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• Born: 17 February 1963
• Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York
• Best Known As: Superstar guard for the Chicago Bulls

Michael Jordan was the dominant basketball player in the world during the 1990s. He won the NBA's Most Valuable Player award five times, and six times led the Chicago Bulls to the league championship. Jordan led the Bulls to his first three championships came in 1991, 1992 and 1993 with superb shooting and playmaking and a competitive killer instinct. In October of 1993 he stunned his fans by retiring from basketball and beginning a professional baseball career, saying that playing baseball had been an early dream of his. He played the 1994 baseball season for the minor league Birmingham Barons. In March of 1995 he ended his baseball career and returned to the Bulls. With Jordan, the Bulls won three more championships in 1996, 1997 and 1998. He retired from basketball in 1999. In the year 2000 he became a part owner and executive for the NBA's Washington Wizards. In 2001 Jordan began considering another comeback as an NBA player, and that fall, at age 38, he returned once again to play for the Wizards. He played for two more full seasons, retiring again in April of 2003.

Jordan wore uniform number 23... His endorsement deal with Nike led to the creation of Air Jordans, the popular athletic shoe... Jordan's wife of 12 years, Juanita, filed for divorce in 2002, but the couple later reconciled... Jordan starred with Bugs Bunny in the 1996 feature film Space Jam... Other NBA stars include Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant, Bill Bradley and Dr. J.

• Occupation: Actor
• Active: '90s
• Major Genres: Sports & Recreation
• Career Highlights: Michael Jordan: Come Fly with Me, Michael Jordan to the Max, Michael Jordan: Above & Beyond
• First Major Screen Credit: Michael Jordan: Come Fly with Me (1989)

Biography

To say that acting is not what Michael Jordan is primarily known for is a very large understatement. Jordan was not only the driving force behind a Chicago Bulls basketball team that won six NBA championships throughout the 1990s, but for a whole new generation of professional athletes. Jordan became an institution, with commercial endorsements running from Nike shoes, to Gatorade sports drinks, to Hanes underwear. By the time he retired (for the second time) in 1998 from professional basketball, Jordan was worth millions not only because of his wizardry on the basketball court, but also because of his shrewd business savvy. Well before his retirement(s), however, he had dabbled with acting. He made a guest appearance on Saturday Night Live at the height of the Bulls' dominance, and shortly after ending his first self-imposed retirement, he made the movie Space Jam. Space Jam was very loosely based on his experiences at the end of his minor league baseball playing career, but, of course, with the added twist of being kidnapped, so to speak, by a bunch of unruly Warner Bros. cartoons. In 2002 Jordan once again found himself the center of attention as the previous owner of a pair of "magical" sneakers that turn a 14-year-old orphan into a professional basketball wiz in Like Mike. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide

Michael Jordan to the Max Buy this Movie	Michael Jordan: Off Court Buy this Movie	NBA: Michael Jordan - His Airness Buy this Movie	The Official 1998 NBA Championship: Unforgettabulls Buy this Movie
The Official 1997 NBA Championship: Chicago Bulls Buy this Movie	Space Jam Buy this Movie	NBA: Super Slams of the NBA Buy this Movie	The Official 1996 NBA Championship: Unstop-A-Bulls Buy this Movie

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Basketball superstar Michael Jordan (born 1963) was one of the most successful, popular, and wealthy athletes in college, Olympic, and professional sports history.

Michael Jordan was born on February 17, 1963. He did not make the high school basketball team as a sophomore in his native Wilmington, North Carolina, but did make the team as a junior. After high school he accepted a basketball scholarship to the University of North Carolina where he played under head coach Dean Smith. In his first season at Carolina he became only the second Tarheel player to start every game as a freshman and was named Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Rookie of the Year (1982). In his freshman year he played on the ACC championship team and made the clutch jump shot that beat Georgetown University for the championship of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). He led the ACC in scoring as a sophomore in the 1982-1983 season and as a junior in the 1983-1984 season. The Sporting News named him college player of the year in 1983 and again in 1984. He left North Carolina after his junior year and was drafted by the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA) as the third overall pick of the 1984 draft, behind standouts Hakeem Olajuwon and Charles Barkley. Before joining the Bulls, Jordan was a member of the Summer 1984 United States Olympic basketball team that easily won the gold medal in Los Angeles, California.

