Sad display by the NBA's king {...MJ...} hummmm???
rbdjr1
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Well, that's according to Yahoo sports writer, Adrian Wojnarowski, (see below!)
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Jordan’s Night To Remember Turns Petty
By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports
9/12/09
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – The tears tumbled, flooding his face and Michael Jordan had yet to march to the microphone at Symphony Hall. He had listened to the genuine stories and speeches of a remarkable class. He had watched a “This is Your Life” video compilation of his basketball genius. Everything flashed before him, a legacy that he’s fought with body and soul to never, ever let go into yesterday.
Yes, Michael Jordan was still fighting it on Friday night, and maybe he always will. Mostly, he was crying over the passing of that old Jordan, and it wouldn’t be long until he climbed out of his suit and back into his uniform and shorts, back into an adolescent act that’s turned so tedious.
This wasn’t a Hall of Fame induction speech, but a bully tripping nerds with lunch trays in the school cafeteria. He had a responsibility to his standing in history, to players past and present, and he let everyone down. This was a night to leave behind the petty grievances and past slights – real and imagined. This was a night to be gracious, to be generous with praise and credit.
Jordan didn’t hurt his image with the NBA community, as much as he reminded them of it. “That’s who Michael is,” one high-ranking team executive said. “It wasn’t like he was out of character. There’s no one else who could’ve gotten away with what he did tonight. But it was Michael, and everyone just goes along.”
Jordan wandered through an unfocused and uninspired speech at Symphony Hall, disparaging people who had little to do with his career, like Jeff Van Gundy and Bryon Russell. He ignored people who had so much to do with it, like his personal trainer, Tim Grover. This had been a moving and inspirational night for the NBA – one of its best ceremonies ever – and five minutes into Jordan’s speech it began to spiral into something else. Something unworthy of Jordan’s stature, something beneath him.
Jordan spent more time pointlessly admonishing Van Gundy and Russell for crossing him with taunts a dozen years ago than he did singling out his three children. When he finally acknowledged his family, Jordan blurted, in part, to them, “I wouldn’t want to be you guys.”
Well, um, thanks Dad. He meant it, too. If not the NBA, he should’ve thought of his children before he started spraying fire at everyone.
No one ever feels sorry for Isiah Thomas, but Jordan tsk-tsked him and George Gervin and Magic Johnson for the 1985 All-Star game “freeze-out.” Jordan was a rookie, and the older stars decided to isolate him. It was a long time ago, and he obliterated them all for six NBA championships and five MVP trophies. Isiah and the Ice Man looked stunned, as intimidated 50 feet from the stage, as they might have been on the basketball court.
The cheering and laughter egged Jordan on, but this was no public service for him. Just because he was smiling didn’t mean this speech hadn’t dissolved into a downright vicious volley.
Worst of all, he flew his old high school teammate, Leroy Smith, to Springfield for the induction. Remember, Smith was the upperclassman his coach, Pop Herring, kept on varsity over him as a high school sophomore. He waggled to the old coach, “I wanted to make sure you understood: You made a mistake, dude.”
Whatever, Michael. Everyone gets it. Truth be told, everyone got it years ago, but somehow he thinks this is a cleansing exercise. When basketball wanted to celebrate Jordan as the greatest player ever, wanted to honor him for changing basketball everywhere, he was petty and punitive. Yes, there was some wink-wink teasing with his beloved Dean Smith, but make no mistake: Jordan revealed himself to be strangely bitter. You won, Michael. You won it all. Yet, he keeps chasing something that he’ll never catch, and sometimes, well, it all seems so hollow for him.
This is why he’s a terrible basketball executive because he still hasn’t learned to channel his aggressions into hard work on that job. For the Charlotte Bobcats, Jordan remains an absentee boss who keeps searching for basketball players on fairways and greens.
From the speeches of David Robinson to John Stockton, Jerry Sloan to Vivian Stringer, there was an unmistakable thread of peace of mind and purpose. At times, they were self-deprecating and deflective of praise. Jordan hasn’t mastered that art, and it reveals him to be oddly insecure. When Jordan should’ve thanked the Bulls ex-GM, Jerry Krause, for surrounding him with championship coaches and talent, he ridiculed him. It was me, Jordan was saying. Not him. “The organization didn’t play with the flu in Utah,” Jordan grumbled.
For Jordan to let someone else share in the Bulls’ dynasty will never diminish his greatness. Just enhance it. Only, he’s 46 years old and he still doesn’t get it. Yes, Jordan did gush over Scottie Pippen, but he failed to confess that he had wanted Krause to draft North Carolina’s Joe Wolf. Sometimes, no one is better with a half a story, half a truth, than Jordan. All his life, no one’s ever called him on it.
