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Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American former basketball player, and is considered by many to be the greatest of all time. more...

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He became the most effectively marketed athlete of his generation and was instrumental in spreading the appeal of the NBA to corporate America and overseas in the 1980s and 1990s.

Considered a remarkable force at both ends of the floor, "M.J." ended an NBA career of 15 seasons with a regular-season scoring average of 30.12 points per game, the highest in NBA history (marginally ahead of Wilt Chamberlain's 30.06). He won six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls (during which he won all six NBA Finals MVP awards), won 10 scoring titles, and was league MVP five times. He was named to the All-NBA First Team 10 times, All-Defensive First Team nine times, and led the league in steals three times. Since 1983, he has appeared on the front cover of Sports Illustrated a record 49 times, and was named the magazine's "Sportsman of the Year" in 1991. In 1999, he was named "the greatest athlete of the 20th century" by ESPN, and placed second on the Associated Press list of top athletes of the century. His leaping ability, vividly illustrated by dunking from the foul line and other feats, earned him the nicknames "Air Jordan" and "His Airness."

Early years

Michael Jeffrey Jordan was born in Brooklyn, New York, to James and Delores Jordan. The family moved to Wilmington, North Carolina when he was still a young child. Jordan has two older brothers, one older sister, and one younger sister. As a teenager he was the only one of his siblings who did not maintain a steady job and could have been viewed as the least likely to succeed. Jordan was not very focused academically until he reached high school. Various suspensions, and trouble in general during his freshman year of high school allowed him to mature. He attended Emsley A. Laney High School, where he evolved into a B+ student and a three-sport star in football (at quarterback), baseball, and basketball. He was cut from his varsity basketball team during his sophomore year because at 5'11" (1.80 m) he was deemed to be underdeveloped, but over the summer he grew four inches (10 cm) and practiced even harder. Over his next two varsity years, he would average 25 points per game. He began focusing more on basketball, practicing every morning before school with his high school varsity coach. In his senior season at Laney High, Jordan became the only player in high school history to average a triple-double, when he averaged 29.2 points, 11.6 rebounds, and 10.1 assists. He was selected to the McDonald's All-American Team as a senior.

Jordan earned a basketball scholarship to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he majored in geography. As a freshman in coach Dean Smith's team-oriented system, Jordan was an exciting, but not dominant, player. Nonetheless, he made the game winning shot in the 1982 NCAA Basketball Championship game against Georgetown, which was led by future NBA rival Patrick Ewing. After winning the Naismith College Player of the Year award in 1984, he left school early to enter the NBA Draft, and was selected by the Chicago Bulls in the first round as the 3rd pick overall, after Houston Rockets center Hakeem Olajuwon and Sam Bowie of the Portland Trail Blazers. Although Olajuwon developed into a Hall of Fame caliber player and won two NBA Championships, the selection of Bowie over Jordan is generally considered to be the worst draft blunder of all time. To be fair, Portland had selected future Hall of Fame guard Clyde Drexler the year before and may have seen no need for a similar player.

Read more at Wikipedia.org