Air Jordan Was Born

When Jordan was drafted by the Chicago Bulls they were a lackluster team, seldom drawing not much more than 6,000 fans to a home game. Jordan quickly turned that around. His style of play and fierce spirit of competition reminded sportswriters and fans of Julius Erving, who had dominated play during the 1970s. Jordan's incredible leaping ability and hang time thrilled fans in arenas around the league. As a rookie in his first season he was named to the All-Star team and was later named the league's Rookie of the Year (1985).

A broken foot sidelined him for 64 games during the 1985-1986 season, but he returned in rare form, scoring 49 points against the Boston Celtics in the first game of the playoffs and 63 in the second game, an NBA record. The 1986-1987 season was again one of individual successes, and Jordan started in the All-Star game after receiving a record 1.5 million votes. He became the first player since Wilt Chamberlain to score 3,000 points in a single season. Jordan enjoyed personal success, but Chicago did not advance beyond the first round of the playoffs until 1988, when they defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Bulls were then eliminated in the semi-final round by the Detroit Pistons. During the season Jordan had concentrated on improving his other basketball skills to the point where he was named Defensive Player of the Year (1988). He was also named the league's Most Valuable Player (MVP) and became the first player to lead the league in both scoring and steals. He was again named the MVP in that year's All-Star game.

The Bulls' management knew that they had a superstar in Michael Jordan, but they knew as well that they did not have a championship team. By adding such players as center Bill Cartwright, Horace Grant, and John Paxon to complement Jordan's skills they created a strong team that won the 1991 title by defeating the Los Angeles Lakers. When the Bulls defeated the Portland Trail Blazers for the NBA championship in 1992, they became the first back-to-back winners since the Boston Celtics during the 1960s, who won eight straight championships.

In 1992 Jordan joined NBA stars Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, John Stockton, Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone, Clyde Drexler, David Robinson, Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippen, Chris Mullin, and Duke University's Christian Laettner to form the "Dream Team" that participated in the 25th Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain. The Olympic Committee had voted to lift the ban on professional athletes participating in the games. The team easily won the gold medal, winning their eight games by a 43.7 average margin of victory, scoring more than 100 points in each game.

1993 - Personal Trials and Triumphs

In 1993, after a grueling semi-final playoff series with the New York Knicks, the Bulls met the Phoenix Suns for the NBA championship. When it was over, Jordan was again playoff MVP and Chicago had an unprecedented third straight title. Then, unexpectedly, tragedy struck. Jordan's father, James, was murdered by two men during a robbery attempt. Jordan was grief stricken, and that, combined with increasing media scrutiny over his gambling, left him feeling depleted and disenchanted with his life as a basketball superstar. Stating that he had nothing left to accomplish, he announced his retirement from professional basketball in October. By all accounts Jordan handled the personal tragedy of his father's death with great dignity. And while he felt the joy and challenge was gone from basketball, nothing could diminish what he had accomplished: three consecutive NBA titles, three regular season MVP awards, three playoff MVP titles, member of the All-Star team every year that he was in the league, and seven consecutive scoring titles. In just nine seasons he had become the Bulls all-time scoring leader.

In 1994 Jordan changed sports and joined the Chicago White Sox minor league baseball team. Professionally, the next 17 months proved to be mediocre at best, but the experience and time away from basketball provided a much needed respite and opportunity to regain his passion for basketball.

The Road Back Was a Slam Dunk

It had been a long time since anyone who knew Jordan thought - or dared ask - could he cut it. But when he returned to the Chicago Bulls during the 1994-1995 regular season, people wondered, "Could he do it again?"He played well, but inconsistently and so did the Bulls. The team was defeated in the playoffs by the Orlando Magic. After a summer of playing basketball during breaks from filming the movie Space Jam, he returned with fierce determination to prove any skeptic that he had what it took to get back on top. The 1995-1996 season was built on the type of playing on which records are made - the team finished the regular season 72-10, an NBA record that topped the 1971-1972 record established by the Los Angeles Lakers, and Jordan, with his shooting rhythm back, earned his eighth scoring title. He also became the tenth NBA player to score 25,000 career points, second only to Wilt Chamberlain in the number of games it took. The Bulls, with the Jordan, Pippen, and Dennis Rodman super combo, went on to win their fourth NBA championship in the decade, overpowering the Seattle Supersonics in six games. It was a moment few who watched will ever forget, as Jordan sank to his knees, head bent over the winning ball, in an emotional moment of bittersweet victory and deep sadness. The game had been played on Father's Day, exactly three years after his father's murder. It was the kind of moment both Jordans would have relished sharing.

