Michael Jordan in Basketball - Essay Example

Michael Jordan It’s hard to argue that basketball is extremely popular all over the world, that’s why its popularity provides the opportunity to speak about various interpretations in modern pop-culture. It goes beyond racial, economic and social borders, and the stars of basketball are involved into the focus of recognition and popularity to greater extent than stars of other kinds of sport. Beyond controversy, Michael Jordan is the most popular professional among the stars of basketball. He is told about as the greatest player of basketball of all time. His career significantly influenced the game itself, and the style of playing, and the experts state that “as a phenomenal athlete with a unique combination of grace, speed, power, artistry, improvisational ability and an unquenchable competitive desire, Jordan single-handedly redefined the NBA superstar.” (Kieller) Moreover, even the stars of the same format, equally experienced and successful players, recognized his uniqueness and paid homage to his talent. For instance, Magic Johnson stated: Theres Michael Jordan and then there is the rest of us." Larry Bird, in his turn, spoke of him as of a talented player at the beginning of his star career: “"God disguised as Michael Jordan.” (gtd in Michael Jordan Biography) It’s evident that his impact in sport development and popular culture is great, and it’s much more greater than awards he received and the championships he won with his team. He started his career in the basketball league as a recruit with his dizzy dunks, and his drives and his unique style, and by the end he became almost an icon of several generations, and a part of popular culture. He is the person who spread the popularity of basketball league in global sense, who made basketball a significant part of popular culture, and shared his style with millions of people. (Michael Jordan Player Info) Jordan is famous for his personal unique style of playing. Nike signed a contract with him to advertise shoes, and this company gambled on his extreme popularity and appeal, but the results surpassed all expectations. This is how it is described by the experts in marketing and advertising: “One version of the sneakers he wore in his first preseason was an unseen before blend of his teams red and black colors that the NBA initially considered in violation of the "uniformity of uniform rule. Subject to fines if he continued to wear them, he occasionally did and the demand for that version and others in the Air Jordan line was unprecedented”. (qtd in Michael Jordan Bio) At the beginning of the 21st century, one of the most popular sport networks, ESPN, carried out a survey of journalists, athletes and other people related to the world of sport to define the greatest professional sportsmen of the last century. Jordan was listed at the top, and he left behind Muhammad Ali and Babe Ruth, strengthening his connection to the other icons of popular culture. (Michael Jordan Player Info) During his sport career Michael Jordan went through 15 full seasons, and his average scoring of 30.12 points obtained per one game was the highest among other NBA stars, and he left behind even Wilt Chamberlain with his 30.6 points. While playing with the team of Chicago Bulls he won 6 championships in NBA, achieved 10 titles of scoring, and was recognized the most valuable player of league five times. He was appointed to All-Defensive First Team 9 times. In 1983 he started to appear on the front cover of various magazines, for instance Sports Illustrated published his photo on the front cover 49 times, and he was named the Sportsman of the Year in this magazine in 1991. ESPN named him "the greatest North American athlete of the 20th century" in 1999, and Associated Press included him into the list of top sportsmen of the XXth century. He gained the titles of “His Airness" and "Air Jordan" due to his “leaping ability, vividly illustrated by dunking from the foul line and other feats”. (Batchelor, p. 170) Michael Jordan is one of the sportsmen who devoted much time to advertising. He started with the boxes of Wheaties in 1998, and then he was a spokesman of numerous brands, for instance, Hanes, Nike, McDonalds, MCI, Gatorade, etc. He also has been a mascot of Nestle Crunch for many years, and he also appeared in the commercials of their products. In addition to advertising, Jordan tried himself on TV. He appeared in NBC Saturday morning cartoon, Prostars, together with Bo Jackson and Wayne Gretzky, showing how they help children and fight with crimes.( Kieller) Michael Jordan also has been linked to the cartoon characters of the Looney Tunes. Commercial movies of Nike, produced in 1993 – Super Bowl, featured the basketball game played by Jordan and Bugs Bunny against Martians. This movie inspired Space Jam, produced in 1996, featuring Jordan and the characters of the Looney Tunes in a fictional novel about the events that took place in the period of the first Jordan’s retirement. They were again included into commercial movies for MCI. (Kieller) Jordan showed himself as a many-sided personality, able to be successful in various spheres of life. He also proved that he could be an active businessman. During the period of the second retirement, Jordan established an enterprise of MVP.com with his former colleagues in sport, superstars John Elway and Wayne Gretzky. This domain was later purchased by CBS SportsLine in 2001. (Batchelor) Jordan graduated from the college in 1984 and joined Chicago Bulls. His first season in NBA placed his to the list of top players, he achieved 28.2 points average per game. He was entitled as the rookie of that year. At the end of the period of 1986-87 he was recognized the second player, having gained more than 3 thousand points within the season, Wilt Chamberlain was ahead of him. Besides, he became the leading player of Chicago Bulls for all time and set various records in scoring, with “most points in a playoff game (63 points against the Boston Celtics in 1986); and highest scoring average for an NBA championship series (41 points per game in the 1993 NBA finals)” included. (Batchelor, p.120). Batchelor speaks about his greatest achievements in his book: “He led the Chicago Bulls to their first NBA championship title in 1991; with Jordan, the Bulls won again in 1992 and 1993. In addition to his three league Most Valuable Player awards (1988, 1991, 1992), Jordan won the All-Star game MVP award twice (1988, 1996) and a record three-consecutive NBA championship series MVP awards (1991-1993). Jordan was also a member of the United States Olympic basketball team, known as the Dream Team, that captured the gold medal at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.” (p. 146) By 1993-94 years Jordan announced that he had lost desire to continue his career as professional sportsman in basketball. His unique defensive style was firstly recognized for high scores he gained, and then he was regarded as the greatest of the NBA players in history of basketball. Moreover, he became a part of popular culture, as his career in NBA, together with his participation in Olympic Games and advertising projects made him a celebrity all over the world. (Michael Jordan Bio) But this wasn’t the end of his career. He left to come back again in 1994 to try him in a baseball. He signed a contract with the Chicago White Sox of the AL (American League). This was a contract of minor league, and he then he was accepted to the team of minor league. This period of his career is famous for the following achievements: “He batted .202 with the Birmingham Barons, a class AA affiliate of the White Sox. Later in the year he batted .252 with the Scottsdale Scorpions in the Arizona Fall League.” (Michael Jordan Bio) Jordan’s baseball career ended when he joined again the Chicago Bulls by the end of the season in 1994-95. In the next season he showed excellent results in scoring, getting average 30.4 points each game and was named most valuable player of the basketball league. He made his team to be the first team of NBA to win more than 70 games in one season, and than Chicago Bulls won the NBA championship. (Michael Jordan Player Info) Works Cited Batchelor, Bob. Basketball in America: From the Playgrounds to Jordans Game and Beyond, Haworth Press Inc., 2005 Michael Jordan Biography. Available at http://www.ewsonline.com/sports/jordan/index.html Michael Jordan Bio. NBA History. Available at http://www.nba.com/history/ Michael Jordan Player Info. Available at http://www.nba.com/ Kieller, Thomas. Michael Jordan Above The Rim.United Athletes. September 11, 2002. available at http://www.unitedathletes.com/english/index.html Read More