Whatever Jordan wants to believe, understand this: The reason that Van Gundy’s declaration of him as a “con man” so angered him is because it was true on so many levels.
It was part of his competitiveness edge, part of his marketability, and yes, part of his human frailty.
Jordan wasn’t crying over sentimentality on Friday night, as much as he was the loss of a life that he returned from two retirements to have again. The finality of his basketball genius hit him at the induction ceremony, hit him hard. Jordan showed little poise and less grace.
Once again, he turned the evening into something bordering between vicious and vapid, an empty exercise for a night that should’ve had staying power, that should’ve been trans formative for basketball and its greatest player. What fueled his fury as a thirty something now fuels his bitterness as a lost, wandering forty something who threatened a comeback at 50.
“Don’t laugh,” Michael Jordan warned.
No one’s laughing anymore.
Once and for all, Michael: It’s over.
You won.
Related Video Jordan speaks on honor Jordan speaks on honor: JORDAN'S VIDEO
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Comments
maybe that motivitated me to become better..
maybe I shouldn't want to take some kids position on a team when I already had one...
everyone is looking to fit in at that age.. and that kid being cut could have changed his life in ways he has no idea about..
maybe that kid being cut would change Jordans life too.. maybe Jordan would have been an arrogant punk who thought everything should just be given to him..
and ended up flunking out of high school and he could be working for the Kid he "beat out" at a 20k per year job with 4 kids eating govt cheese.
maybe the kid that "got cut" out of depression, turns to drugs and alcohol and robs a convenience store and accidentally shoots and kills the 'basketball star Jordan'
during christmas break in 1981.
who the hell are you to bring a man to your induction ceremony only to embarrass him by saying the coach made a mistake keeping you over me...?
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MJ is one of the best if not the best basketball player to play the game. However, as a person he would not be anyone that most people would want to hang around with for the long term.
It is interesting that in any field of human endeavor, be it sports, music, science, business, politics, etc. those rare individuals who rise above everyone else to never before reached heights of greatness are so driven in and consumed by their chosen field that they never, ever "fit in" in other areas of life.
Superstar athletes [and "child stars"] are classic poster boys and poster girls for people who are oddball, weirdos once their time in the spotlight ends.
After being praised, catered to, idolized, indulged, pampered, protected and worshipped from by family, friends, teachers, administrators, coaches, the media, team owners and homeboys from age 8 to retirement at age 40; after being given endless perks, freebies and passes for indiscretions, retirement and withdrawal from the "big stage" can be devastating to someone like MJ, Barry Bonds, Lyle Alzado, Mike Tyson [and Kobe in about 10 -12 years].
Teammates and others who have to deal with a person like MJ on a daily basis get to know the real MJ; and their opinion of him is not good. Big ego, cold personality, lack of courtesy, anger at those who compete on the same stage with him and dare to take a shot as the clock is running out instead of passing him the ball, treating the hired help badly all conspire to result in a person who off of the court is viewed as a jerk. No one has any goodwill and friendly feelings for a person like MJ.
Once such a superstar leaves the "stage" or is dragged off the "stage"; once the glowing media stories become less frequent and eventually stop all together, the superstar, in great physical shape and with more than half of his life remaining eventually runs into a brick wall. "Now what do I do" is the question that is asked. If the superstar's wife and/or kids have not already left [physically and/or emotionally] his side, it is only a matter of time before it happens. Persons who could be helpful in transitioning to a new phase in life, turn a cold shoulder to the superstar, do not take his calls and probably grin while doing so, finally getting a little payback.
Life, post retirement, is not kind to a superstar like MJ. No purpose can be found to productively occupy the years and decades to come. Bitterness, regret and anger at the fact that he can no longer participate in a young man's game lead to isolation and a truly sad, sad person.
Situations like this happen every day, in all fields of human endeavor. Some of these "superstars" struggle to find a productive "next phase" and never do. The lucky ones do find a "next phase" and thank the heavens that they have.
I suspect that MJ may well be an unlucky man who never finds a "next phase" and who at 75 will feel that life has been cruely unfair to him ever sicne he took of his sneakers for the last time.
What is truly pathetic is that MJ dragged the person who made his highschool team, taking a spot MJ felt was his, when he was a sophmore, to his induction ceremony; for the purpose of highlighting MJ's opinion that he should have made the team [instead of the other guy]. Lack of class is a charitable was to describe this action by MJ.
I wonder if late at night, when no one else is around, MJ's heart and soul anguish over the fact that MJ can not transplant himself into the body of Kobe or LeBron.
