Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports wasn’t impressed with Michael Jordan’s Hall of Fame induction speech.
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 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.
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.
You can see the speech for yourself after the jump.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
This is a great article. After living in Chicago for the Jordan years this shows just a tiny spec of how nasty this guy was. Did he mention Pipin at all? A guy who took his crap all those years and played second banana for him.
I’m still waiting for somebody to get the balls to look into his first retirement…The one were he decided to play baseball with the White Sox?
What a farse that was..
The NBA has a secret
Yo D-Man,
What are you implying with his first retirement. What farce? I’m not attacking you or anything, just curious.
This was a really weird, antagonistic speech, though.
Chris, I don’t want to speak for D-Man, but I think he’s referring to the theory that Jordan’s first retirement was actually an under-the-table suspension for his gambling habit. Stern didn’t want the bad PR so he convinced Michael to play baseball instead and then come back to play in the NBA.
Thanks, John.
I had never heard of that. I assume it was betting on basketball games, though I could be wrong. If so, that’s grounds for banishment from the baseball Hall of Fame a la Pete Rose.
But maybe he bettering on something else.
betting*
Growing up in Chicago, I heard that theory as well, although nobody ever said he was betting on basketball. (More that he was betting card games in casinos.)
If you believe in conspiracy theories (or even if you don’t), the under-the-table suspension makes sense. The NBA didn’t want to suspend its biggest and most marketable star, so they ask him to “retire” until he gets his gambling situation in check. Then when he comes back, that’s a huge story in itself.