The defending champions encountered a tougher playing field during the 1996-1997 season, but entered the playoffs as expected. Sheer determination took the Bulls to their fifth NBA championship. Illness, injury, and at times wavering mental focus plagued the team. In the fifth game Jordan almost singlehandedly delivered the winning score, despite suffering from a stomach virus.

Jordan's other professional life as businessman and celebrity endorser was never off track. He co-starred with Bugs Bunny and the Loony Tunes gang in the live action/animation film, Space Jam. Megabuck endorsements for companies such as Nike and Wheaties, as well as his own golf company and branded products such as Michael Jordan cologne, which reportedly sold 1,500,000 bottles in the first two months on the market, made Jordan a multimillionaire. In 1997 Jordan was ranked the world's highest paid athlete, with a $30 million contract - the largest one-year salary in sports history - and approximately $40 million a year in endorsement fees.

To top off his stellar professional resume, Jordan was regarded as an all around nice guy with moral courage, poise, and personal charisma. He credited his family and faith for his success. As the twentieth century came to a close, this African-American hero was a cultural and sports icon around the world.

Further Reading

Hang Time, Jordan's biography, written with Bob Greene (Doubleday, 1992) and Rare Air: Michael on Michael, edited by Mark Vancil (Collins Publishers, San Francisco, 1993) are good general accounts of his life through 1992. Taking to the Air: The Rise of Michael Jordan by Jim Naughton ( Warner Books, 1992) and Hang Time: Days and Dreams with Michael Jordan by Bob Greene (1992) are both good general biographies. For a critical look at Jordan see The Jordan Rules by Sam Smith (1992). For more on the Olympic "Dream Team" see The Golden Boys by Cameron Stauth (1992). See also Second Coming: The Strange Odyssey of Michael Jordan - from Courtside to Home Plate and Back Again by Sam Smith (HarperCollins, 1995).

basketball player

Personal Information

Born Michael Jeffrey Jordan, February 17, 1963, in Brooklyn, NY; raised in Wilmington, NC; son of James (a former equipment supervisor for General Electric and a retail business owner) and Delores (Peoples) Jordan; married Juanita Vanoy, 1989; children: Jeffrey, Marcus, Jasmine.
Education: Attended University of North Carolina, 1981-84.

Career

Professional basketball player, 1984-93, 1995-98, 2001-03. Drafted third in first round of 1984 National Basketball Association (NBA) draft by Chicago Bulls; member of Chicago Bulls, 1984-93, 1995-98; minor-league baseball player, Birmingham Barons, 1994-95; part owner of Washington Wizards, 2000--; player for Washington Wizards, 2001-2003; also endorses a number of products/corporations in television commercials, including Nike, Wheaties, Gatorade, Wilson Sporting Goods, Hanes, Ball Park Franks, and McDonald's; owner of Chicago eatery Michael Jordan's: The Restaurant; founder, Michael Jordan Foundation; author of text to the photographic biography Rare Air: Michael on Michael, published by Collins Publishers San Francisco, November 4, 1993.

Life's Work

Michael Jordan needs no introduction anywhere in the world. He was one of the highest paid and certainly one of the best-known athletes in the history of organized sports. The intensely competitive guard for the Chicago Bulls dominated the National Basketball Association (NBA) for over a decade, leading his team to six national championships in just eight years in the 1990s. Sports Illustrated contributor Jack McCallum called Jordan "unquestionably the most famous athlete on the planet and one of its most famous citizens of any kind," a sportsman who "has surpassed every standard by which we gauge the fame of an athlete and, with few exceptions, has handled the adulation with a preternatural grace and ease that have cut across lines of race, age and gender." Gentleman's Quarterly correspondent David Breskin likewise characterized Jordan as "the most admired, idolized and moneyed team-sport hero in the entire American-hero business." Breskin added: "For some folks he has come to represent America--as in, we may not make cars or televisions too well, but we turn out a helluva Michael Jordan."

