercials for MCI.
Jordan's income from the endorsements is estimated to be several hundred million dollars. In addition, when Jordan's power at the ticket gates was at its highest point the Bulls regularly sold out every game they played in, whether home or away. Due to this, Jordan set records in player salary by signing annual contracts worth in excess of $30 million US dollars per season.
Most of Jordan's endorsement deals, including the first deal with Nike, were engineered by his agent, David Falk. Jordan has said of Falk that "he's the best at what he does", and that "marketing-wise, he's great. He's the one who came up with the concept of 'Air Jordan.'"
Career achievements
Main article: List of career achievements by Michael Jordan
Jordan won numerous awards and set many records during his career. The following are some of his achievements:
Awards
- 14 time All-Star
- Olympic Gold Medalist—1984, 1992
- Five time MVP—1988, 1991, 1992, 1996, 1998
- 7 time The Sporting News MVP
- Rookie of the Year—1984
- Defensive Player of the Year—1988
- 11 times All-NBA—10 times first team, 1 time second team
- 9 time All-Defensive First Team
- Sports Illustrated "Sportsman of the Year"—1991
- Named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996
Records
- Most scoring titles—10
- Most NBA Finals MVP awards—6
- Highest career scoring average—30.12
- Highest career scoring average playoffs—33.45
- Most consecutive games scoring in double figures—866
- Highest single series scoring average NBA Finals—41.0 (1993)
See also
- Michael Jordan's Restaurant
- List of individual National Basketball Association scoring leaders by season
- List of National Basketball Association players with 60 or more points in a game
References
- Sachare, Alex. The Chicago Bulls Encyclopedia. Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1999. pgs. 172-3. ISBN 0809225158
- ^ Michael Jordan, nba.com/history, accessed January 15, 2007.
- Williams, Lena. PLUS: BASKETBALL; "A McDonald's Game For Girls, Too", The New York Times, December 7, 2001, accessed January 16, 2007.
- Sportscenter, ESPN, air date February 2, 2007.
- ^ Michael Jordan entry, databasebasketball.com, accessed January 16, 2007.
- qtd. in Lazenby, Roland. "Michelangelo: Portrait of a Champion". Michael Jordan: The Ultimate Career Tribute. Bannockburn, IL: H&S Media, 1999. pg. 128.
- Morris, Mike. "The Legend: A Highlight-Reel History of the NBA's Greatest Player". Michael Jordan: The Ultimate Career Tribute. Bannockburn, IL: H&S Media, 1999. pg. 67.
- Games of the XXIIIrd Olympiad -- 1984, usabasketball.com, accessed March 12, 2007.
- Dupree, David. Is this U.S. roster the new Dream Team?, USA Today, August 18, 2006, accessed March 11, 2007.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
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- Clarke, Dorina. AMA SB: Michael Jordan's Team, motorcycle-usa.com, March 5, 2004, accessed February 26, 2007.
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External links
- NBA History: Jordan bio
- NBA Player Stats
- Michael Jordan at IMDb
- Basketball-Reference.com: Michael Jordan
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