It has taken a lot of effort to write this whole piece, largely in part because there’s a lot of pieces to it. This is not an open letter that speaks to Michael Jordan himself. That would be giving me too much credit. But it is an array of thoughts that have developed over time, not just from the Hall of Fame festivities or lack of it last weekend, but from the life I have experienced with two-three.
Looking back at his enshrinement, a lot of friends told me they regret not being able to fully appreciate Jordan in his full glory. For the longest time, they just weren’t that into basketball. Indeed, it is somewhat undeniable that Jordan is one of the most gifted players we have ever seen touch the sport; nobody can refute that (Ok, plenty of people can, but that’s not the point here). But who was Michael Jordan, and who created him into the dominant icon he became?
According to his speech, it was Byron Russel, Jeff Van Gundy, the 1985 All-Star Game (Zeke, Magic, Bird, Gervin, etc.), Pat Riley, John Starks and Leroy Smith? Really?
You could call me a pessimist; you could call me a hater, but understand that I am not taking away the fact that Michael Jordan is simply the purest basketball player that has played in the NBA. It was the right time he was enshrined, and truly, it was only a matter of time. But I must say that I expected a lot more from his twenty-five minute acceptance speech.
To preface this, a friend asked me to fully think about some things through before I attempted to write this. He mentioned that MJ was just a basketball player and not a politician. Understood. And he also warned me not to jump on the “I Hate MJ Bandwagon.” Hating Jordan would be blasphemous. He truly has set an imprint on basketball all across the nation, and putting all basketball aside, it would be nearly hypocritical to hate the man who has put so many pairs of shoes on my feet.
I never thought that after last weekend, I would be writing words of disappointment. If anything, I only expected words of remarkable stories and witnessed accounts of this unbelievably gifted athlete. But alas, it ended up being this…
I thank Michael Jordan for all that he did for the game and all the elements around it. I just thought Michael would have thanked all the elements around him.
To start his speech, he said wanted to just say thank you and sit down, but he just too many thank you’s. But, I don’t recall that many personal thanks.
To start the speech, he mentioned that in all the videos you saw of him, you didn’t just see him, you would see Scottie Pippen. He was off to a good start as he gave Pip his credit. But wait, I think Toni Kukoc, Ron Harper, Dennis Rodman, Horace Grant and of course John Paxson and Steve Kerr deserve some form of thanks for those six rings?
What about Peter Moore and Tinker Hatfield (above)? Those two remarkable shoe designers need some credit, right? And we haven’t even discussed Nike and Gatorade, two brands that helped Jordan become – well, a brand.
MJ did thank his family and his mother, but in a peculiar way. Nobody needs to know that he had to spend $1000 a ticket for his family. But throughout his career, we always heard about what kind of influence his father, James Jordan had on the player MJ became…but we never heard any stories about him. Maybe it was too painful, but Jordan told the crowd that he would tell us what we didn’t know about him, so he told us what drove him to be the best, but we knew what drove him, it’s been in all of his books.
At the end of it all though, Jordan deserves every single bit of credit he’s ever received. In fact, he may not get enough. Some say the number 23 should be retired by the NBA. He probably would have won 8 straight titles (Sorry Hakeem) if he didn’t retire. He probably still has a better jumper than a lot of people playing in the L right now. And you know what, he will probably destroy Byron Russell in a game of one on one any day of the week. But how come we had to hear about it like that?
He did tell us to stop looking for the next Michael Jordan. Thank goodness. Because we don’t need to look for MJ.
We already have the next generation. Kobe. Lebron. And a whole bunch of others. But haters who say that Kobe and Lebron will never be like Jordan because their egos are way too big and they only care about themselves. It’s all about personal accomplishments to them… it’s hard to admit it, but MJ is and ultimately, always has been, the same way.
And rightfully so. Look at all of his accomplishments.
But my one gripe, is when I sat down and watched him enter the Hall of Fame, I expected him to embrace it. He didn’t. He made it a competition. And this one time…for Jordan, it finally wasn’t. It was already about him. He just had to make sure we would remember it. I was hoping to remember it in a different way.
a/