Michael Jordan

Biography

Michael Jeffery Jordan was born February 17,1963 in Brooklyn, New York to James and Delores Jordan. A few years after Michael was born, his parents were concerned about raising their family on the mean streets of Brooklyn, where drugs and violence could become a way of life for those unable to resist the temptations. Rather than fight the battle, James and Delores decided to move the family to Wilmington, North Carolina. They felt the small, laid back, town would be better to raise their family. So Wilmington was where Michael and his brothers and sisters grew up. Once established in Wilmington, Mr. And Mrs. Jordan began to set an example for their children, showing them an eagerness to work and achieve that never released. "It was always like that in our family," James Jordan said. "We always tried to make things happen rather than wait around for them to happen. And we've always found that if you work hard you can make it happen.". Michael was more of a recreational athlete as a young boy, sometimes lazy, usually discouraged because he could not compete with his older brother Larry. He was not very tall during his early years and did not have much hope of being that tall. There were no men in the Jordan family over six feet. So before entering high school, he gave no thought to an athletic career, especially in basketball. During his childhood, Michael was close to his parents as were the rest of the Jordan children. He would often play ball with his father or help with little projects his dad was doing. As a boy, Jordan could not help noticing that his father would always curl his tongue to the side of his mouth when he was concentrating. Before long, Michael picked up the habit and brought it with him to his sports activities. Baseball was the sport Michael took to initially. At the age of twelve he was named the top player of the league. He played pitcher and outfield. By the time he reached D.C. Virgo Junior High School, Michael was a typical 15-year-old all-around athlete. He played three sports but was not fanatical about anyone of them. When Michael reached Laney High School as a tenth grader, he was already 5'10'', two inches taller than his dad and three inches taller than his brother Larry. Michael was the quarterback for Laney JV football team in the fall. Shortly after that, he moved right into JV basketball. Then something happened to Michael that had a great impact on his career. The varsity team needed an extra player seeing the playoffs were coming up and everything, so Michael thought for sure that they would pick him, but when his teammate Leroy Smith was the chosen one it was tough for Michael to take. It made sense though, he was 5'10'' and Leroy was 6'5'' and varsity needed height. It got even worse than that. When the Laney team went to the regionals, Michael was allowed on the bus only because a student manager got sick. Once there, he didn't have a ticket so he carried the uniform of the best player, like a manager would do, and then on the bench he handed out towels to the team members. "I made up my mind there that this would never happen to me again," Michael would say. "From that point on I started working harder than ever on my basketball skills." Michael's new dedication to making the varsity team as a junior had drawbacks he was cutting classes and going to the gym to practice. He was now practicing every day after school with his brother Larry. That's not all happened to him between his sophomore and junior year he shot up from 5'10'' to 6'3''. Michael was starting to make a name for himself. The University of North Carolina was trying to recruit Michael to go to college there. When Michael graduated from Laney High School in June 1981 he received a full scholarship to the University of North Carolina. Michael went to North Carolina in the fall of 1981. The most important game in Jordan's college career, came in the championship game as a freshman. There were two seconds left and Georgetown couldn't get a shot off. North Carolina won the game because seconds before Jordan hit the game winning shot. Jordan was then nominated player of the year and that is when his professional basketball career started. He the became eligible for the NBA draft once he said he wanted to play in the NBA instead of finishing college. Jordan was drafted to the Chicago Bulls in 1984. That season, 1984-85, he won rookie of the year. Since then Michael has gone on to win a roomful of rewards and trophies, including three Most Valuable Player awards and two slam dunk contest in 1987 and 1988. He was named defense player of the year in 1988. He was named the All-Star Game MVP in 1988 and 1996. He was the second player to win seven consecutive scoring titles. He won three consecutive NBA Final MVP awards in1991,1992, and in 1993. He was member of two gold winning Olympic teams 1984 and 1992. Michael scored his career best, 69 points, against Cleveland, March 28, 1990. Michael led the Chicago Bulls to three consecutive NBA Championships, 1990-91, 1991-92, and 1992-93 seasons. A tragic thing happened to Michael after he won his third championship in 1993. His father, James Jordan, was murdered by two teenagers. This was a severe tragedy to Michael's life; his father was gone. Michael then decided to retire from basketball and play baseball for his father. Michael then tried out for the Chicago White Sox. He didn't make the team, but was promoted to a minor league team and played ball for one or two seasons. His baseball career was not taking off like he expected. He then decided to return to the game that he really wanted to play, basketball. At his press conference he said only two words, "I'm back". Jordan came back to the game wearing his baseball number, number 45. He wore that number for a few games and then returned to number 23, the number everyone knows him by. There was a large controversy over his action. He was fined a large amount of money for not telling the officials before the game. Now Jordan is working to become as good as he once was and just recently in the past season he has passed his playing ability from he played at before he retired and is playing at his high level.

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