Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963) is a former American basketball player, by most accounts the best basketball player in the history of the game and the NBA.
Born in Brooklyn, New York as son of Delores and James Jordan, he lived in Wilmington, North Carolina through his childhood and was educated at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, from where he was selected by the Chicago Bulls in the first round of the 1984 NBA Draft as the third pick. At 6' 6" (1.98 m), he was automatically a versatile threat on the floor, able to play both guard positions and small forward.
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2 The Olympics 3 Chicago Bulls 4 Washington Wizards 5 Merchandising 6 James Jordan |
As a freshman at Carolina he was an exciting player but not yet dominant on a team led by James Worthy. He ended the year in grand style, however, hitting the winning shot in the 1982 NCAA championship game. By his sophomore year he was clearly the team's biggest star, and he was national player of the year as a junior.
Jordan also formed part of the American team that won the Olympic gold medal. He participated as a college player in the 1984 Summer Olympics, and in the 1992 Summer Olympics as a member of the "Dream Team", with other players such as Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.
He played guard for Chicago in thirteen seasons. He won six NBA Championships (1991-93 and 1996-98) and was MVP five times (1988, 1991, 1992, 1996 and 1998). He also won Rookie of the Year (1985), Defensive Player of the Year (1988), and a record six NBA Finals MVP awards, including three consecutive twice(1991-93, 96-98). He also earned the elusive MVP triple-crown twice when he won All-Star MVP in both 1996 and 1998 (he also won in 1988). Only Willis Reed (1970) and Shaquille O'Neal (2000) have won all three MVP awards in the same season. He also recorded the only triple-double in All Star Game history in 1997. Jordan was an unstoppable force at both ends of the floor, finishing his career with the highest points-per-game average in NBA history with a record ten scoring titles, and being named All-Defensive First Team more than any other player, including three steals titles.
He retired from basketball before the 1993-94 season to pursue a professional baseball career.
He ended his retirement by rejoining the Bulls near the end of the 1994-95 season.
After three more league titles, Jordan decided to retire again after winning his last championship in 1998.
Jordan remains the ultimate post-season performer, holding playoff records for most points in a single game (63), most points per game, most points per game in the Finals, and total points scored.
On January 19, 2000, Jordan was introduced as "President of Basketball Operations" of the Washington Wizards. On January 31, 2000 he fired head coach Gar Heard in favor of Darrell Walker but only for a transitional period. About four and a half months later, on June 14, 2000, Jordan announced Leonard Hamilton as the new head coach. On September 25, 2001, he announced he would come out of retirement one more time to return as a player for the Wizards, signing a two-year contract. His first game was played against the New York Knicks on October 30 and resulted in a narrow Wizards loss (93-91). Although the Wizards failed to make the playoffs in either of Jordan's two seasons as a player, he did succeed in proving that his basketball skills, while inevitably somewhat eroded due to age, were still sufficient to permit him to play basketball at a high level. Jordan placed an exclamation point on his career stats on January 4, 2002, by scoring his 30,000th career point against his former team, the Chicago Bulls. Jordan retired from playing for the third time at the end of the 2002-03 season. He was subsequently dismissed from his position as Washington's President of Basketball Operations.
Professional athletes have long been associated with merchandising and commercial promotions, and Jordan has proven himself to be exceptionally talented when it comes to merchandising.
He is noted for his extensive commercial work for companies such as Nike, with their Air Jordan gear.
He has also appeared in a popular McDonald's restaurant promotional campaign entitled "Nothin' but net," which included a series of TV commercials featuring a friendly competition between Jordan and Larry Bird.
Especially in the trading card industry, Michael Jordan cards are valuable items, not only for collectors.
In 1996, Warner Bros gave Jordan a leading role in a special-effects laden feature film titled Space Jam, which also featured classic Warner Bros. cartoon characters Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and others. Critical reaction to the film was lukewarm, as many felt it was essentially a feature-length commercial that cast Jordan as an angelic "godlike" basketball legend.
Nonetheless, the movie earned over $100 million in box office revenue alone, further cementing Jordan's reputation as a bankable figure.
A 2002 family film titled Like Mike was a fictional story of a young boy who accidentally comes into possession of a pair of Michael Jordan's basketball sneakers.
The sneakers magically endow the child with superhuman basketball skills, and he becomes a professional athlete before the age of 12.Carolina
The Olympics
Chicago Bulls
Washington Wizards
Merchandising