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Michael Jordan

b. 1963 Tier I

He quit at 30 to hit .202 in Double-A baseball

Portrait of Michael Jordan
Joshua Massel. Cropped by en:User:Quadzilla99 — 2006-04-23 — CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

He was born at Cumberland Hospital in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, to Deloris and James Jordan Sr., and the family left for Wilmington, North Carolina, when he was five. At Laney High School he tried out for varsity as a sophomore, stood five feet 11 inches, and was judged too short. He grew four inches, averaged better than 25 points a game over his last two seasons, and went to the 1981 McDonald's All-American game at 26.8. North Carolina made him ACC Freshman of the Year, and in the national championship game that March he took the shot that won it. He majored in geography and left after three years.

Chicago took him third in 1984, behind Hakeem Olajuwon and Sam Bowie. He averaged 28.2 points as a rookie and won the award for it. On April 20, 1986, in a double-overtime playoff loss at the Boston Garden, he scored 63 points and broke Elgin Baylor's record. The Celtics swept the series anyway. In 1988 he became the first man to take Most Valuable Player and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season. Ten scoring titles, five MVPs, six championships in eight years, and the Finals MVP in every one of them. The 1995-96 Bulls went 72 and 10. He retired in 1993, spent a season in Double-A baseball, came back in March 1995, retired again in 1999, played two years in Washington, and finished in Philadelphia on April 16, 2003.

On July 23, 1993, two men carjacked James Jordan Sr. for his Lexus at a rest stop on Interstate 95 near Lumberton, North Carolina, and shot him. The body surfaced in a South Carolina swamp on August 3. Daniel Green and Larry Demery got life. Jordan retired ten weeks later, and the rumor that trailed him was that the retirement had been a covert suspension. He had been seen gambling in Atlantic City during the 1993 playoffs, had acknowledged covering 57,000 dollars in losses the year before, and Richard Esquinas had just published a book claiming Jordan owed him 1.25 million dollars from golf. David Stern denied the suspension story in 1995 and again in 2006. In 2005 Jordan told Ed Bradley he had pushed the envelope.

He is 63, and the argument over him is still open. The Air Jordan line Nike introduced in 1984 outlasted the career and made him the first billionaire to have played in the NBA, in 2014, at 4.3 billion dollars by 2026. He took control of the Charlotte Hornets in 2010 and sold the majority stake in 2023. In 1990 he declined to endorse Harvey Gantt in North Carolina and was reported to have said Republicans buy sneakers too — on The Last Dance in 2020 he confirmed the line, called it a joke, and said he had never been an activist. In 2016 he gave a million dollars each to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and a police-relations institute.

Lifespan

15401700180019002030

Michael Jordan's life against the full span of the corpus — the fading end marks a life still in progress.

Notable works

  • Air Jordan company
    The Nike line introduced in his rookie season and selling still     1984
  • 63 points against the Boston Celtics other
    A single-game playoff record, set in a double-overtime loss     1986
  • Space Jam film
    He starred as himself     1996
  • Charlotte Hornets ownership company
    He held a controlling interest until 2023     2010
  • The Last Dance television
    A 10-part series on the 1997-98 Bulls, made with his cooperation     2020

Life in brief

with age at each point
  • 1968 aged ~5 The family moves from Brooklyn to Wilmington, North Carolina
  • March 29, 1982 aged 19 Makes the shot that wins North Carolina the national championship He was a freshman, and ACC Freshman of the Year that season.
  • June 19, 1984 aged 21 Chicago drafts him third overall Houston took Hakeem Olajuwon and Portland took Sam Bowie ahead of him.
  • April 20, 1986 aged 23 Scores 63 in a playoff game at the Boston Garden A record, in a double-overtime loss to a team that swept the series.
  • 1991 aged ~28 Wins the first of six championships
  • July 23, 1993 aged 30 His father is murdered at a rest stop on Interstate 95 The body was found in a South Carolina swamp on August 3. Two men got life.
  • February 7, 1994 aged 30 Signs a minor league contract with the Chicago White Sox He hit .202 for the Birmingham Barons that season.
  • March 18, 1995 aged 32 Announces his return to basketball in two words
  • April 16, 2003 aged 40 Plays his last NBA game, in Philadelphia He scored 13 points and fouled out.

Related

Contemporaries

Frontier & Sport, born within 25 years
Jerry Rice b. 1962Frontier & SportWide receiver whose records, consistency, and postseason success made him a standard of NFL excellence.Scott Kelly b. 1964Frontier & SportAstronaut who spent a year aboard the International Space Station, advancing long-duration spaceflight research.Carl Lewis b. 1961Frontier & SportTrack and field athlete who won nine Olympic gold medals across four consecutive Games.Wayne Gretzky b. 1961Frontier & SportHockey legend known as The Great One, holding the most records in NHL history.Peggy Whitson b. 1960Frontier & SportNASA astronaut who holds the American record for most cumulative days in space.Magic Johnson b. 1959Frontier & SportLakers legend whose Showtime era and HIV advocacy transformed basketball and public health conversations.