AND1 4EVA - Michael Jordan Biography

	Michael Jordan Biography
More on NBA - Articles - History - Nicknames - Photos - Players - Screensavers - Videos - Wallpapers	Name: Michael Jordan Date of Birth: 17 February 1963 Occupation: Sportsman Michael Jeffrey Jordan was born on February 17, 1963, in Brooklyn, New York, but his family decided to move to Wilmington, North Carolina when he was still a toddler. Jordan is the fourth of five children, having two older brothers and an older and younger sister. Michael's dad worked hard at an electric plant while his mom labored full-time at a bank. Jordan's parents worked hard to provide him and his siblings with a comfortable lifestyle. As a child, Jordan played baseball, basketball and football. His preferred sport at the time was baseball but after he began spending a lot of time on the basketball court, his outlook changed. Because his older and taller brother, Larry, continuously kept beating him when they played one-on-one, he was determined to become a better player. Ironically, in 1978, when Jordan attended Laney High School in Wilmington, North Carolina, he was cut from the varsity team. Instead of giving up, however, he fought through adversity and became the greatest basketball player in the world. Between the 10th and 11th grade, Jordan grew from 5'11" to 6'3", and because he had improved greatly as a player, he made the varsity team the following year. Jordan played so well in his junior season that he was invited to attend the Five-Star Camp in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, during the summer before his senior year. By the time Jordan was finishing his senior year at Laney, he had grown to 6'5" and attained a basketball scholarship from the University of North Carolina. Jordan's ever-growing popularity began at UNC where he made a last minute game-winning shot in the NCAA championship game. In the summer of 1984, Jordan played on the US Men's Olympic Basketball Team under head coach Bobby Knight. The team had such college players as Jordan, Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin (NBA players weren't allowed to compete in the Games until 1992). Jordan's plays quickly awed the other teams. He scored 14 points against China, 20 against Canada and 16 against Uruguay. The US won all eight of the games by an average of 32.1 points per game. Jordan led the team in scoring with an average of 17.1 points per game. Two months after the Olympics, Jordan played his first regular-season game with the Chicago Bulls. Jordan immediately proved that he belonged in the big leagues and his acrobatic moves and hang-time won him the infamous nickname Air Jordan. His basketball skills and allure made him the perfect key figure to market both Nike products and the NBA. Jordan led the Bulls to three consecutive World Championships (1991, 1992 and 1993). Jordan retired from the NBA preceding the 1993/94 season after the mysterious death of his father and after rumors about his gambling addictions began to circulate. After proving that he was the best basketball player in the world, Jordan sought a new challenge and decided to try his hand at professional baseball. He played outfielder for the Birmingham Barons, affiliates of the Chicago White Sox. Jordan quickly realized that he was not cutout for baseball after a disappointing season. In 1995, Jordan made a surprise return to basketball right before the playoffs but unfortunately, the Bulls didn't win the Championship. In 1996, Jordan led the Bulls to their best regular season record and the fourth Championship title in six years. He also took a shot at the silver screen, where he starred alongside Bugs Bunny in the animated comedy Space Jam. Jordan decided to retire after winning his last Championship in 1999. He has decided to dedicate his life to his wife Juanita, and their three children, Jeffrey, Marcus and Jasmine. Jordan resides in Highland Park where he is happily enjoying his retirement. A phenomenal athlete with a unique combination of grace, power, artistry and improvisational ability, Michael Jordan has single-handedly redefined the NBA superstar. Despite not playing for three seasons from 1998-99 through 2000-01, Jordan was still probably the most recognizable athlete in the world during that time. However, after assuming an ownership and team executive role with the Washington Wizards in 2000, he returned to play the game he loves as a Wizard upon signing a two-year contract on September 25, 2001. He is not only the top player of his era, but is quite possibly the best player ever to wear the uniform of an NBA team. A legend on the court, Jordan added to his mystique