/////////////////////
Part of arrested development is not learning to "get over stuff," EVER.
Such is life, for some folks.
.....
Nice To Be Important, Important To Be Nice.
BUT, it was MJ's ceremony and he had a right to comport himself
in the manner he chose to. Even if his conduct seemed to be an
embarrassment to his legacy.
Jordan...well I agree with all you guys. A world center stage..and then to do that????????
Funny...I have never heard of Jordan doing anything to give back to society using the privileged position he is in.
Living proof money can't buy class.
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I never knew the 'behind the scenes' MJ, only his almost nightly highlights on the sports channel.
It's very sad indeed that a top notch athlete can have such great talent and yet such a small 'soul'.
Earlier someone mentioned Wayne Gretzky, who is known for both his on ice competitiveness and his off ice class.
Too bad MJ doesn't have this in his character.
How could he talk about his family like that?
He will be a very bitter old man.
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1) Failed baseball career
2) Failed comeback with the Wizards where many younger players made him look old
3) Failed managment position up to now.
<< <i>he sounded like a douche. agreed. >>
i concur, not really an ambassador for the game
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<< <i>He is still bitter over many things, of course he mentioned none of them
1) Failed baseball career
2) Failed comeback with the Wizards where many younger players made him look old
3) Failed managment position up to now. >>
He did talk about his baseball career, he called it a success even though others didn't think so... I'm serious, he literally said that. As mentioned it was a very disappointing speech. I was always a Jordan fan and when people called him extremely selfish I just didn't see it, then people starting comparing Kobe's attitude with Jordan and I thought Kobe was much worse than Jordan ever was. Even the sports stations didn't know how to handle it, so they said some positive stuff and then cut to some clips of him being a jerk at the ceremony, and closed with a 'that's nice'.
<< <i>
I suspect that MJ may well be an unlucky man who never finds a "next phase" and who at 75 will feel that life has been cruely unfair to him ever sicne he took of his sneakers for the last time.
>>
I think you hit the nail on the head...talk about bitter
<< <i>I might be on an island of one, but I enjoyed his speech. I get tired of the politically correct, self deprecating nonsense that a lot of the guys do. >>
Perhaps I'm missing something too, because I really didn't think it was bad at all, and as my name indicates, I'm by no means a Jordan fan. Sure it wasn't David Robinson's speech, but no one ever confused Michael Jordan and David Robinson as men. Jordan's speech was probably more appropriate for a roast than a HOF induction ceremony, but I'm not sure that means he's going to die a bitter man. At the very least, it kept my interest. There's not a person alive who despises the arrogant athlete more than I do, but even I had to laugh at his "no, but there's an 'I' in 'win'" response to the "there's no 'I' in 'team'" remark.
I will admit that line was funny... until you realize how arrogant it is..
and the fact he didn't give anyone else the chance to step up
I don't like political correctness in any way.. but I like arrogance even less
this was a time to thank people in your life for helping you achieve a place in your life
you only dreamed of.. instead let me take the time to tell my kids that I wouldn't wanna be them..
awesome
you only dreamed of.. instead let me take the time to tell my kids that I wouldn't wanna be them..>>
Bob,
If anything, don't you think that was an (admittedly lame) attempt by Jordan to be criticial of himself as a dad? That's kind of how I took it. Again, I'm not saying the man is the most humble human being on the planet, but just using this speech as a basis, is he all that bad? Seriously, where does he compare? I still think he has more class in one arm than say Barry Bonds, Terrell Owens, Ochocinko, Roger Clemens, and so on. Let's face it, a lot of our heros aren't what they appear. If Jordan's bitter, what does / did that make Joe Dimaggio, Ted Williams, Willie Mays, Jim Brown, etc? Personally, I think I'd rather eat dinner with Jordan than Larry Bird or Isiah Thomas, and again, I don't especially like MJ.
Again, to be clear, MJ is kind of a snapper head, but, at least in my opinion, Adrian Wojnarowski's article was not only unfair but inaccurate as well.
-Tom
totally classless....
he also could have said some nice things about his mother...
was he taking notes when Robinson went?
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totally classless....>>
Complaining about the ticket prices was lame and classless, there is no doubt about that.
It reminds me a lot of Willie Mays.
I remember last year they had a big special on steroids on ESPN and had Mays and Aaron on it. Bob Gibson was in the crowd and Mays said something to the effect that the only reason Gibson ever got him out was because he tried to bean him every time up. Gibson was visibly upset by this as he thought it was going to be a good natured type ribbing as he just said how great Mays was.