The best NBA player ever...Michael Jordan.  This may very well be the emcee’s spiel come April when the inductees to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame is announced to the public during the Final Four of the NCAA to be held in Detroit, Michigan.  Earlier this February, it was announced that the Air Jordan headed the roster of 16 candidates to the illustrious award named after James Naismith, a Canadian PE teacher who invented the game in Massachusetts during the early 1890s.  To be eligible for nomination to Mr. Naismith’s honors list, a basketball personality has to be retired from the game for at least 5 years.  Jordan permanently shed his playing jersey after his 2002-2003 season spent with the Washington Wizards.  Hence, he became eligible for nomination only this year. To pass the honors selection committee and be enshrined in the Naismith Hall of Fame, a nominee will need to garner at least 18 votes from the 24 committee members. Continue Reading ->

Despite having parted ways for some two decades now the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan remain inseparable in the adoring minds of the basketball aficionados.  It seems destined that those Chicago Bulls Jerseys and caps bearing the legendary number 23 of His Airness Jordan will continue to be among the best-selling souvenirs from sport shops and online stores for a long long time.  This prolonged love affair with an iconic basketball star and his championship team owes much to the remarkable record of Jordan and the Bulls which is unlikely to be repeated: two three consecutive years (1991–1993 and 1996–1998) of NBA championships for a total of six titles.  Continue Reading ->

There’s a record in the NBA that most 40-year-old fans and aging baby boomers could draw inspiration from. This record was set when Michael Jordan and the Wizards were still on the best of terms. It happened during one game on February 21, 2003 when Michael was still playing for the Washington franchise, and he tallied 43 points to become the first NBA player in the 40 years bracket to have scored that much. Despite his advanced years by players’ standards, Jordan was still a force to reckon with while with the Wizards, averaging 20 points per game in addition to contributing 3.8 assists as well as 1.5 steals per outing.

What’s sad, however, was that despite Michael’s heroics the Washington Wizards failed to make any of the playoffs during his stint with this team in 2001-2003. Nevertheless, Michael Jordan and the Wizards remained the top draw among NBA teams, with all their games at the MCI Center always before a sell-out crowd. Overall, the Washington squad was then polled as among the most popular NBA teams, with more than 20,000 spectators in home games and almost an equal amount on the road. But success on the hard court eluded the Wizards, leading to open criticism of team mates by the driven Jordan who was their president. Looking back, Jordan had expressed regrets over coming out of retirement to join the Washington Wizards, saying that he was used by franchise owner Abe Pollin who unceremoniously booted him out as president of basketball of operations, leading to Michael’s falling out with the team in 2003. Continue Reading ->

Michael Jordan and the North Carolina Tarheels, his Airness’ alma mater, may be in for reunion of sorts at the victory podium although may be at separate hard court venues this year.  The Tarheels are of course firmly on the saddle among the top seeds of the NCAA Division I, propelled by a 10-game winning streak.   Jordan, on the other hand, appears a shoo-in to be enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame this year.

A double-victory of sorts for the Air Jordan and the Tarheels in 2009 should be a great time to reminisce  Jordan’s memorable stint in the University of North Carolina (UNC) ball club which helped shape Michael’s remarkable basketball career.  The renowned UNC coach Dean Smith first spotted Jordan in training at the reputable Five-Star Basketball Camp, and recruited him for college basketball.  Jordan was then still a senior at Emsley A. Laney High School where he earned a slot in the varsity basketball squad after failing to make the cut in his sophomore year.  While playing in his last two seasons with the Laney team, Michael was averaging some 20 points per game, and in his final year, he spearheaded his ball club to 19 victories.  He capped his senior year of with triple-double stats of 29.2 points, 10.1 in assists and rebounds averaging 11.6 which gave him one of his earliest accolades in the game, being named as a member of the McDonald’s mythical All-American Team.  Continue Reading ->