Michael Jeffery Jordan is the most respected
name in the world of basketball. Born on February
17, 1963, in New York City, Jordan was responsible
for making National Basketball Association or the
NBA famous, during the 1980s and 1990s. He is the
fourth child of his parents, James R. Jordan, Sr.
and Deloris Jordan.
He developed his interest for basketball and
baseball in Emsley A. Laney High School in
Wilmington. Initially he was rejected because of his
inadequate height. Jordan grew from 5' 11'' to 6'
3'' in just few months with the help of intensive
training to get into the basketball team. He got a
basketball scholarship in 1981 from the University
of North Carolina because of his impressive records
in schools. In the 1982 NCAA Championship game he
made the game winning jump shot, which he describes
as the major turning point in his career as a
basketball sportsman.
He started his professional career in 1984 by
joining NBA's Chicago Bulls. He immediately became a
public image by his well-known scoring and leaping
skills. Just after a month after his joining, Jordan
was featured on the cover page of Sports Illustrated
with the title 'A Star is Born'. He was nicknamed
Air Jordan after his airiness when he performed the
famous slam-dunk from the foul line. He got his
first NBA championship in the year 1991 and became a
well-known defensive player after that. He made a
hat trick by winning the NBA championship
consecutively three times from 1991-1993.
In October 1993, he took a temporarily retired from
basketball, to pursue his interest in baseball and
also because he lost interest in basketball due to
his father's murder the same year, to join back in
1995 again. He made a hat trick again by winning the
NBA championships from 1196-1998. He took a break
again in 1999 to returned back again in 2001, but
this time he joined the Washington Wizards. He
played with the team till 2003.
A day before a match against the New York Knicks,
Michael Jordan was seen gambling in the Atlantic
City. A year before, he said to have lost $ 57,000
in gambling. When asked about this on a television
channel, he said that he would never risk his family
and career to gambling.
Jordan was part of two Olympic gold medal winning
American basketball teams. His team won the first
gold medal in the 1984 Summer Olympics and the
second one was in the 1992 Summer Olympic games. He
set a record in NBA by making the highest career
regular season scoring average of 30.1 points per
game.
On a lighter note, Michael Jordan was a hot name in
the world of advertisement. Some of the brands,
which used his name, are Coca-Cola, McDonald's,
Chevrolet, Gatorade, Hanes, Ball Park Franks, etc.
Nike made a signature for Jordan named the Air
Jordan. He was shown in the Looney Tones Cartoon,
which also made him appear in the feature film
"Space Jam" in 1996. The name Air Jordan itself
became a great marketing tool. The television
ratings increased rapidly when his match was aired
and every time he left the team, it would
automatically lower.
His third retirement was the final retirement after
which he played golf in various charity tournaments.
He even started his line of clothing named after
him. He was made the managing member of Basketball
operations of the Charlotte Bobcats in June 2005 and
is still working with them till the current date. He
has two sons, Jeffery Michael and Marcus James, and
one daughter, Jasmine, from his marriage to Juanita
Vanoy.
His individual achievements are fourteen NBA
All-Star Game appearances, ten All-NBA First Team
Designations, ten scoring titles, nine All-Defensive
First Team Honors, five NBA Most Valuable Player
Awards, three stealing titles, and the NBA Defensive
Player of the Year Award in 1988. ESPN named him the
Greatest North America Athlete of the 20th century
in 1999. Jordan is one of the 50 Greatest Players in
NBA History.
