1 - Rational for choice of topic

Michael Jordan

Alexander Leschenko

Table of contents:

1 - Rational for choice of topic

Early years - 2

Professional career: beginning - 3

Mid-career: Pistons roadblock - 4

First retirement and baseball career - 5

"I'm back": Return to the NBA - 6

After retiring as a player and his personal life - 7

Conclusion - 8

9 - Bibliography

Rationale for choice of topic:

I chose this topic because this topic is very much connected with my hobby. Basketball is my hobby and my idol in basketball is Michael Jordan. I watched a lot of basketball games on television, looking at many players around the world but most of all I liked Michael Jordan. I consider him to be the best basketball player during his basketball career in the National Basketball Association (NBA). My brother, friends, parents and relatives know that I love basketball, and also advised me to choose this topic, because they believe that the best basketball player was Michael Jordan and so do I, because I fully agree with their opinion. I think that when I finish this project I will know much more about the life of Michael Jordan and his basketball career.

Early years:

Michael Jeffrey Jordan was born February 17, 1963 in Brooklyn, New York. He is the fourth of five children born to James and Deloris, his parents. The family moved from Brooklyn to Wilmington, North Carolina, when Michael was still a young child. While all his brothers and sisters after school earned additionally and helped parents about the house, Michael was rather lazy, didn't want to work and as could avoided house duties. At high school he especially didn't try, and had problems with discipline. Young Michael liked to play baseball with his father. When Michael was a teenager, he became well known in North Carolina for his baseball skills, and he was named most valuable player (MVP) of the Babe Ruth League after his team won the state championship. He dreamed to become professional baseball player in the future, but later Michael seriously liked basketball. Michael's constant partner in basketball was his big brother with whom they often played against each other in the site behind the house. In 1981, Jordan earned a basketball scholarship to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he majored in cultural geography. As a freshman in coach Dean Smith's team, he was named ACC Freshman of the Year after he averaged 13.4 points per game (ppg) on 53.4% shooting. He made the game-winning jump shot in the 1982 NCAA Championship game against Georgetown, which was led by future NBA rival Patrick Ewing. Jordan later described this shot as the major turning point in his basketball career. After a standout career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Jordan joined the NBA's Chicago Bulls in 1984 and he quickly emerged as a league star.

Professional career: beginning

During his first season in the NBA Jordan averaged 28.2 points per game on 51.5% shooting. He quickly became a fan favorite even in opposing arenas, and appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the heading "A Star is Born" just over a month into his professional career. Jordan was also voted in as an All-Star (human that have a high level of performance in his field) starter by the fans in his rookie season. Jordan's second season was cut short by a broken foot which caused him to miss 64 games. Despite Jordan's injury and a 30–52 record, the Bulls made the play-offs(the game or series of games played after the regular season by the top competitors, to determine the league champion or a similar accolade). Jordan recovered in time to participate in the playoffs and performed well upon his return. Against a 1985–86 Boston Celtics team that is often considered one of the greatest in NBA history, Jordan set the still-unbroken record for points in a playoff game with 63 in Game 2. The Celtics, however, managed to sweep the series. Jordan had recovered completely by the 1986–87 season, and had one of the most. He became the only player other than Wilt Chamberlain to score 3,000 points in a season, averaging a league high 37.1 points on 48.2% shooting. In addition, Jordan demonstrated his defensive prowess, as he became the first player in NBA history to record 200 steals and 100 blocks in a season. Despite Jordan's success, Magic Johnson won the league's Most Valuable Player Award. The Bulls reached 40 wins, and advanced to the playoffs for the third consecutive year. However, they were again swept by the Celtics.

Mid-career: Pistons roadblock

Jordan led the league in scoring again in the 1987–88 season, averaging 35.0 ppg on 53.5% shooting and won his first league MVP (Most Valuable Player) award. He was also named the Defensive Player of the Year, as he had averaged 1.6 blocks and a league high 3.16 steals per game. The Bulls finished 50–32, and made it out of the first round of the playoffs for the first time in Jordan's career, as they defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in five games. However, the Bulls then lost in five games to the more experienced Detroit Pistons, who were led by Isiah Thomas and a group of physical players known as the "Bad Boys".

In the 1988–89 season, Jordan again led the league in scoring, averaging 32.5 points per game on 53.8% shooting from the field. The Bulls finished with a 47–35 record, and advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals, defeating the Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks along the way. However, the Pistons again defeated the Bulls, this time in six games, by utilizing their "Jordan Rules" method of guarding Jordan, which consisted of double and triple teaming him every time he touched the ball.

The Bulls entered the 1989–90 season as a team on the rise, with their core group of Jordan and young improving players like Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant, and under the guidance of new coach Phil Jackson. Jordan averaged a league leading 33.6 points per game on 52.6% shooting, and the Bulls finished with a 55–27record. They again advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals beating the Bucks and Philadelphia 76ers along the way. However, despite pushing the series to seven games, the Bulls lost to the Pistons for the third consecutive season.

