Michael Jordan
Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963) is a former National Basketball Association player, by many accounts the best basketball player in the history of the game.
He was born to Delores and James Jordan in Brooklyn, New York and lived in Wilmington, North Carolina through his childhood. Jordan was educated at E. A. Laney High School and later at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a Geography major.
Michael Jordan currently lives in Highland Park, Illinois.
University of North Carolina
As a freshman at UNC he was an exciting player but not yet dominant on a team. He ended the year in grand style, however, hitting the winning shot in the 1982 NCAA championship game. By his sophomore year he was clearly the team's biggest star and became the national player of the year as a junior. He was selected by the Chicago Bulls in the first round of the 1984 NBA Draft as the third pick. His height (6'6" or 1.98 m), made him a versatile threat on the floor, able to play both as a point guard and small forward in addition to his usual position of shooting guard.
The Olympics
Jordan was also a member of two Olympic gold medal-winning American basketball teams. He first participated as a college player in the 1984 Summer Olympics, and later in the 1992 Summer Olympics as a member of the original "Dream Team," with other great players such as Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.
Chicago Bulls
Michael Jordan played as a shooting guard for Chicago for thirteen seasons. He won six NBA Championships (1991-93 and 1996-98) and was MVP five times (1988, 1991, 1992, 1996 and 1998). He also won Rookie of the Year (1985), Defensive Player of the Year (1988), and a record six NBA Finals MVP awards, including three consecutive twice (1991-93, 96-98). He also earned the elusive MVP triple-crown twice when he won All-Star MVP in both 1996 and 1998 (he also won in 1988). Only Willis Reed (1970) and Shaquille O'Neal (2000) have won all three MVP awards in the same season. He also recorded the only triple-double in All Star Game history in 1997. Jordan was an unstoppable force at both ends of the floor, finishing his career with the highest points-per-game average in NBA history with a record ten scoring titles, and being named All-Defensive First Team more than any other player, including three steals titles. In 1991, he was named Sports Illustrated magazine's "Sportsman of the Year."
Jordan's father, James, was murdered in August 1993. While returning from the funeral of a friend, he decided to pull over onto the side of an interstate highway in North Carolina to take a nap. While he was sleeping, two local criminals pulled up, killed him, and stole his Lexus, which had been given to him by Michael. The perpetrators were tracked down quickly because they had made several calls from his cell phone. Before the complete story of the murder came out, some media outlets irresponsibly tried to make a connection between James' murder and Michael's gambling activities, which had been widely publicized in the months leading up to the tragedy. Michael had admitted to betting and losing tens of thousands of dollars on his own golf ability.
Michael retired from basketball 2 days before the 1993-94 season to pursue a professional baseball career for the Chicago White Sox but never made it out of his minor league team, the Birmingham Barons. He batted .202 with 3 HR, 51 RBI, 30 SB (tied-5th in Southern League), 11 errors and 6 outfield assists...led the club with RBI with the bases loaded (11) and RBI with runners in scoring position and 2 out (25)
. Even though he didn't get out of the minor leagues, it was still a very personal way of grieving his loss by pursuing another childhood passion.
He ended his retirement on March 19, 1995 by rejoining the Bulls. After three more NBA titles between 1996-1998, Jordan decided to retire again on January 13, 1999.
Jordan remains the ultimate postseason performer, holding playoff records for most points in a single game (63), most points per game (33.4), most points per game in a Finals series (41.0, set against the Phoenix Suns in 1993), and total points scored (541).
Washington Wizards
In 2001, he came out of retirement a second time to play for the Wizards. Although his skills were somewhat diminished by age, and he was injured for part of the 2001-02 season, he still averaged 22.9 points per game. He returned for the 2002-03 season, averaging 20.0 points, and playing in his 13th and final NBA All-Star Game.
At the end of the 2002-03 season, he retired for the third and (most likely) final time. He ended his career with a regular-season scoring average of 30.12 points per game, the highest in NBA history. This was fractionally ahead of Wilt Chamberlain's 30.06 average.
