MiChAeL jOrDaN

Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963) is a retired American professional basketball player and active businessman. His biography on the National Basketball Association (NBA) website states, "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time."[1] Jordan was one of the most effectively marketed athletes of his generation and was instrumental in popularizing the NBA around the world in the 1980s and 1990s.
After a stand-out career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 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 free throw 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.[2] 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 retired from basketball at the beginning of the 1993-94 NBA season to pursue a career in baseball, he rejoined the Bulls in 1995 and led them to three additional championships (1996, 1997, and 1998) as well as an NBA-record 72 regular-season wins in the 1995–96 season. Jordan retired for a second time in 1999, but he returned for two more NBA seasons in 2001 as a member of the Washington Wizards.
Jordan's individual accolades and accomplishments include five MVP awards, ten All-NBA First Team designations, nine All-Defensive First Team honors, fourteen NBA All-Star Game appearances and three All-Star MVP, 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 30.12 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. He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame on April 6, 2009 and will be inducted in September 2009.[3]
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.[4] 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 North Carolina.

Early years
Michael Jordan's jersey in the rafters of The Dean Smith Center.
Jordan was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Deloris (née Peoples), who worked in banking, and James R. Jordan, Sr., an equipment supervisor.[5] His family moved to Wilmington, North Carolina, when he was a toddler.[6][7] 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 5'11" (1.80 m), he was deemed too short to play at that level and was cut from the team. The following summer, however, he grew four inches (10 cm)[1] and trained rigorously. Upon earning a spot on the varsity roster, Jordan averaged about 20 points per game over his final two seasons of high school play.[8][9] As a senior, he was selected to the McDonald's All-American Team[10] after averaging a triple-double: 29.2 points, 11.6 rebounds, and 10.1 assists.[11][12]
In 1981, Jordan earned a basketball scholarship to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 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).[13] He made the game-winning jump shot in the 1982 NCAA Championship game against Georgetown, which was led by future NBA rival Patrick Ewing.[1] Jordan later described this shot as the major turning point in his basketball career.[14] During his three seasons at North Carolina, he averaged 17.7 ppg on 54.0% shooting, and added 5.0 rebounds per game (rpg).[8] 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.[15]

Professional sports career
Early career
During his first season in the NBA, Jordan averaged 28.2 ppg on 51.5% shooting.[13] He quickly became a fan favorite even in opposing arenas,[16][17][18] and appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the heading "A Star is Born" just over a month into his professional career.[19][20] Jordan was also voted in as an All-Star starter by the fans in his rookie season.[1] Controversy arose before the All-Star game when word surfaced that several veteran players, led by Isiah Thomas, were upset by the amount of attention Jordan was receiving.[1] This led to a so called "freeze-out" on Jordan, where players refused to pass him the ball throughout the game.[1] The controversy left Jordan relatively unaffected when he returned to regular season play, and he would go on to be voted Rookie of the Year.[21] The Bulls finished the season 38–44,[22] and lost in the first round of the playoffs in four games to the Milwaukee Bucks.[21]
Jordan's second season was cut short by a broken foot which caused him to miss 64 games. Despite Jordan's injury and a 30–52 record,[22] the Bulls made the playoffs. Jordan recovered in time to participate in the playoffs and performed well upon his return. Against a 1985–86 Boston Celtics team that is often considered one of the greatest in NBA history,[23] Jordan set the still-unbroken record for points in a playoff game with 63 in Game 2.[24] The Celtics, however, managed to sweep the series.[21]
Jordan had recovered completely by the 1986–87 season, and had one of the most prolific scoring seasons in NBA history. He became the only player other than Wilt Chamberlain to score 3,000 points in a season, averaging a league high 37.1 points on 48.2% shooting.[13] In addition, Jordan demonstrated his defensive prowess, as he became the first player in NBA history to record 200 steals and 100 blocks in a season. Despite Jordan's success, Magic Johnson won the league's Most Valuable Player Award. The Bulls reached 40 wins,[22] and advanced to the playoffs for the third consecutive year. However, they were again swept by the Celtics.[21]

