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.
Kevin Kolb will take over for Donovan McNabb if he can’t go in Week 2. McNabb apparently has a cracked rib…With Brandon Stokley’s amazing game-winning play, Kyle Orton‘s line (243 yards, TD) is not nearly as good as it looks…Maybe the Detroit O-line isn’t as bad in pass protection as we thought. Mark Stafford threw 37 passes but was only sacked once…Tony Romo‘s stellar performance (353 yards, 3 TD) against a traditionally good defense means that he’s probably any every-week starter going forward…Shaun Hill (209, TD) was solid if unspectacular against the Cardinals and should be a good start going forward. He has a pretty easy schedule this season…Aaron Rodgers (184 yards, TD) had a very poor statistical game before the game-winning 50-yard bomb to Greg Jennings. If the Packers can solidify the protection on the right side of the, Rodgers should settle down…Mark Sanchez (272 yards, TD, INT) looked pretty solid on the road in his NFL debut…Matt Schaub (166 yards, INT) and the rest of the Texans’ offense was pretty brutal.