Even those people who have never watched a moment of professional basketball recognize Jordan. The athlete has made a fortune in commercial endorsements of products such as Nike's Air Jordan footwear, Wheaties cereal, and McDonald's hamburgers. The combination of Jordan's natural charm and his extraordinary basketball prowess brought the likable star an estimated $35 million a year in revenues. As David Halberstam put it in Sports Illustrated, Jordan is the first super-athlete of the satellite age, the first professional player to benefit on a grand scale from a global audience for his talents and his products. "Jordan has created a kind of fame that exceeds sports," wrote Halberstam. "He is both athlete and entertainer. He plays in the age of the satellite to an audience vastly larger than was possible in the past and is thus the first great athlete of the wired world."

A Slow Starter

Michael Jordan was born February 17, 1963, in Brooklyn, New York, while his father was stationed there briefly on business. The fourth of five children, Michael has two brothers and two sisters. While he was still young, his family moved back to their hometown of Wilmington, North Carolina, where his father worked as a supervisor at a General Electric plant. Everyone in the Jordan family worked hard--everyone, that is, except Michael. "I could not keep regular hours. It just wasn't me," Jordan told Gentleman's Quarterly. Michael threw all of his energies into sports, playing baseball and basketball with the same intensity that his parents and siblings devoted to their work. He said that he began playing with his tongue sticking out because his father would stick his tongue out whenever concentrating on a task.

Neither of Jordan's parents were tall, nor were his brothers and sisters beyond average height. Michael himself seemed destined to be short, an unlikely candidate for the professional basketball career he dreamed about. In backyard games with his friends and brothers, he tried to compensate for his height by playing harder; thus was born his fierce desire to win, especially against the odds.

As a freshman at Wilmington's Laney High School, Jordan tried out for the varsity basketball team and was cut. The next year he was cut again soon after the season began, while his best friend, Leroy Smith, made the team. Jordan told Reader's Digest that when he discovered he had been dropped from the varsity again, "I went through the day numb. After school, I hurried home, closed the door to my room and cried so hard. It was all I wanted--to play on that team." He added: "It's probably good that it happened. It made me know what disappointment felt like. And I knew that I didn't want that feeling ever again."

Between his sophomore and junior years of high school, Jordan added several inches to his height. Almost overnight he grew from five feet eleven inches to six feet three inches. By the time he was a senior he stood at six feet six. Needless to say, he finally earned his berth on the varsity squad and--with his burning ambitions in tow--he became one of the most widely-recruited high school athletes in the country. He accepted a full scholarship to the University of North Carolina. "Everybody in Wilmington expected me to go to North Carolina, sit on the bench for four years, then go back to Wilmington and work at the local gas station," he told Gentleman's Quarterly.

Talent, Desire, Success

Michael Jordan never warmed the bench at the University of North Carolina. He was a starter for the Tar Heels from the first game of his freshman year. He became a national celebrity later that season when he sank a winning fifteen-foot jump shot in the final seconds of the 1982 NCAA Championship. Teammates and fans nicknamed him "Superman" and "Last Shot," and he was voted Atlantic Coast Conference rookie of the year.

To this day Jordan remembers his years at the University of North Carolina fondly. He had a special rapport with Tar Heels coach Dean Smith, and many of the friends he made there are still his closest companions today. He spent two more seasons on the UNC team and was named All-American in 1983 and 1984 and Sporting News college player of the year in 1983. After a disappointing 1983-84 campaign in which he led the Tar Heels to an Atlantic Coast Conference championship but bowed in the NCAA tournament, Jordan was named co-captain of the 1984 United States Olympic basketball team. In Los Angeles in the summer of 1984, Jordan was one of the leaders on an Olympic team that gracefully captured the gold medal.

Against his parents' wishes, Jordan decided to go professional in 1984. He was drafted third in the first round of the 1984 NBA draft by the struggling Chicago Bulls. The Bulls were limping through a decade of lackluster performance and were searching for an athlete who could galvanize the team as a player and a leader. Jordan fit the bill perfectly. In his first professional season he led the NBA in points and was chosen rookie of the year. Even though the Bulls still continued to struggle, attendance at home games leaped 87 percent as word of the rookie phenomenon spread. Nor was Jordan merely a local hero. In every NBA city, attendance rose dramatically when the Chicago Bulls came to town.

