OT: Interesting article on Michael Jordan at 50(!)

Submitted by BlueinGR on

First post, but I figured this is safe since it doesn't ask for medical or parenting advice, and I haven't seen this mentioned on the board.  Anyway, I came accross an interesting article today from ESPN's Wright Thompson about Michael Jordan at 50.  It's a little long, but worth the read IMHO.  Interesting how much his competitive drive seems to be a blessing and a curse at the same time.  Having grown up in the 80's and 90's, I can't believe MJ is FIFTY.  I'm thankful that I got to see him play at his best, and I'm not sure we'll ever see a player/icon like him again.

http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/page/Michael-Jordan/michael-jordan-not-…

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M-Wolverine

February 18th, 2013 at 2:15 PM ^

But the teams were better. Mainly because there were less of them and all the good players on the extra teams were distributed among the remaining teams.  So there was more depth. 

And while the overall athletes probably weren't as good (in numbers) they were more skilled. The majority spent 4 years in college, and even the best spent 2-3 years in college. Now a lot of them are basically entering the league straight out of AAU ball.  By the time they've been around the block they can pick up the skills (like a mid-range jumper) but early on it's some bad basketball.

And defense was all pure man to man back in the day, so I'm not sure how it was less athletic.

Joined: 10/04/2009

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OmarDontScare

February 18th, 2013 at 11:49 AM ^

Excerpt from a Bill Simmons interview about his "Book of Basketball" circa 2009. http://www.avclub.com/articles/bill-simmons,35319/ AVC: What did he think of the conspiracy theory you’ve supported, that Jordan was secretly suspended from the NBA for gambling problems? BS: Well, this is where I have a little different opinion with Mr. Shelton, because he is adamant, and that’s kind of what his film’s about. He tries to debunk the conspiracy theory. I will always believe that Mr. Jordan was told to maybe come up with some things to do for a year and a half, for reasons that I don’t need to elaborate on. I think he was advised to maybe pick up some other hobbies until March of 1995. [Laughs.]  AVC: So you didn’t think he threw himself into this dream of being every bit as good of a major-league player as a— BS: I’m not sure the most competitive athlete in the history of professional, college, or any sort of organized sports was totally satiated for kicking everybody’s ass. It seems a little far-fetched to me. As if he was like, “Yeah, I’ve kicked enough ass. I’m going to play baseball.” It seems a little iffy. Did you see that Hall Of Fame speech? The guy is still fucking competitive, and he’s been retired for 10 years. He’s going to be the first guy to come back and try to play team sports at age 50 since Gordie Howe. He obviously just can’t handle a life without competitiveness. And from all we know about him now, it just seems really crazy to me that he would just walk away [to play baseball].

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