Michael Jordan

Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963) is a former American basketball player.  He is widely considered the greatest basketball player of all time. He won six championships and was the Finals MVP 6 times. He played for the  Chicago Bulls and the Washington Wizards. Jordan led the Bulls to a then-record 72 wins in the 1995-96 NBA Season. Jordan earned the nicknames "Air Jordan" and "His Airness" due to his leaping ability which was illustrated by performing slam dunks from the free throw line in slam dunk contests. Jordan won two Olympic gold medals with Team USA, famously playing on the 1992 Dream Team.  During the early part of his college career, he went by Mike Jordan, and he still uses Mike as a nickname to this day.

Family and early years 
Michael Jeffrey Jordan was born on February 17, 1963 in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, New York, he is the son of Deloris (née Peoples), who worked in banking, and James R. Jordan, Sr., an equipment supervisor. His family moved to Wilmington, North Carolina when he was a toddler.[7]

Jordan is the fourth of five children. He has two older brothers, Larry Jordan and James R. Jordan, Jr., one older sister, Deloris, and a younger sister, Roslyn. Jordan's brother James retired in 2006 as the Command Sergeant Major of the 35th Signal Brigade of the XVIII Airborne Corps in the U.S. Army.

Early career 
As a sophomore at Laney High School in Wilmington, North Carolina, Jordan did not make his school's varsity (main) basketball team. This inspired him to work harder, and he made the team the next year. In 1981, he went to the University of North Carolina to play. He averaged 13.5 points per game his freshman year, and 20 points per game his sophomore year. Under coach Dean Smith's system, no player was allowed to average more than 20 ppg.  North Carolina won the national championship in 1982, Jordan's freshman year. Jordan made the winning shot with 18 seconds left in the championship game. After Jordan's junior year in college, he said that he would be leaving college to play in the NBA. The Chicago Bulls chose him with the third pick in the 1984 NBA draft.  He never served as a team captain in college.

NBA career 
Jordan made an appearance in Michael Jackson's "Jam" music video in 1992; in the video, Jackson teaches Jordan how to dance and Jordan also teaches Michael how to play basketball. In 1993, after winning three NBA championships in a row, Jordan said that he would retire and switch to a career in minor league baseball. He played for the Birmingham Barons, a minor league team in the Chicago White Sox's system, but hit only one home run during his whole baseball career. In 1995, Jordan announced that he would return to the NBA with a two word announcement: "I'm back". He was back in time to play for the Bulls in the 1995 playoffs, but the Bulls lost in the playoffs before reaching the NBA Finals. However, the next three seasons after that, the Bulls won the championship. This included the 1995-1996 season, when the Bulls won 72 games in the regular season and only lost 10. In 1996, he starred in the live-action/animated comedy movie Space Jam as himself. Jordan retired for a second time in 1998, but was still not done playing. He would buy part of the Washington Wizards basketball team, and played for the Wizards from 2001 to 2003, and ended his playing career after that.

Game-winning shots
During his NBA career, Jordan had at least 29 game-winning shots on field goals or free throws when deciding a game in the last 30 seconds of the game.  In addition to well-documented instances, he made a pair of free throws in a road game at New Jersey, on March 16, 1996.  While making the free throws, WGN play-by-play announcer Wayne Larivee remarked, "Michael Jordan, ice water in his veins".

Player Profile 
Michael Jordan played mostly shooting guard.  Other than a brief spell in April 1989 during which he played point guard, Jordan almost always played shooting guard during his time with the Chicago Bulls.  He was widely heralded as the most skilled and accomplished basketball player of all time.

After retiring 
Jordan is now the majority owner of the Charlotte Hornets. He was chosen to enter the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009.

References 

Notes

Other websites

Michael Jordan's NBA profile
 

1963 births
Living people
African-American baseball players
African-American basketball players
American Olympic gold medalists
Chicago Bulls players
Sportspeople from Chicago
Sportspeople from New York City
Sportspeople from North Carolina
Washington Wizards players
Tune Squad players
National Basketball Association players with retired numbers
American basketball players
Space Jam characters