Michael Jordan Essays (1267 words) - , Term Papers

Michael Jordan Their season opened in Boston, against a young Celtics team that had listened to 80-year-old Red Auerbach. David Stern's name is on the basketball, Auerbach had said. Not Michael Jordan's. That evening, Celtics TV analyst Tom Heinsohn made sure his audience knew who Jordan is not. He's not God, Heinsohn said. Everybody treats him like a messiah or something. He isn't. If it seems odd, at this point, for so many to be confused about Michael Jordan's identity, it's only because Jordan makes it confusing. He does not own the Bulls, and he isn't general manager, but as sure as they lost their opener to the Celtics and as sure as they drifted through the first two months of the season, he is the guy who built this team, for better or worse. Shortly after the Bulls defeated the Jazz in the NBA Finals last spring, Jordan said, We deserve a chance (to win a sixth title). Much of what has followed is a consequence of Jordan's desire, ambition and power. Phil Jackson is coach, Scottie Pippen is still a part of the team, albeit disgruntled, and Dennis Rodman is back in Chicago, thanks to Jordan. The power to shape a basketball team, not just any team, but the defending NBA champions, winners of five titles in seven years, is impressive power, indeed. This is one reason Jordan, 34, is The Sporting News' Most Powerful Person in Sports for 1997. Here's another: Jim Jannard, chairman and president of Oakley, Inc., welcomed a new director, Bill Schmidt, onto his board this week. California-based Oakley manufactures high-tech sunglasses at a state-of-the-art Orange County factory. Schmidt is executive vice president of Quaker Oats-Gatorade, creator of the successful Be Like Mike'' ad campaign in which Gatorade and the basketball superstar beckon thirsty consumers. Jannard and Schmidt were introduced by Jordan, an Oakley director who is developing an inside game-soaring high above boardrooms-to complement his outside shot as a marketing superstar. The cross-pollination of Oakley and Gatorade, Jannard and Schmidt, is a reflection of Jordan's power outside the game, just as his shaping of the Bulls reflects it within. He becomes the first No. 1 who started as an athlete before veering into business and media. Previous No. 1s-Laurence Tisch (1990), David Stern (1991), Phil Knight (1992), Ted Turner (1993), Rupert Murdoch (1994 and 1995) and Dick Ebersol (1996)-started in business, law and media before veering into sports. In 1997 we learned that Turner wouldn't mind veering into a boxing ring with Murdoch, Knight leads with his chin on labor issues and Stern and Ebersol are running a three-legged race deep in clover. All No. 1s (save Tisch, who is retired) levitate ubiquitously over the high-flying entertainment-media-sports industry. Among No. 1s, Knight, Turner and Murdoch are billionaires (and Stern and Ebersol make billion-dollar deals). Jordan is not No. 1 because he has a chance to become the world's first athlete-billionaire, but because he has the requisite drive and brains. It has been a breathtaking ride up for Jordan, the grandson of a sharecropper who couldn't afford a bicycle until he was 16. Signs are promising he can book hang time in the nether world of moguls. His place in popular culture continues to ascend. Two global celebrities-Princess Diana and Mother Teresa-died in 1997. That leaves Fidel, Mandela, Ali and Michael on a short list of those who need only one name for instant recognition. When Jordan accompanied the Bulls to the McDonald's Championship in Paris in October, his full-length photo ran on the front page of the newspaper France-Soir with a headline: The Idol of Young People Is in Paris.'' The story began: Michael Jordan is in Paris. That's better than the Pope. It's God in person.'' At the same time, a Paris department store displayed a white Michael Jordan mannequin, indicative of a basic truth: Jordan hype is as phenomenal as the reality. He agrees. I don't feel powerful,'' Jordan says. I never view myself as powerful enough to make decisions or influence business. It's just that, for whatever reason, the public and corporate America have accepted my personality.'' What's the point of being TSN's Most Powerful Person if not to feel powerful, Jordan is asked. He chuckles. Every time I step on the court I consider