Biography of Michael Jordan Essay Example

Michael Jordan earned the NBA MVP award five times in the years of 1988, 1991, 1992, 1996, and 1998. To earn all these NBA MVP awards Michael had to overcome many obstacles including being rejected by his high school basketball coach. This rejection pushed Michael Jordan to become what most believe is the best basketball player of all time. Before Michael Jordan’s professional career he was in college, Michael Jordan wondered if he was in a really good dream, because it was really rare to be starting every game as a rookie in University of North Carolina. 

Michael Jordan’s early life significantly shaped the man and basketball player he became later. Michael Jeffrey Jordan was born on February 17, 1963, in Brooklyn New York. He later moved to Wilmington, North Carolina. Then Michael Jordan attended Trask middle school as a child. During that time Michael Jordan’s grades weren’t doing that good, but when he found out that his grade had to be good to play sports he finally pulled it together and became a B+ student. Michael Jordan's quote on what competing at his first camp: “I was so nervous my hands were sweating. I saw all these All-Americans and I thought I was just the lowest thing on the totem pole. Here I was, a country boy from Wilmington. But the more I played, the more confident I became. I thought to myself, 'Maybe I can play with these guys.'" This quote is important because Michael Jordan was nervous to play with all Americans at his first camp, but learned that everything was going to be okay and he also learned to overcome his fears. Michael Jordan’s life really shaped the man he was on the court and off the court. 

Michael Jordan later went to Laney High School. During Michael Jordan's sophomore year, in fall of 1978 Michael, a 5 foot 9 inches 15 year old was cut from the varsity basketball team. This rejection pushed Michael to be better than everyone else. Here is a quote on what Michael thought of winning: “I hate to lose. I guess that’s it as much as anything.” The quote pushed Michael Jordan to not have to experience rejection again and just walk into wherever the roster was posted with confidence. Then Michael Jordan says this about height: "I always wanted to be tall. I thought 6-8 would be nice." Being tall was very important to Michael Jordan because growing up as a kid a lot of the big NBA stars were around that height.  Michael Jordan getting rejected  as a sophomore really helped him realize that life isn’t easy to get what you want. You have to work for it and anything he set his mind to he would get it done.

People back in Michael Jordan's hometown were saying some bad things about him when he got to North Carolina, but before Michael Jordan got recruited by North Carolina he was breaking records and setting records at Laney High School after he got rejected as a sophomore and training every morning at 6:30 before class started. When Michael got to North Carolina He was just the fourth player in North Carolina history to start as a freshman. Michael Jordan played basketball at North Carolina for three years then got drafted by the Chicago Bulls in the first round pick and third pick, but before he got drafted this is what Michael Jordan said that people back at his hometown said before he got to North Carolina: “ The people back home, stardom was the last thing they saw for me. People said [SIC] I’d go there and sit the [SIC] bench and never get to play. I kind of believed ‘em [SIC] myself, but it challenged me.” As you can tell the people back from his hometown were wrong. Not only were they wrong  Michael Jordan was just the fourth player to start as a freshman. Michael Jordan used the nonsense that the people back from his hometown were saying about him to motivate him to not only be a great basketball athlete, but to not be bench warmer. 

When Michael Jordan was leaving North Carolina he wanted people to think certain things about him. Michael Jordan thought it was important to be remembered as the player that stayed in the entire game. Michael didn’t want people to remember him as the guy that comes in at the last minute to shoot the winning shot. Jordan on his legacy: “I couldn’t be Michael Jordan any more [SIC].I was always Michael Jordan who made the winning shot against Georgetown. I didn't want to be remembered only for that. I wanted to be recognized as a complete player. I don't want people to think of me as a guy who comes through in the [SIC] last minute. I want them to know that I'm there the entire game." The importance of this quote is that when Michael Jordan left North Carolina he wanted to be remembered as a complete player. Not the Guy that waits for the last minute of every game to score the winning shot.  As I previously stated  Michael Jordan wanted to be remembered as a complete player. Not the guy that scores the winning shot. 

When Michael Jordan got to the NBA he was different than everybody else he had leadership and discipline. Michael's teammates would be partying and doing drugs at night before games, but Michael was in his hotel room getting his sleep. He alway wanted to give the games 100% and he wanted to have leadership. "Look, winning has a price," Jordan says. "And leadership has a price. So I pulled people along when they didn't want to be pulled. I challenged people when they didn't want to be challenged. And I earned that right because my teammates who came after me didn't endure all the things that I endured. Once you joined the team, you lived at a certain standard that I played the game. And I wasn't going to take anything less. Now if that means I had to go in there and get in your ass a little bit, then I did that.” This quote helped Michael  and his whole team understand the responsibilities of the NBA. This quote also helped the players that were not giving the game there best understand that they should start to pull it together.  

Michael Jordan's life wasn’t always easy.  Michael Jordan had to overcome many different adversities as a child, young man, and as an adult. In the beginning of this paper it talked about how when Michael Jordan was in middle school and his grades weren’t doing good, but when Michael Jordan heard that you had to have good grades to play sports he became a B+. Another thing that this paper talked about is how Michael Jordan got cut from his varsity basketball team, but that pushed him to become the best basketball player of all times. This paper also talked about how Michael Jordan also had to listen to people back from his hometown talking bad about him when he got recruited by North Carolina. In this topic in this paper it talked about how people were saying Michael wasn’t going to get to play ones in his college career, but every word those people were saying were wrong because Michael Jordan became what research shows world's best basketball player of all time.  All those things that Michael Jordan had overcome led him to the character he is today.

Works Cited

James Herbert May 17. “'The Last Dance': What Michael Jordan's Documentary Doesn't Ask about His Leadership.” CBSSports.com, 18 May 2020, www.cbssports.com/nba/news/the-last-dance-what-michael-jordans-documentary-doesnt-ask-about-his-leadership/.

Michael Jordan And The New Global Capitalism New Edition [PDF]. eburasex.vtgeoalliance.org/6575f0/michael-jordan-and-the-new-global-capitalism-new-edition.pdf.

“Michael Jordan.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 10 Feb. 2021, www.biography.com/athlete/michael-jordan.

“Michael Jordan.” Google Books, Google, www.google.com/books/edition/Michael_Jordan/aQ84ViBNkYwC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=michael%2Bjordan%2Bbasketball&pg=PR1&printsec=frontcover&safe=active&surl=1&complete=0#v=onepage&q=michael%20jordan%20basketball&f=false.

NCAA.com, Andy Wittry |. “Michael Jordan: College Stats, Best Games, Quotes, Moments.” NCAA.com, NCAA.com, 5 May 2020, www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/article/2020-04-30/michael-jordan-college-stats-best-games-quotes-moments.

“Playing for Keeps.” Google Books, Google, www.google.com/books/edition/Playing_for_Keeps/a8KGDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=michael%2Bjordan%27s%2Bhistory&pg=PA3&printsec=frontcover&safe=active&surl=1&complete=0#v=onepage&q=michael%20jordan's%20history&f=false.

“When Nothing Else Matters.” Google Books, Google, www.google.com/books/edition/When_Nothing_Else_Matters/ZU7w5B0aQ1gC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=michael%2Bjordan%27s%2Blife&pg=PP1&printsec=frontcover&safe=active&surl=1&complete=0#v=onepage&q=michael%20jordan's%20life&f=false.