Gambling controversy
During the Bulls' playoff run in 1993, controversy arose when Jordan was seen gambling in Atlantic City the night before a game against the New York Knicks.[39] In that same year, he admitted to having to cover $57,000 in gambling losses,[40] and author Richard Esquinas wrote a book claiming he had won $1.25 million from Jordan on the golf course.[40] In 2005, Jordan talked to Ed Bradley of the CBS evening show 60 Minutes about his gambling and admitted that he made some reckless decisions. Jordan stated, "Yeah, I’ve gotten myself into situations where I would not walk away and I’ve pushed the envelope. Is that compulsive? Yeah, it depends on how you look at it. If you’re willing to jeopardize your livelihood and your family, then yeah."[41] When Bradley asked him if his gambling ever got to the level where it jeopardized his livelihood or family, Jordan replied, "No."[41]

First retirement
Michael Jordan while playing with the Scottsdale Scorpions.
On October 6, 1993, Jordan announced his retirement, citing a loss of desire to play the game. Jordan later stated that the murder of his father earlier in the year shaped his decision.[42] James R. Jordan, Sr. was murdered on July 23, 1993, at a highway rest area in Lumberton, North Carolina, by two teenagers, Daniel Green and Larry Martin Demery. The assailants were traced from calls they made on James Jordan's cellular phone,[43] caught, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. Jordan was close to his father; as a child he had imitated his father's proclivity to stick out his tongue while absorbed in work. He later adopted it as his own signature, displaying it each time he drove to the basket.[1] In 1996 he founded a Chicago area Boys & Girls Club and dedicated it to his father.[44][45]
In his 1998 autobiography For the Love of the Game, Jordan wrote that he had been preparing for retirement as early as the summer of 1992.[46] The added exhaustion due to the Dream Team run in the 1992 Olympics solidified Jordan's feelings about the game and his ever-growing celebrity status. Jordan's announcement sent shock waves throughout the NBA and appeared on the front pages of newspapers around the world.[47]
Jordan then further surprised the sports world by signing a minor league baseball contract with the Chicago White Sox. He reported to spring training and was assigned to the team's minor league system on March 31, 1994.[48] Jordan has stated this decision was made to pursue the dream of his late father, who had always envisioned his son as a major league baseball player.[49] The White Sox were another team owned by Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who continued to honor Jordan's basketball contract during the years he played baseball.[50] He had a brief professional baseball career for the Birmingham Barons, a Chicago White Sox farm team, batting .202 with 3 HR, 51 RBI, 30 SB, and 11 errors.[9] He also appeared for the Scottsdale Scorpions in the 1994 Arizona Fall League.

"I'm back": return to the NBA
In the 1993–94 season, the Jordan-less Bulls notched a 55–27 record,[22] and lost to the New York Knicks in the second round of the playoffs. But the 1994–95 version of the Bulls was a shell of the championship squad of just two years earlier. Struggling at mid-season to ensure a spot in the playoffs, Chicago was 31–31 at one point in mid-March.[51] The team received a lift, however, when Jordan decided to return to the NBA for the Bulls.
On March 18, 1995, Jordan announced his return to the NBA through a two-word press release: "I'm back."[1] The next day, Jordan donned jersey number 45 (his number with the Barons), as his familiar 23 had been retired in his honor following his first retirement. He took to the court with the Bulls to face the Indiana Pacers in Indianapolis, scoring 19 points.[52] The game had the highest Nielsen rating of a regular season NBA game since 1975.[53]
Although he had not played in an NBA game in a year and a half, Jordan played well upon his return, making a game-winning jump shot against Atlanta in his fourth game back and scoring 55 points in a game against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden on March 28, 1995.[21] Boosted by Jordan's comeback, the Bulls made the playoffs and advanced to the Eastern Conference Semi-finals against the Orlando Magic. At the end of the first game of the series, though, Orlando's Nick Anderson would strip Jordan from behind, leading to the game-winning basket for the Magic; he would later comment that Jordan "didn't look like the old Michael Jordan",[54] after which Jordan returned to wearing his old number (23). Jordan averaged 31 points per game in that series, but Orlando prevailed in six games.[8]