A foot injury sidelined Jordan for most of the 1985-86 season. At the very end of the season he convinced the Bulls' coach and owner to allow him to play. With his help the team surged to win a trip to the playoffs, in which the Bulls met the Boston Celtics with their popular star, Larry Bird. The Celtics had little trouble defeating the Bulls in the playoff series, but Jordan scored 49 points in Game One and 63 points in Game Two. An astounded Larry Bird quipped that the new star in Chicago was "God disguised as Michael Jordan."

Jordan combined several highly regarded American commodities: good looks, phenomenal athletic ability, and--perhaps most importantly--a clean, scandal-free image. Advertisers were quick to court the young star for commercial endorsements of products. One of the first companies to seek Jordan's help was Nike, makers of athletic clothing and footwear. For Jordan the company designed a whole new line of shoes, "Air Jordans," taking their name from the player's uncanny ability to hang four feet above the ground as he took shots during games. The Air Jordan line put an end to Nike's sagging sneaker sales, earning an estimated $130 million in the first year of sales. Jordan pocketed a share of the profits for this venture. Other endorsement contracts were signed with McDonald's, Chevrolet, Coca-Cola, and Wheaties cereal, as well as numerous smaller businesses in the Chicago area.

Life in a Fishbowl

Many athletes have found that their on-court skills have been eroded when the demands of commercial endorsements and the crush of fame descend upon them. Jordan only seemed to get stronger. As the Bulls were rebuilt around him with a group of hungry young players, he continued to lead the NBA in scoring and often landed on the all-defensive first team as well. Breskin wrote: "The truly revolutionary aspect of Jordan's brilliance is that although he possesses the most extravagant, high-cholesterol game in the history of the sport, it's as controlled as it is wild and as thoughtful as it is free. There has never been such a spectacular player who was also so disciplined, so fundamentally sound. There has never been such a gifted offensive player who worked so hard, and so well, on the defensive end of the court."

Few questioned Jordan's ability, but as the 1980s progressed, naysayers pointed out that basketball's newest superstar was unable to take his team to the NBA finals. One shadow that remained over the athlete's career was the notion that great players who never win a title are somehow less great than those who do--that truly brilliant players will wring the best possible performance out of mediocre teammates. Jordan was saddled with this burden of proving himself as the Bulls were eliminated at various steps in the playoffs throughout the remainder of the 1980s. A particularly frustrating opposing team in this regard was the Detroit Pistons, who devised a whole scheme to undermine Jordan's productiveness during games.

Gradually the personnel around Jordan improved, however, and the Bulls began to assert themselves as a team. In 1991 the long-awaited NBA championship was finally achieved in a four-games-to-one victory over the Los Angeles Lakers. McCallum noted in Sports Illustrated: "To many NBA observers, the Bulls had to win it all before Jordan could conclusively prove that he was more than a high-flying sideshow or a long, loud ring of the cash register. They did. And so he did." Any questions about Jordan's greatness were dispelled in the 1991-92 and 1992-93 seasons as the Bulls became the first team in thirty years to win three consecutive NBA Championships. In 1992 the Bulls defeated the Portland Trail Blazers, in 1993 the Phoenix Suns. Jordan played almost nonstop in each and every championship series. Not only did he dominate the NBA, he also managed to lead the first-ever United States Olympic men's basketball team manned by professionals. The "Dream Team" easily grabbed the gold medal in the 1992 Olympic Games--just weeks after Jordan's Bulls had won a second NBA championship.

After the Bulls beat the Suns in six games for the 1993 NBA championship, McCallum asked in Sports Illustrated: "Is Michael Jeffrey Jordan simply the best basketball player in the history of the planet?... You know the answer to that question: yes. A resounding yes." Jordan made history as the only athlete ever named NBA Finals Most Valuable Player three consecutive times. He is the only player besides Wilt Chamberlain ever to score 3,000 points in a season and the only player in history to score 50 or more points in five playoff games.

