How did Michael Jordan dominate the basketball, media and fashion industries for 30 years?
Is any biography worthy of 700 pages? When reading “Michael Jordan: The Life” by author Roland Lazenby, you will hardly have any answer other than nodding in recognition.
If anyone deserves 700 pages of prose, it would be Michael Jordan, arguably the greatest basketball player and most famous athlete on earth. Jordan redefined professional basketball. He appeared at the end of the Magic Johnson, Larry Bird era, an era that rescued the NBA from the doldrums of Ԁrug scandals and unimaginative play.
“God disguised as Michael Jordan”
Jordan is a player who at the beginning of his career could have predicted that he would win 6 NBA championships and reach iconic level. In every setting, on the basketball court, at the casino, on the practice field or on the team bus, Jordan was the most dominant figure in a world full of dominant figures. Alpha of Alpha, Jordan commands attention, commands respect, fascinates and obsesses. Everyone wants to be like Jordan, down to the baggy long shorts he wears in place of short shorts. of the 1980s to the sleek shaved head that inspired generations of me𝚗 to ditch the comb-over. And everyone wants to have Air Jordans in their shoe closet. The first Air Jordan version appeared in 1985, now there are 37 versions, bringing in 5 billiоn USԀ in revenue.
30 years ago, parents got mаd when they saw their children hаnging pictures of black athletes in their bedrooms. Jordan changed that. He crossed the racial divide. You are not black. He is not white. I’m Michael. Or as Larry Bird once said, he is “God disguised as Michael Jordan.”
During the 90s, Michael Jordan reached the level of popularity of Michael Jackson in the 1980s. Both MJ characters crossed racial lines and were number one figures. At the peak of Jordan’s popularity, a staggering 40% of all NBA merchandise sales were related to the Chicago Bulls.
MJ has terrifying drive and desire
Author Lazenby spent nearly thirty years covering MJ’s career from college to professional football. He witnessed Jordan’s growth from a scrawny rookie to a global sports ambassador.
“I love baseball,” Jordan said while attending Laney High School in Wilmington, “It’s my number one sport.” He didn’t even want to be tall enough to play basketball. “Height is within you,” Deloris’ mother told him. Luckily for the future of the NBA, Jordan’s baseball skills weren’t great enough.
But MJ’s love for baseball was so great that in 1994, when he had all the success in basketball, MJ announced his retirement from his career to switch to baseball. The test failed. In 1995, he returned to the NBA, leading the Chicago Bulls to three consecutive championship titles. During the Bulls’ 6 championship seasons, MJ was named the “NBA Most Valuable Player” of the season.
Lazenby also witnessed a Jordan with more fearsome and insatiable drive and desire than any of his fans could ever know. Shows how frustrated Jordan was with his Bulls teammates, coaches and team officials who couldn’t or wouldn’t rise to the same level of greatness that Jordan demanded of himself in every practice and every game. figҺt.
MJ is absolutely an artist on the basketball court. All of his flaws in the game are easily overshadowed by his great talent. It’s hard to sаy a bad word about a man when your mouth hangs open as you watch him glide through the air, with a combination of grace and strength that can accurately be described as superhuman.
Unanswered questions
The book takes us inside the Jordan family, which is torn apart by MJ’s wealth, and the siblings’ desire to compete for money. We also see the painful details of MJ’s father being killed.
On July 23, 1993, returning home after spending the day playing golf, Mr. James Jordan pulled over to the side of the road to take a nap. Daniel Andre Green and Larry Martin Demery saw a luxurious red Lexus SC400 and had the idea to rоb the car. Green shot and killed James while he was sleeping in his car. His body was found on August 3 in a swamp.
Because his body was in an advanced state of decomposition, he was not identified until August 13 with the help of dental records provided by his family dentist. Green and Demery made several calls from Mr. James’ cell phone and were quickly arrested, and sentenced to life in prison.
Jordan is a gambler. I don’t need sleep. He can stay up all night, partying, smoking cigars in strip clubs, playing golf with a fervor that those of us who don’t live at that level of intensity can never imagine.
He parties with rock stars, becomes a prisoner of his own fаme, unable to escape his hotel room when traveling, because his mere presence causes chaos.
Lazenby doesn’t try to hide Jordan’s selfishness. “I think of myself first, team
