Who is Michael Jordan?

Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials MJ, is an American businessman and former professional basketball player. He played fifteen seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), winning six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls.  Jordan is the principal owner and chairman of the Charlotte Hornets of the NBA. “Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time.“ Jordan played college basketball for three seasons under coach Dean Smith with the North Carolina Tar Heels. As a freshman, he was a member of the Tar Heels’ national championship team in 1982. Jordan joined the Bulls in 1984 as the third overall draft pick and quickly emerged as a league star. His leaping ability, demonstrated by performing slam dunks from the free-throw line in Slam Dunk Contests, earned him the nicknames “Air Jordan” Jordan’s individual accolades and accomplishments include six NBA Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards, ten NBA scoring titles (both all-time records), five NBA MVP awards, ten All-NBA First Team designations, nine All-Defensive First Team honors (joint record), fourteen NBA All-Star Game selections, three NBA All-Star Game MVP awards, three NBA steals titles, and the 1988 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award. He holds the NBA records for career regular season scoring average (30.12 points per game) and career playoff scoring average (33.45 points per game). In 1999, he was named the 20th century’s greatest North American athlete by ESPN, and was second to Babe Ruth on the Associated Press’ list of athletes of the century. Jordan was twice inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, once in 2009 for his individual career, and again in 2010 as part of the 1992 United States men’s Olympic basketball team (“The Dream Team”).He became a member of the United States Olympic Hall of Fame in 2009, a member of the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 2010, and an individual member of the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2015 and a “Dream Team” member in 2017. Jordan is known for his product endorsements. He fueled the success of Nike’s Air Jordan sneakers, which were introduced in 1984 and remain popular today. Jordan also starred as himself in the 1996 live-action animation hybrid film Space Jam and is the central focus of the Emmy Award-winning documentary miniseries The Last Dance (2020). He became part-owner and head of basketball operations for the Charlotte Bobcats (now named the Hornets) in 2006, and bought a controlling interest in 2010. In 2016, Jordan became the first billionaire player in NBA history. As of 2022, his net worth is estimated at $2.1 billion.

Jordan was born at New York City, on February 17 1963. In 1968, he moved with his family to Wilmington, North Carolina. Jordan attended Emsley A. Laney High School in Wilmington, where he highlighted his athletic career by playing basketball, baseball, and football. He tried out for the basketball varsity team during his sophomore year; at 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m), he was deemed too short to play at that level. Motivated to prove his worth, Jordan became the star of Laney’s junior varsity team, and tallied some 40-point games. The following summer, he grew four inches (10 cm) and trained rigorously. Upon earning a spot on the varsity roster, Jordan averaged more than 25 points per game (ppg) over his final two seasons of high school play. The Chicago Bulls selected Jordan with the third overall pick of the 1984 NBA draft after Hakeem Olajuwon (Houston Rockets) and Sam Bowie (Portland Trail Blazers). One of the primary reasons why Jordan was not drafted sooner was because the first two teams were in need of a center. Trail Blazers general manager Stu Inman contended that it was not a matter of drafting a center but more a matter of taking Bowie over Jordan, in part because Portland already had Clyde Drexler, who was a guard with similar skills to Jordan. Citing Bowie’s injury-laden college career, ESPN named the Blazers’ choice of Bowie as the worst draft pick in North American professional sports history.During his rookie 1984–85 season with the Bulls, Jordan averaged 28.2 ppg on 51.5% shooting. Jordan’s 1985–86 season was cut short when he broke his foot in the third game of the year, causing him to miss 64 games. The Bulls made the playoffs despite Jordan’s injury and a 30–52 record, at the time the fifth-worst record of any team to qualify for the playoffs in NBA history. Jordan recovered in time to participate in the postseason and performed well upon his return. Against a Boston Celtics team that is often considered one of the greatest in NBA history, Jordan set the still-unbroken record for points in a playoff game with 63 in Game 2, but the Celtics managed to sweep the series. On October 6, 1993, Jordan announced his retirement, saying that he lost his desire to play basketball. Jordan later said that the murder of his father three months earlier helped shape his decision. 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, who carjacked his Lexus bearing the license plate “UNC 0023”. Jordan further surprised the sports world by signing a Minor League Baseball contract with the Chicago White Sox on February 7, 1994. He reported to spring training in Sarasota, Florida, and was assigned to the team’s minor league system on March 31, 1994. Jordan said that this decision was made to pursue the dream of his late father, who always envisioned his son as a Major League Baseball player. The Bulls went 55–27 in 1993–94 without Jordan in the lineup, and lost to the New York Knicks in the second round of the playoffs.

