Michael Jordan (born February 17, 1963) is a professional American basketball player, Olympic athlete, business person, and actor. Considered one of the best basketball players ever, Michael Jordan dominated the sport from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s.
"If you’re trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks. I’ve had them; everybody has had them. But obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” ~ Michael Jordan
Here are some unknown facts about the legend:
Michael Jordan’s idol as a child was Magic Johnson and his own nickname was “Magic Jordan” as a result. He even had a license plate with this nickname on it on his first car — a 1976 Grand Prix
Michael Jordan's first basketball trainer was his father.
A tragic incident in his childhood led to a lifetime phobia of water. He witnessed a good friend get sucked into the ocean’s undertow and drown. Then when he was eleven, he himself almost drowned while at baseball camp. To this day he is not comfortable on boats and around large bodies of water.
Jordan had a breakout senior year in basketball and his future changed course. As a senior averaging a triple-double (29.2 points, 11.6 rebounds, and 10.1 assists) he was selected to the McDonald’s All-American Team.
Jordan was named the NCAA College Player of the Year in both 1983 and in 1984.
In the summer of 1984, he was selected as a member of the U.S. Olympic basketball team. And the team won GOLD at the Los Angeles games that year.
The 1984 contract (over seven years) of the rookie third overall draft pick with superhuman leaping ability was worth $6.15 million. Jordan scored an average of 28.2 points per game and helped the Bulls make it to the playoffs. He received the NBA Rookie of the Year Award in 1985 and was also selected for the NBA All-Star Game. He was off to a great start.
His high leaps, demonstrated by performing slam dunks from the free-throw line during slam dunk contests, earned this talented player the nicknames “His Airness” and “Air Jordan”.
Jordan won six NBA Championships, made fourteen NBA All-Star appearances, and won five NBA most valuable player awards. He was Defensive Player of the Year in 1988.
Jordon won all of his games in the NBA Finals in which he participated except one. That’s why he is the most decorated player in the NBA, past or present.
Sports Illustrated Magazine presented Michael Jordan as the greatest athlete of the past 50 years in their 1996 edition.
ESPN ranked Jordan the 20th century’s greatest North American athlete, even over sports icons Muhammad Ali and Babe Ruth. He is indisputably one of the NBA’s all-time greatest players.
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Jordan's favorite jersey number was 23. He was number 23 in high school and college as well as for his career with the Chicago Bulls. Only once did he wear another number when playing for them. On Valentine’s Day in 1990, a thief stole his jersey from the locker room before the game. Jordan tried on a fan’s replica jersey but it was too small. The equipment manager found an extra jersey that only had a number and no name on it. He was number 12 for the night and still scored 49 points.
Jordan’s persona made him a star as well. He starred first in the 1996 feature film Space Jam in which he played himself. This movie mixed animation and live-action and included cartoon legends Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny.
Jordan has his own line of sports shoes called Air Jordan. They were introduced in 1985 and remain popular today. He makes around $60 million annually from Nike and Jordan brand royalties. Today Nike’s Jordan Brand generates $1 billion in sales.
Jordan’s deal with Nike almost didn’t come to fruition. Michael wanted to wear Adidas and was also offered a deal to endorse a small brand called Spot-Bilt. Nike offered a then-enormous deal of $500 grand annually for five years. They also promised to tailor the sneaker to Jordan’s liking. Jordan still wanted Adidas and went to them once more. They could in no way match Nike’s offer though. So Jordan and Nike struck a deal and the rest is marketing history. Nike launched Air Jordan and by the end of 1985, the line had earned more than $100 million in revenue. An ironic note is that Jordan didn’t care for his first shoes, the Air Jordan I. He soon changed his mind when he realized the shoes distracted the other players.
Before 1997, Jordan never earned more than $4 million in a season playing basketball. He was the league’s highest-paid player in only two of his seasons. In 1997 he was paid $30 million and in 1998 he was paid $33 million.
From 2004 until the end of 2013 he owned Michael Jordan Motorsports. This company had a professional closed-course motorcycle racing team. They competed in the AMA-sanctioned Superbike Championship with two Suzukis.
He is the first former NBA player to become the majority owners of an NBA team and the only African-American majority owner of an NBA team. He joined the Forbes’ list of international billionaires in 2015, the first professional athlete to achieve this level of success.
Michael Jordan was married to Juanita Vanoy for seventeen years and they have three children together: Jeffrey, Marcus, and Jasmine. They divorced in 2002, reconciled, then divorced again in 2006 for good. The divorce was an amicable and mutual term. At that time, their divorce settlement of $168 million was the most expensive celebrity divorce in history.
Jordan’s father, James Jordan, was shot to death by two teenage thieves while he slept in his car. They dumped his body in a swamp in South Carolina, where it was discovered in Bennettsville. They were caught, convicted and sentenced to life in prison. His father’s murder was responsible for Jordan’s decision to switch to baseball, as his father had encouraged him to do for several years before his death.