Everything has its price, though. For Jordan, the adoration of basketball fans worldwide and an unprecedented level of fame for an athlete brought a multitude of problems. Negative publicity began in the 1980s when teenagers began to use violent means to obtain Air Jordan sneakers costing in excess of $100 a pair. Jordan also had to defend himself against accusations of compulsive gambling on golf and card games. Twice the NBA investigated Jordan's gambling activities. In 1991 he admitted betting more than $50,000 on golf games played with James "Slim" Bouler, who has since been convicted of selling cocaine. During the 1993 NBA Finals, a San Diego businessman named Richard Esquinas alleged in a self-published book that Jordan owed him $1.25 million in the wake of a ten-day golf gambling binge. Jordan claimed that he never bet anything near a million dollars on a golf game and that he merely gambles as recreation. Both times the NBA supported Jordan, but some critics claim that the investigations were "soft" because Jordan was such a powerful box office draw in the league.

The implications of any lasting scandal were obvious: Jordan could have lost his lucrative endorsement contracts while still being hounded mercilessly by the press and his fans. Since 1985 Jordan endured great restrictions on his movements--he was and is recognized, and mobbed, everywhere he goes in public. Following the gambling uproar, he faced the task of defending his reputation against those who would characterize him as out of control. McCallum is one reporter who has noticed the change wrought by this lifestyle that is akin to living in a fishbowl: "Gone is much of the spontaneous joy that Jordan brought to the game in 1984, when he entered the league with a head of hair, a pair of North Carolina shorts beneath his Bulls uniform and a boyish appetite for fame and glory.... somewhere amid all the adulation and pressure, a spark went out of Jordan--one that, it seems, will never return."

Personal Tragedy and Its Aftermath

The Jordan family faced tragedy in the summer of 1993 when Michael's father, James, was brutally murdered in North Carolina. Jordan fought tears and tried to dodge the press during his father's funeral and the subsequent police investigation that uncovered two teenaged suspects and an apparent motive of car theft. His father's untimely death was yet another severe blow to Jordan, who had for some time contemplated retiring from the NBA in 1996. Just months before the murder, Jordan told People that he wanted to put an end to the strange, isolated existence he leads in an effort to avoid the media glare and the demands of flocks of fans. "I feel I'm at the stage of my career when it's tough to move up," he said. "I can only maintain and be consistent. I've set such high standards. You lose a bit of the joy as you move on."

A bit of the joy might have been gone for Jordan, but no amount of personal pain could erase the greatness of his career. As Richard Stengel observed in Time magazine in 1991, "All the commercial hype and publicity fade away when he does play, for Michael Jordan is the artwork and the artist, the poem and the poet. He reinvents the sport every time he rises--and rises--into the air." Stengel concluded in the same article: "Michael Jordan is now his own greatest competition. When you make the miraculous routine, the merely superb becomes ordinary."

Announced Retirement in October of 1993

Jordan had often referred to basketball as his "refuge," but the combined toll of his father's brutal murder, the media scrutiny surrounding his own gambling debts, the continuing pressures of his mega-stardom, and his professed feelings of having nothing left to prove on the basketball court are believed to have played a part in his decision to retire from the game at the age of 30. At a press conference held October 6, 1993, Jordan officially confirmed the rumors of his retirement from professional basketball, stating: "I've always stressed that when I lose the sense of motivation and the sense to prove something as a basketball player, it's time to leave." An Associated Press wire report released the evening before the news conference quoted him as saying: "It's time for me to move on to something else. I know a lot of people are going to be shocked by this decision and probably won't understand. But ... I'm at peace with myself."

In a photobiography titled Rare Air: Michael on Michael--which was completed during the summer of 1993, but published after the player announced his retirement--Jordan foreshadowed his decision to withdraw from the spotlight while still at the height of his career: "When I leave the game," he wrote, "I'll leave on top. That's the only way I'll walk away. I don't want to leave after my feet have slowed, my hands aren't as quick, or my eyesight isn't as sharp. I don't want people to remember me that way. I want people to remember me playing exactly the kind of game I'm capable of playing right now. Nothing less."

The drama of Jordan's departure from the NBA was further heightened by his decision to enter the world of semi-professional baseball as an outfielder. In 1994, he signed on with the Birmingham Barons, a farm team for the Chicago White Sox, in search of a new challenge to feed his competitive nature. In spite of his unimpressive performance as a baseball player--ending the season with a .202 batting average--Jordan attracted hordes of fans to the Barons' games, and the media heavily scrutinized the athlete in his new sport.

