It is perhaps that failure of imagination that we fear most. Despite the cliches, no one seriously believed Jordan was superhuman. (Remember his thankfully brief baseball career?) In fact, part of his charm has always been the veneer of ordinariness--the wife, the kids, the sports-utility vehicle without a jacked-up suspension and flashing lights. What fans around the world--and let no one forget that it was Jordan alone who brought the narrowly American game to every corner of the globe--took from his aerial acrobatics were consistent, even predictable flashes of brilliance, moments in which perfection was revealed to be attainable (at least on, or some inches above, a basketball court). Other athletes have one memorable catch, or run, or swing of the bat. Jordan has a library of them (the shot that won legendary college coach Dean Smith his first championship at North Carolina, the shot that shattered the Cleveland Cavaliers, the shot that...). No one wants to think the shelves are as full as they'll ever be.
That, however, is what we're left with--the kind of product Jordan virtually invented, a mental highlights video. (His 1989 Come Fly With Me remains the best-selling sports video of all-time.) The legacy is not inappropriate. As nearly every commentator points out, Jordan, worth half a billion dollars by some estimates, has grown over the course of his career into a one-man conglomerate, churning out videos, cologne, underwear. No face sells better: last summer Fortune magazine estimated that he has contributed, conservatively, $10 billion to the U.S. economy in his 13 seasons, largely through endorsements. In part he has succeeded as an arch-capitalist because he neither looks nor acts like one; his early commercials required only highlight-reel footage or a flash of his trademark grin to succeed, and he has managed his varied interests far more discreetly than the typical hotshot rookie out to design his own garish sneaker. To ask whether he is the most recognizable sports figure on the planet (the second-most famous American, after Thomas Edison, in China) because of his play or his ads is to bring up chickens and eggs.
Yet what has truly made Jordan a perfect pitchman for absolutely anything (Nike, Gatorade, McDonald's, Oakley, Rayovac, WorldCom ... ) is that he has won. While his elegance was once that of Baryshnikov, age and triple-teaming defenses brought him to earth. So, like Sinatra after he lost his crooning voice, Jordan, with delimited skills, developed an even better game. Through practice, his fadeaway jumper, passing and defense became twice as good as when he started in the league. In 1998, during the last seconds of a playoff series against the Pacers, coach Larry Bird told his team to swarm Jordan and see if he was great enough to pass. He was--and Bird should have known it, because it had been true for some time.
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January 25, 1999
Who's the Greatest? The answer might surprise
All-Pro David Halberstam on what really made Jordan excel--having the most complete game in the game
POLL Who is the greatest athlete of all time?
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