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The Small Forward, 1983


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To the American people, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time – but when he was at college, MJ had been deemed too short to play ball. According to his biographer, if MJ hadn’t made it as a basketball player he’d have wanted to be a weatherman. He’d have been showing you where the clouds were gathering, where there would be sunshine or rain, where thunder and lightning might strike. But today, in an exhibition match sponsored by Nike in Trieste, Italy, Michael Jordan was the lightning. His eyes glared and his feet were on fire; the no°23 volcano was about to erupt. He pushed off his toes and soared into the air, and the Italian crowd looked on in wonder as he landed a dunk that shattered the backboard. Mamma mia, what a dunk! The guy seemed to defy gravity, and played the game in a way they’d never seen. The Italians were floored. The crowd were stunned by the giant from Brooklyn, though at just six feet, four and a half inches tall, Jordan was considered a small forward. This moment is often mentioned around the world as an important milestone in MJ’s rise to the top, cementing him as a legend of the sport. People wanted to see him, to reach out and touch him. In 2020, the shoes worn by Michael Jordan for the Trieste game sold at auction for the exorbitant price of $615,000, setting a record for a pair of sports shoes.

 

Michael Jordan would go on to win six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls. When the Bulls made the finals for the first time in their history, they faced off against an LA Lakers team that featured Magic Johnson and James Worthy, two famous and fearsome opponents. The Chicago Bulls won the series 4 - 1, and went on to seal fifteen a 15-2 record in the playoffs. The most famous moment of the game against the Lakers came when Michael Jordan was going for a dunk, and managed to dodge a block from Sam Perkins by switching the ball from his right to his left hand while he was in the air. His secret was eating a 2-pound steak before every game.

 

Jordan was also one of his generation’s most sought-after athletes for advertisers. He was behind the success of Nike’s Air Jordans, launched in 1984 and still sold all over the world today. After retiring, Jordan increased his minority stake in the Charlotte Hornets, making him the first ever former player to become the majority owner of a team.

 

Alan Alfredo Geday

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