Unscripted Featuring Michael Jordan the Sports Mount Rushmore
Unscripted
By Keith Edmonds
Ink Spot Contributing Writer
“I can accept failure; everyone fails at something. but I can’t accept not trying.”
~Michael Jordan
Mount Rushmore, South Dakota is widely known for it’s granite enshrinement of four of US presidents namely George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt. Their images are forever immortalized as arguably the greatest presidents that we’ve ever known in our history. Though that can (and has been) disputed, onr thing that cannot be disputed is that Mount Rushmore symbalizes greatness in it’s purest form and entirety and is a standard by which any other people that assume the position of US presidency occupies. Using Mount Rushmore as a premise, I started thinking about what a Mount Rushmore of sports would look like if there was ever one built and 4 sports figures almost immediately came to mind for me. Today begins Part II of my 4-part series recognizing the 4 individuals that I feel should be given strong consideration for sports version of Mount Rushmore because of their unquestioned greatness and shear dominance of their peers and rivals.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Michael Jordan spent his early developmental years in rural North Carolina, after his immediate family moved to the city of Wilmington in the late 1960s, with parents James and Deloris establishing high academic standards and firm ground rules to keep their five children out of trouble. Though known for his love of basketball it was his father that introduced Michael to his “first love” which was baseball, but it was his mother (Delois) that would instill his competitive drive and his “desire to win” upon which he would build upon later in his career that became his “signature to succeed”.
Michael was a young man that was taught not be tempted by “street life” but work hard to find your passion and then move on with purpose and dignity. As a sports fan I’d heard about Michael (we are nearly the same age) as he was coming out of high school and I like many, was intrigued by someone who at one time did not make his high school team (as a sophomore) but blossomed into one of the country’s best high school players by his senior year. After high school he accepted a basketball scholarship to the University of North Carolina, where he played for head coach Dean Smith.
In Jordan's first season at North Carolina, he quickly established himself as not only his team’s best player, but he was named Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Rookie of the Year for 1982. In that same season the Tar Heels won the ACC championship, and Jordan made the memorable “jump shot” to defeat Georgetown University for the NCAA championship! Jordan led the conference in scoring as a sophomore and junior and when the Sporting News named him college player of the year for both years, he announced that he was leaving college after 2 years for the NBA. Jordan was selected by the Chicago Bulls as the third pick of the 1984 draft but before joining the Bulls, he was a member of the Summer 1984 United States Olympic men’s basketball team that won the gold medal in Los Angeles, California.
Jordan instantly became a star for the Bulls leading them in scoring every season in which he played and became a player that not only sports fans admired, but the world as a whole. Though his early seasons were filled with individual successes, there were failures as well. Jordan’s teams struggled against elite teams like the Detroit Pistons, Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers who had not only established stars, but a team chemistry that Jordan could only hope for in Chicago.
The Bulls management addressed this issue by drafting players such as: Scottie Pippen, Horace Grant and John Paxson and created a team that could compliment Jordan’s immense talent which ultimately lead them to winning 1991, 1992, and 1993 NBA Championships. In 1992 Jordan also played on the "Dream Team," which participated in the Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain. This chain of successes catapulted Jordan towards what would be a career that would arguably make him the Greatest Player the NBA had ever seen as witnessed by the following accomplishments:
2 Olympic gold medals – 84,92
6× NBA Champion (2x3-peats)
6× NBA Finals MVP
5× NBA MVP
10 NBA Scoring Titles
14 NBA All-Star Selections
3× NBA All-Star Game MVP
11 All-NBA Selections
9 All-Defensive First Team
NBA Rookie of the Year 84–85
NBA Defensive Player of the Year – 1987–88
Over 32,000 Career Points
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2009
How do you top all of these accomplishments? I’ll share more… in 1984 Jordan launched his entrepreneurial career by signing with Nike and as of April 2019, Nike’s “Jordan Brand” was worth more than $3 billion in wholesale revenue. Far out reaching their projections for them. With Jordan being the “face of the company” his annual revenue for shoe and apparel sales is about $130 million. Nearly 20 years after his last NBA game, Air Jordan branded shoes and apparel earn more than the signature shoe of EVERY current player in the NBA. Not individually, mind you, but every player combined! What more can I say about Michal Jordan that hasn’t been said? He revolutionized the game of basketball with his flair, grace, and skills that we’d never seen before. He became the standard that may of today’s stars are measured by which in itself supports my claim that he is deserving of a place on this sports mountain! There is so much more that I could share but at this point it would be redundant. Argue if you’d like when trying to stake who is the NBA’s Greatest Player, but one thing is for sure Michael Jefferey Jordan is most deserving of a place on the Mount Rushmore of athletes. Did I mention that he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009 and is currently owner of the Charlotte Bobcats? Okay I’ll stop!