Michael Jordan life and biography

Michael Jeffrey Jordan is a retired American professional basketball player, active businessman, and majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats. His biography on the National Basketball Association (NBA) website states, "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time." Jordan was one of the most effectively marketed athletes of his generation and was instrumental in popularizing the NBA around the world in the 1980s and 1990s.

After a standout career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he led the Tar Heels to a National Championship in 1982, Jordan joined the NBA's Chicago Bulls in 1984. He quickly emerged as a league star, entertaining crowds with his prolific scoring. His leaping ability, illustrated by performing slam dunks from the free throw line in slam dunk contests, earned him the nicknames "Air Jordan" and "His Airness". He also gained a reputation for being one of the best defensive players in basketball. In 1991, he won his first NBA championship with the Bulls, and followed that achievement with titles in 1992 and 1993, securing a "three-peat". Although Jordan abruptly retired from basketball at the beginning of the 1993–94 NBA season to pursue a career in baseball, he rejoined the Bulls in 1995 and led them to three additional championships (1996, 1997, and 1998) as well as an NBA-record 72 regular-season wins in the 1995-96 NBA season. Jordan retired for a second time in 1999, but returned for two more NBA seasons in 2001 as a member of the Washington Wizards.

Jordan's individual accolades and accomplishments include five MVP awards, ten All-NBA First Team designations, nine All-Defensive First Team honors, fourteen NBA All-Star Game appearances, three All-Star Game MVP awards, ten scoring titles, three steals titles, six NBA Finals MVP awards, and the 1988 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award. He holds the NBA records for highest career regular-season scoring average (30.12 points per game) and highest career playoff scoring average (33.4 points per game). In 1999, he was named the greatest North American athlete of the 20th century by ESPN, and was second to Babe Ruth on the Associated Press's list of athletes of the century. He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame on April 6, 2009 and was inducted on September 11, 2009.

Michael Jordan was the dominant basketball player in the world during the 1990s. He won the NBA's Most Valuable Player award five times, and six times led the Chicago Bulls to the league championship. Jordan led the Bulls to his first three championships came in 1991, 1992 and 1993 with superb shooting and playmaking and a competitive killer instinct. In October of 1993 he stunned his fans by retiring from basketball and beginning a professional baseball career, saying that playing baseball had been an early dream of his. He played the 1994 baseball season for the minor league Birmingham Barons. In March of 1995 he ended his baseball career and returned to the Bulls. With Jordan, the Bulls won three more championships in 1996, 1997 and 1998. He retired from basketball in 1999. In the year 2000 he became a part owner and executive for the NBA's Washington Wizards. In 2001 Jordan began considering another comeback as an NBA player, and that fall, at age 38, he returned once again to play for the Wizards. He played for two more full seasons, retiring again in April of 2003. Jordan was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009.

Extra credit: Jordan wore uniform number 23... His endorsement deal with Nike led to the creation of Air Jordans, the popular athletic shoe... Jordan married the former Juanita Vanoy in 1989. They had three children: Jeffrey (born 1988), Marcus (b. 1990), and Jasmine (b. 1992). Juanita filed for divorce in 2002; she and Jordan reconciled later that year, but then split again and were divorced in 2007. Jordan paid a reported $168 million to Juanita in the settlement... Jordan starred with Bugs Bunny in the 1996 feature film Space Jam.

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