A 1995 labor dispute between baseball players and owners delayed the start of the season and Jordan, disappointed with his attempt to make it in baseball, used the opportunity to return to the sport he loved. He added to the hype of his comeback by making a movie that summer, Space Jam, which featured Jordan and an assortment of animated characters. The film, released during the Christmas season in 1996, contributed to his ever-growing appeal as a cultural icon, as did his own signature fragrance, MJ, released at the same time.

The Bulls had only 17 games remaining in the 1994-95 basketball season when Jordan returned, and sports commentators noticed that his time off made a telling difference in his game. Jordan had been away from the court for 21 months and acknowledged that he was rusty, scoring only 19 points in his comeback game against the Indiana Pacers. Many wondered if Jordan's advanced age--now 32--was not also partly responsible for his diminished game. The Bulls ended the season by losing to the Orlando Magic in the conference semifinals.

Jordan used the off-season to retrain his body in the skills unique to basketball and to work on a style of play that would capitalize on his maturity. He perfected a virtually unstoppable jumpshot and proved in the 1995-96 season that his age was an asset, not a hindrance, to his game. Jeff Coplon, a writer for the New York Times Biographical Service, wrote, "He has traded risk for feel, nerve for guile, spectacle for efficiency...and because he is Jordan, even his efficiency can seem spectacular." Under Jordan's leadership, the Bulls had a record-breaking season, breaking the league record for the number of games won in the regular season (72-10), and beating the Seattle Supersonics for their fourth NBA championship. The year was a victorious one for Jordan on an individual level as he won the most-valuable-player awards for the regular season, the All-Star game, and the NBA finals--the first player to take all three in a single season since 1970.

The success of the 1995-96 season was repeated the following two years as the Bulls maintained their dynastic hold on the NBA. As Jordan led the team to victory over the Utah Jazz in the 1997 NBA finals, and again in 1998, no one doubted that he was the key to the Bulls' success. He was voted the series' most valuable player in 1997, and held up his struggling team in the 1998 finals, even though he himself was battling stomach flu. His series-winning shot in the final seconds of the 1998 championship game acted as the fullest expression of Jordan's drive to win, his extraordinary athletic ability, and his uncanny understanding of the game, as he overcame personal fatigue to land the winning basket in Game Six against the Utah Jazz.

That shot was to be Jordan's last with the Chicago Bulls. Jordan, who had only signed one-year contracts since his return, had kept the rumor mill busy with hints regarding his upcoming retirement. After the 1997-98 season, Jordan stated to the press on many occasions that he would retire if Bulls coach Phil Jackson left the team, and Jackson's departure seemed imminent. An NBA lock-out over a labor dispute between players and coaches in 1998 further jeopardized Jordan's return for another year. When the players and coaches reached an agreement to hold a shortened NBA season in January of 1999, Jordan officially announced his retirement.

Jordan's second departure from the game he had come to define in no way diminished his glory as the greatest basketball player ever. Furthermore, in his unflagging devotion to the game he purchased a part ownership in the Washington Wizards in 2000. In the fall of the following year he returned to active play with the Wizards, on a limited basis. This comeback did not go as well as his previous one; the Wizards were a mediocre team before Jordan joined, and although his phenomenal play and on-court leadership helped, they were not enough to get the team into the playoffs in either of the years that he played with them. Jordan retired for good at the end of the 2002-2003 season.

A monument to this phenomenal athlete stands in front of Chicago's United Center--a 2,000-pound bronze statue which features Jordan in full flight, ready to slam dunk the ball, to the chagrin of cowering defenders. The front panel capsulizes the man: "The best there ever was. The best there ever will be."

Awards

Selected Awards: Recipient of gold medal for basketball at Olympic Games, 1984, 1992; named NBA Rookie of the Year, 1985; member of NBA Eastern Conference All-Star Team, 1985, 1987-93, 1996-98 ; NBA scoring leader 1984, 1986-93; named NBA Defensive Player of the Year, 1988; named NBA League Most Valuable Player, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1996, 1997, 1998; named ``Sportsman of the Year'' by Sports Illustrated, 1991; named NBA Finals Most Valuable Player, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998; selected as one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history, 1996; Sporting News, number one on list of 100 Most Powerful People in Sports, 1997.