First retirement and baseball career:

On October 6, 1993, Jordan announced his retirement, citing a loss of desire to play basketball. Jordan later stated that the murder of his father earlier in the year shaped his decision. James R. Jordan, Sr. was murdered on July 23, 1993, at a highway rest area in Lumberton, North Carolina, by two teenagers, Daniel Green and Larry Martin Demery. The assailants were traced from calls they made on James Jordan's cellular phone, caught, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison. Jordan's announcement sent shock waves throughout the NBA and appeared on the front pages of newspapers around the world. Jordan then further surprised the sports world by signing a minor league baseball contract with the Chicago White Sox. He reported to spring training and was assigned to the team's minor league system on March 31, 1994. Jordan has stated this decision was made to pursue the dream of his late father, who had always envisioned his son as a Major League Baseball player. The White Sox were another team owned by Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who continued to honor Jordan's basketball contract during the years he played baseball. He had a brief professional baseball career for the Birmingham Barons, a Chicago White Sox farm team(is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players) After, he also appeared for the Scottsdale Scorpions in the 1994 Arizona Fall League, against the top teams in baseball.

"I'm back": Return to the NBA

In the 1993–94 season, without Jordan, the Bulls finished with a 55–27 record, and lost to the New York Knicks in the second round of the playoffs. Struggling at mid-season to ensure a spot in the playoffs, Chicago was 31–31 at one point in mid-March. The team received a lift, however, when Jordan decided to return to the NBA for the Bulls.

On March 18, 1995, Jordan announced his return to the NBA through a pithy press release: "I'm back." The next day, Jordan donned jersey number 45 (his number with the Barons), as his familiar 23 had been retired in his honor following his first retirement. In the first game against Indiana Pacers in Indianapolis, he scored 19 points. The game had the highest television rating of a regular season NBA game since 1975.

Although he had not played in an NBA game in a year and a half, Jordan played well upon his return, making a game-winning jump shot against Atlanta in his fourth game back and scoring 55 points in a game against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden on March 28, 1995. Boosted by Jordan's comeback, the Bulls made the playoffs and advanced to the Eastern Conference Semi-finals against the Orlando Magic. At the end of the first game of the series, though, Orlando's Nick Anderson would strip Jordan from behind, leading to the game-winning basket for the Magic. He would later comment that Jordan "didn't look like the old Michael Jordan", and in the next game Jordan returned to wearing his old number (23). Jordan averaged 31 points per game in that series, but Orlando prevailed in six games.

After retiring as a player and his personal life:

After his last retirement,Jordan kept busy over the next few years by staying in shape, playing golf in celebrity charity tournaments, spending time with his family in Chicago, promoting his Jordan Brand clothing line, and riding motorcycles. Since 2004, Jordan has owned Michael Jordan Motorsports, a professional closed-course motorcycle road racing team that competes with two Suzukis in the premier Superbike class sanctioned by the American Motorcyclist Association.

He married Juanita Vanoy in September 1989, and they have two sons, Jeffrey Michael and Marcus James, and a daughter, Jasmine. Jordan and Vanoy filed for divorce on January 4, 2002, citing irreconcilable differences, but reconciled shortly thereafter. They again filed for divorce and were granted a final decree of dissolution of marriage on December 29, 2006, commenting that the decision was made "mutually and amicably".

As of 2007, Jordan lived in Highland Park, Illinois, and both of his sons attended Loyola Academy, a private Roman Catholic high school located in Wilmette, Illinois. Jeffrey graduated as a member of the 2007 graduating class and played his first collegiate basketball game on November 11, 2007, for the University of Illinois. After two seasons, Jeffrey left the Illinois basketball team in 2009. He later rejoined the team for a third season, then received a release to transfer to the University of Central Florida, where Marcus was attending. Marcus transferred to Whitney Young High School after his sophomore year and graduated in 2009. He began attending UCF in the fall of 2009.

Conclusions:

While doing this project I learned a lot of useful information, which I did not know before. Also I got skills of using the Word software and fast typing with a keyboard. Books, Internet sites, friends and my relatives helped me in this. Michael Jordan gave me understand that to succeed in a basketball career, you must be a purposeful man who knows his purpose and tends to it, as he did.

For his basketball career, Michael Jordan has achieved: 2-time Olympic champion(1984, 1992), 6-time champion of the NBA(1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998), 6-times NBA Finals MVP (1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998), 3-time All-Star MVP Match (NBA) (1988, 1996, 1998), Rookie of the Year (1985), Best defender of NBA (1988), 14 times participated in the NBA All-Star Game, Member list of 50 greatest players in NBA history (1996), 11 times included in the All-Star team (1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998).

I consider that Michael Jordan has achieved all what he wanted in his life, and in that he was helped by his parents, teachers, friends and of course by his own efforts.

Bibliography:

Books:

Playing for Keeps:Michael Jordan and the world that he made

Internet sites:

www.wikipedia.org

www.nba.com

www.mjordan23.com

Дата добавления: 2015-09-29