There's Michael Jordan and then there is the rest of us. – Magic Johnson
Michael Jeffrey Jordan is my basketball idol. In his prime, they say that either you’re a Jordan fan or not. When I was younger, one of my must-do-before-i-die list was to watch my basketball idol play a game. Now that he has retired, my list has been modified and it now states that I should meet him in person, shake his hand, have a picture taken and ask for his autograph. I hope that’s not asking too much.
While MJ is no longer playing basketball, it no surprise that he’s still active in the basketball world. He partly owns Charlotte Bobcats. With the wealth that he amassed during his playing days, he probably can buy his own ball club. It’s pretty obvious that he is managing his resources very well. When I was in NY this year, I saw his Michael Jordan’s Steakhouse in Grand Central Station. And while searching the web, I noticed that he has a Michael Jordan’s Nissan car dealership in his home state North Carolina.
He’s not only my idol in basketball but also in managing his financial resources.
Nice blog you have. I wish I posted as often as you do.
ReplyDeleteHere's something I wrote about MJ back in 2000, about MJ's second comeback in the Wizards. It was for a press release for ESPN.
PRESS RELEASE
The Legend Continues
The whole planet watched as the man wearing Chicago Bulls jersey number 23 lunged one way, then feinted and leapt for a fade away jump shot, his muscles rippling in a beautiful virtuoso of movement, legs extending, arms flexing for an act of perfect muscular control. The ball is released, the basket swishes with the telltale sound of an inevitable goal, and with that perfect shot ended the career of Michael Jordan, or so we thought°¶
This season, after announcing that there is a 99.9% chance he will not return to basketball, the 0.1% possibility he would return won. After months of speculation and pregnant possibilities, Michael Jordan announced he was returning to the game that he elevated, energized, and loved.
A premature expectation would be that an event like this would be greeted with elation and celebration, a hero coming back from retirement to spread happiness throughout the basketball kingdom. But his return has been greeted with mixed emotions and a lot of negative speculation.
First of all, Jordan is a legend, a rarified athlete who is counted, and even considered above, mythical dribblers like Larry Bird, and Magic Johnson. And those players, while not necessarily a prerequisite for greatness, are identified with one team. It°Øs hard to separate the idea. We see Magic passing behind his back wearing the LA Lakers yellow, and in our minds we see Bird making a three-pointer in the trademark Celtics green.
In this same regard, Jordan is entombed in our consciousness soaring through the air, moving around the court in a flash of Chicago red. And there°Øs also a character angle, switching from team to team connotes money and ambition. And even though all basketball fans know that a gargantuan amount of money passes through the NBA, nobody wants to be reminded of that fact. Especially those who watch NBA games through tickets or cable subscriptions purchased through hard-earned money.
Then there is also the perfect way by which he retired. The thought may echo of anal-retentiveness, but people love a storybook ending. Jordan soaring through the air in a trademark move to sink a game-winning shot at the last second, it°Øs almost too perfect to be true.
Lastly there are some who speculate that mortality may have a strong say in Jordan°Øs performance this time. Jordan did such amazing feats with his body it was magical. But now he°Øs no longer the spry and young player he once was, far from it. It would be sad to see him fail when we remember him as someone who didn°Øt seem to know the meaning of the word.
Maybe the sadness is more for us than him, because in Michael Jordan we saw perfection. He was perfect in what he wanted to be and he did it. At the end of the day, that°Øs what most us want, doing something we love and be great at it. By ruining the perfection for him, we feel he°Øs robbing us of something precious, he was the one thing left in our Pandora°Øs Box and we think he might be letting himself escape by taking one more shot at glory.
Then again maybe not, Jordan is returning to the game because it still calls to him. In as much as he made the game a part of our lives and consciousness, so has it become a part of him, fused to his very being, calling to his spirit even though we doubt his body. And in the end, it°Øs his spirit that really inspired us, his soaring spirit symbolized by his movement that made us pause and watch with awe. By denying his spirit, Michael Jordan would be just like us, living our lives day to day hoping for something magnificent to fall into our laps that would change our lives. In the end, Michael Jordan chose to soar once more.