Further Reading

Books

• Current Biography Yearbook 1997, H.W. Wilson Co., 1998.
• Greene, Bob, Hang Time, Doubleday, 1992.
• Jordan, Michael, Rare Air: Michael on Michael, photographed by Walter Iooss, Jr., edited by Mark Vancil, Collins Publishers San Francisco, 1993.

Periodicals

• Associated Press wire report, October 5, 1993.
• Ebony, December 1993, pp. 128-38.
• Esquire, November 1990, pp. 138-216.
• Forbes, May 25, 1992, p. 168.
• Jet, May 26, 2003.
• Gentleman's Quarterly, March 1989, pp. 319-97.
• Newsweek, May 29, 1989, pp. 58-60; December 4, 1989, pp. 80-81; June 14, 1993, pp. 72-74; August 23, 1993, p. 60; August 30, 1993, p. 59; October 18, 1993, pp. 65-70; October-November 1993 Collector's Issue (devoted to Jordan).
• New Yorker, December 21, 1998, pp. 48-55.
• New York Times Biographical Service, March 1995, pp. 438-439; April 1996, pp. 598-603.
• People, May 17, 1993, pp. 82-87.
• Publishers Weekly, July 26, 1993, p. 13.
• Reader's Digest, February 1993, pp. 79-83.
• Shutterbug, December 1993, pp. 52-55.
• Sports Illustrated, December 23, 1991, pp. 66-81; June 7, 1993, pp. 19-21; June 28, 1993, pp. 17-21; August 23, 1993, p. 11; October 18, 1993, pp. 28-34.
• Time, June 24, 1991, p. 47; October 18, 1993, pp. 114-16.
• Upscale, January 1994, pp. 28-32.
• U.S. News & World Report, April 15, 2002.
• Michael Jordan was profiled on Eye to Eye with Connie Chung, CBS-TV, July 15, 1993; an interview with Jordan conducted by Oprah Winfrey for Oprah, was first broadcast on ABC-TV on October 29, 1993.

— Mark Kram and Rebecca Parks

For more information on Michael Jeffrey Jordan, visit Britannica.com.

1963–, American basketball player, b. Brooklyn, N.Y. As a freshman at the Univ. of North Carolina, he made the shot that won the 1982 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament final over Georgetown. Joining the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA) in 1984, he was the 1985 Rookie of the Year and developed into the outstanding guard of the late 1980s and the 1990s. From 1991 to 1993, Jordan led the Bulls to three NBA championships. In 1993 he announced his retirement, saying he had achieved all his goals in basketball, and began a second career as a baseball player. After two unspectacular years in the minor-league system of the Chicago White Sox, however, he returned to the NBA early in 1995, and in 1996–98 he led the Bulls to three more championships. In 1999 he retired again. The following year he became a part owner of the NBA's Washington Wizards, but in 2001 sold his share of the team and signed with the Wizards and played for two seasons.

Noted especially for his leaping ability, the 6 ft 6 in. (198 cm) Jordan is widely considered the greatest basketball player ever. The NBA career leader in scoring average, he was the league's leading scorer each year from 1986 to 1993 and 1996 to 1998, for a record ten titles, and is third on the all-time points list. Jordan also starred for the 1984 and 1992 U.S. Olympic teams. Known as “Air Jordan” or “His Airness,” he is a global celebrity, and his commercial endorsements and investments have made him the world's wealthiest athlete.

Bibliography

See D. Halberstam, Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made (1999).

A basketball player, first as a guard at the University of North Carolina and then in the National Basketball Association, mainly with the Chicago Bulls. An extraordinarily skillful and graceful shooter, Jordan is regarded as the best basketball player ever.

Quotes:

"Just play. Have fun. Enjoy the game."

"You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them."

"My heroes are and were my parents. I can't see having anyone else as my heroes."

"The game is my life. It demands loyalty and responsibility, and it gives me back fulfillment and peace."

"I realize that I'm black, but I like to be viewed as a person, and this is everybody's wish."

"I never thought a role model should be negative."

See more famous quotes by Michael Jordan