with a totally unexpected retirement just before the 1993-94 season. After a year spent playing minor league baseball, he authored yet another amazing chapter to his story by returning to the Chicago Bulls late in the 1994-95 campaign with his basketball skills intact. By the end of the 1997-98 season, he had won a record 10th scoring title and led the Bulls to their sixth NBA championship of the 1990s. A summary of Jordan's basketball career inevitably fails to do it justice. The 6-6 Brooklyn native attended high school in Wilmington, North Carolina, where he was cut from the basketball team as a sophomore. He spent his college career at North Carolina, playing for an NCAA Championship team as a freshman and hitting the game-winning shot in the title game. He was named College Player of the Year by The Sporting News in both 1983 and 1984 and won the Naismith and Wooden Awards in 1984. After his junior year he was chosen with the third overall pick in the 1984 NBA Draft by the Chicago Bulls. Jordan burst into the big time with a fabulous first season, earning the NBA Rookie of the Year Award in 1984-85 after averaging 28.2 points per game. An injured foot sidelined him for 64 games in his second campaign, but he came back late in the year to score an NBA playoff-record 63 points in a first-round game against the Boston Celtics. Starting with the 1986-87 season he began a career-long onslaught on the NBA record book. That year saw him average 37.1 points in the first of seven consecutive seasons in which he led the league in scoring (a feat matched only by Wilt Chamberlain) and topped 30 points per contest. By the time he announced his retirement in 1993, he had earned three league MVP Awards, an NBA Defensive Player of the Year selection, a pair of NBA slam-dunk championship titles, seven berths on the All-NBA First Team and six selections to the NBA All-Defensive First Team. He also led the league in steals three times. A nine-time All-Star Game selection, he earned the game's MVP Award in 1988 after a 40-point performance. More than just a scoring machine, Jordan also showed that he was a leader and a winner by guiding Chicago to a trio of NBA Championships. As a rookie, he joined a Bulls team that had won only 28 games the previous season. By 1991 the club had topped 60 wins during the regular season while marching to the first of three consecutive titles. If anything, Jordan was even more spectacular in postseason play. Prior to his retirement he had averaged below 30 points per game in the postseason only once (29.3 ppg in his rookie year). In the 1985-86 postseason he poured in an astounding 43.7 points per contest. He left basketball temporarily in 1993 as a three-time Finals MVP, and he owned a career playoff average of 34.7 points per game, the best in NBA history. He also had two Olympic gold medals to show for his participation on Team USA in 1984 and 1992. Jordan shocked the NBA by announcing his retirement prior to the 1993-94 season. He spent the year playing minor league baseball for the Class AA Birmingham Barons of the Chicago White Sox organization, for whom he was a competent if unspectacular performer. But Jordan's hopes of reaching the major leagues seemed dim, and with Major League Baseball embroiled in a labor dispute as the 1995 season neared, he focused his competitive fire back on the NBA. Late in the 1994-95 NBA season he came out of retirement and attempted to carry the Bulls to another title. Jordan averaged 26.9 points in 17 regular-season games, then poured in 31.5 points per contest in the playoffs. Despite Jordan's presence in the lineup, the Bulls didn't have quite enough to get past the Orlando Magic in the conference semifinals. Chicago lost to the Magic in six games. Jordan's championship quest was fulfilled the following season as the team enjoyed one of the most remarkable years ever posted by any club. Jordan led the NBA with 30.4 points per game as the Bulls charged to a record 72 victories during the regular season, then stormed through the playoffs with a 15-3 record. Chicago's combined record of 87-13 for the 1995-96 regular season and playoffs was the best in NBA history. Along the way, Jordan captured the MVP awards for the regular season, All-Star Game and Finals, joining Willis Reed (1970) as the only men to win all three honors in the same season. Although he relinquished the MVP award to Karl Malone in 1996-97, Jordan again led the Bulls to the NBA Championship with a satisfying six-game victory over Malone's Utah Jazz, and was named the NBA Finals MVP for the fifth time in his remarkable career.
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