Second retirement
Plaque at the United Center chronicling Jordan's career achievements.
With Phil Jackson's contract expiring, the pending departures of Scottie Pippen (who stated his desire to be traded during the season) and Dennis Rodman (who would sign with the Los Angeles Lakers as a free agent) looming, and being in the latter stages of an owner-induced lockout of NBA players, Jordan retired for the second time on January 13, 1999.
On January 19, 2000, Jordan returned to the NBA not as a player, but as part owner and President of Basketball Operations for the Washington Wizards.[68] His responsibilities with the club were to be comprehensive, as he was in charge of all aspects of the team, including personnel decisions. Opinions of Jordan as a basketball executive were mixed.[69][70] He managed to purge the team of several highly paid, unpopular players (such as forward Juwan Howard and point guard Rod Strickland),[71][72] but used the first pick in the 2001 NBA Draft to select high schooler Kwame Brown, who did not live up to expectations and was traded away after four seasons.[69][73]
Despite his January 1999 claim that he was "99.9% certain" that he would never play another NBA game,[33] in the summer of 2001 Jordan expressed interest in making another comeback,[74][75] this time with his new team. Inspired by the NHL comeback of his friend Mario Lemieux the previous winter,[76] Jordan spent much of the spring and summer of 2001 in training, holding several invitation-only camps for NBA players in Chicago.[77] In addition, Jordan hired his old Chicago Bulls head coach, Doug Collins, as Washington's coach for the upcoming season, a decision that many saw as foreshadowing another Jordan return.[74][75]

After retiring as a player
Jordan on the golf course in 2007.
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.[92] 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).[69] On May 7, 2003, Wizards owner Abe Pollin fired Jordan as Washington's President of Basketball Operations.[69] 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.[41]
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.[93] Since 2004, Jordan has owned the Michael Jordan Motorsports Suzuki, a professional closed-course motorcycle roadracing team that competes in the premier Superbike class sanctioned by the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA).[94][95] Jordan and his then-wife Juanita pledged $5 million to Chicago's Hales Franciscan High School in 2006,[96] and the Jordan Brand has made donations to Habitat for Humanity and a Louisiana branch of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.[97] 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.[98] Despite Jordan's previous success as an endorser, he has made an effort not to be included in Charlotte's marketing campaigns.[99]

Media figure and business interests
The "Jumpman" logo is a silhouette of Jordan used by Nike to promote the Air Jordan shoes, among other merchandise.
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.[135] 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.[135][136]
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".[135] 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 named the "Jordan Brand". The company features an impressive list of athletes and celebrities as endorsers.[137][138] 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.

Honors and awards
Michael Jordan and Dean Smith at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill game honoring the 1957 and 1982 men's basketball teams.
Olympic Gold Medal: 1984, 1992
NBA Champion: 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998
NCAA National Championship: 1982
NBA MVP: 1987/88, 1990/91, 1991/92, 1995/96, 1997/98
NBA Finals MVP: 1990/91, 1991/92, 1992/93, 1995/96, 1996/97, 1997/98
NBA Leading Scorer: 1986/87, 1987/88, 1988/89, 1989/90, 1990/91, 1991/92, 1992/93, 1995/96, 1996/97, 1997/98
All-NBA First Team: 1986/87, 1987/88, 1988/89, 1989/90, 1990/91, 1991/92, 1992/93, 1995/96, 1996/97, 1997/98
All-NBA Second Team: 1984/85
NBA All-Star Game: 1984/85, 1985/86, 1986/87, 1987/88, 1988/89, 1989/90, 1990/91, 1991/92, 1992/93, 1995/96, 1996/97, 1997/98, 2001/02, 2002/03
NBA All-Star Game MVP: 1987/88, 1995/96, 1997/98
NBA All-Defensive Team: 1987/88, 1988/89, 1989/90, 1990/91, 1991/92, 1992/93, 1995/96, 1996/97, 1997/98
NBA Defensive Player of the Year: 1987/88
NBA Rookie of the Year: 1984/85
NBA Slam Dunk Contest winner: 1987, 1988
ACC Freshman of the Year: 1982
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
Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year: 1991
Ranked #1 by SLAM Magazine's Top 75 Players of All-Time
Ranked #1 by ESPN Sportscentury's Top 100 Athletes of the 20th century