Even though Michael Jordan is in charge of The Last Dance, he has done a decent job of addressing all the controversies throughout his career.
It doesn’t matter if you like the answers or not, he is at least addressing them.
He finally admits he did say “Republicans Buy Sneakers Too” when asked why he wouldn’t publicly support a black candidate over a racist one.
Here is why he said he never wanted to be an activist.
Jordan, who has largely stayed away from any political commentary throughout his public life, didn’t back away from the statement — which came during the 1990 U.S. Senate race in North Carolina between incumbent Republican Jesse Helms and Democrat challenger Harvey Gantt — in the documentary, saying it was made in jest.
Jordan went on to say that he has never seen himself as a role model.
“I don’t think that statement needs to be corrected because I said it in jest on a bus with Horace Grant and Scottie Pippen,” Jordan said. “It was thrown off the cuff. My mother asked to do a PSA for Harvey Gantt, and I said, ‘Look, Mom, I’m not speaking out of pocket about someone that I don’t know. But I will send a contribution to support him.’ Which is what I did.
“I do commend Muhammad Ali for standing up for what he believed in. But I never thought of myself as an activist. I thought of myself as a basketball player.
“I wasn’t a politician when I was playing my sport. I was focused on my craft. Was that selfish? Probably. But that was my energy. That’s where my energy was.”
“It’s never going to be enough for everybody, and I know that,” he said. “I realize that. Because everybody has a preconceived idea for what I should do and what I shouldn’t do.
“The way I go about my life is I set examples. If it inspires you? Great, I will continue to do that. If it doesn’t? Then maybe I’m not the person you should be following.”
It speaks to a couple of things I always say about athletes.
They aren’t role models. You have no idea who they are beyond what you see on the court or field.
The second thing is you can’t force anyone to do anything they aren’t comfortable. Every athlete doesn’t want to be Colin Kaepernick. Most don’t care at all about social issues.
The only thing I disagree with Jordan about is this.
If you are going to be neutral, don’t say or do anything that will give the impression of helping the side of the people who are clearly racist and oppressors.
In this case, Jesse Helms was a terrible person and even while kidding about the Republicans buy sneakers too, just similar to the MAGA jokes that made today, it can be used against your own people.
Flip the pages for the Twitter reactions to Jordan not backing down from his statement.