Born in the year 1963, Michael Jeffery Jordan was popularly known as ‘Air Jordan’ and ‘His Airness’ during his playing days. Michael Jordan was considered to be one of the best and the most successful professional basketball players of the century and is credited with popularizing the NBA all across the world. Michael Jordan in his professional days was considered to be the best marketed sportsman that has ever played in any sport.
Michael started his professional basketball career in the year 1984, with Chicago bulls, which he help achieve several sporting heights till his association as a player. One of the iconic stars of the game of basketball, Jordan achieved the ‘Most valuable Player’ awards for 5 times during his career. ESPN named Jordan as the greatest North American athlete of the 20th century and his name has been inducted in the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Belonging to a very modest background, Jordan’s mother used to work in a bank and his father was an equipment supervisor, Jordan who was born in Brooklyn graduated from University of North Carolina with a scholarship in basketball. Jordan’s basketball talent was so obvious that he was featured on the cover of the magazine ‘Sports Illustrated’ with the heading ‘A star is Born’.
Jordan’s professional basketball career suffered a mid term crisis, when he opted for an abrupt retirement from the game in the year 1993 and opted to play in a minor league baseball team. Although the major reasons of his retirement were the extraordinary pressures of his professional life and celebrity status and the murder of his father. The reason for opting to play baseball, according to Jordan was to fulfill his father’s dream, who always wanted Jordan to be a Major League Base ball player. The self proclaimed mid career retirement was short-lived and Jordan came back to resume his professional basketball career with Chicago Bulls in the year 1995.
In the year 1999, Jordan retired again, although his involvement with the game was not fully stopped. He was associated with the Washington Wizards basketball team as a part owner and President of Basketball Operations. The scope of work of his involvement was very comprehensive as he was involved in each and every aspect of development of the team. Jordan made another comeback to the professional game with his team in the year 2001 only to play for a short time and end his illustrious career finally in the year 2003.
During his heydays Jordan was considered the most and the best marketable celebrity sportsman of the generation. He had and in some instances still has a lot of endorsement deals with some of the major brands like Nike, Coca Cola, Chevrolet, Gatorade, McDonald’s, Hanes, MCI etc. Nike to their credit had dedicated a special shoe named after Jordan, called the ‘Air Jordan’. The shoe after years of its launch is still one of the most popular shoe models for youngsters.
Jordan was married to Juanita Vanoy with whom he is believed to have one of the largest celebrity divorce settlements in history.