The 1994–95 Bulls were a shell of the championship team 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; the team received help when Jordan decided to return to the Bulls.In March 1995, Jordan decided to quit baseball because he feared he might become a replacement player during the Major League Baseball strike. On March 18, 1995, Jordan announced his return to the NBA through a two-word press release: “I’m back.” The next day, Jordan took to the court with the Bulls to face the Indiana Pacers in Indianapolis, scoring 19 points. 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. On September 25, 2001, Jordan announced his return to the NBA to play for the Washington Wizards, indicating his intention to donate his salary as a player to a relief effort for the victims of the September 11 attacks.Jordan’s talent was clear from his first NBA season; by November 1984, he was being compared to Julius Erving. Larry Bird said that rookie Jordan was the best player he ever saw, and that he was “one of a kind”, and comparable to Wayne Gretzky as an athlete. In his first game in Madison Square Garden against the New York Knicks, Jordan received a near minute-long standing ovation. After establishing the single game playoff record of 63 points against the Boston Celtics on April 20, 1986, Bird described him as “God disguised as Michael Jordan”.

NBA

• Six-time NBA champion – 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998
• Six-time NBA Finals MVP – 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998
• Five-time NBA MVP – 1988, 1991, 1992, 1996, 1998
• NBA Defensive Player of the Year – 1987–88
• NBA Rookie of the Year – 1984–85
• 10-time NBA scoring leader – 1987–1993, 1996–1998
• Three-time NBA steals leader – 1988, 1990, 1993
• 14-time NBA All-Star – 1985–1993, 1996–1998, 2002, 2003
• Three-time NBA All-Star Game MVP – 1988, 1996, 1998
• 10-time All-NBA First Team – 1987–1993, 1996–1998
• One-time All-NBA Second Team – 1985
• Nine-time NBA All-Defensive First Team – 1988–1993, 1996–1998
• Two-time NBA Slam Dunk Contest champion – 1987, 1988
• Two-time IBM Award winner – 1985, 1989
• Named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996
• Selected on the NBA 75th Anniversary Team in 2021
• No. 23 retired by the Chicago Bulls
• No. 23 retired by the Miami Heat

USA Basketball

• Two-time Olympic gold medal winner – 1984, 1992
• Tournament of the Americas gold medal winner – 1992
• Pan American Games gold medal winner – 1983

NCAA

• NCAA national championship – 1981–82
• ACC Freshman of the Year – 1981–82
• Two-time Consensus NCAA All-American First Team – 1982–83, 1983–84
• ACC Men’s Basketball Player of the Year – 1983–84
• USBWA College Player of the Year – 1983–84
• Naismith College Player of the Year – 1983–84
• Adolph Rupp Trophy – 1983–84
• John R. Wooden Award – 1983–84
• No. 23 retired by the North Carolina Tar Heels

Halls of Fame

• Two-time Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee:
  • Class of 2009 – individual
  • Class of 2010 – as a member of the “Dream Team”
• United States Olympic Hall of Fame – Class of 2009 (as a member of the “Dream Team”)
• North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame – Class of 2010
• Two-time FIBA Hall of Fame inductee:
  • Class of 2015 – individual
  • Class of 2017 – as a member of the “Dream Team”

Media

• Three-time Associated Press Athlete of the Year – 1991, 1992, 1993
• Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year – 1991
• Ranked No. 1 by Slam magazine’s “Top 50 Players of All-Time”
• Ranked No. 1 by ESPN SportsCentury‘s “Top North American Athletes of the 20th Century”
• 10-time ESPY Award winner (in various categories)
• 1997 Marca Leyenda winner

National

• 2016 Presidential Medal of Freedom

State/local

• Statue inside the United Center
• Section of Madison Street in Chicago renamed Michael Jordan Drive – 1994