Michael Jordan, a.ka. the Greatest of All Time, has been getting a bad rap for his speech. Methinks that's unfair.
Whenever Michael Jordan speaks publicly, the collective basketball brain trust comes together and makes damn well sure to have a camera on him with expectations bordering on amazing. It’s cult-like and it’s no secret Jordan grants few interviews, if any, and hand picks those he will talk to (if any). Michael Wilbon scored a nice interview the other day.
So when he does speak, his words carry more value than the those shiny rocks under the ground — particularly to the media.
For Friday’s Basketball Hall of Fame ceremony, and unexpectedly (to us), Jordan showed a little crass, the vengeance he’s always carried and an elephant’s memory of perceived wrongs against him. The reaction was twofold: “Jordan is an asshole;” and “Jordan was hilarious.”
I’ll side with the latter.
While some saw his comments on Leroy Smith, Byron Russell, and others as distasteful, I found them outright comical and actually in respect to stories we would never have appreciated if they were not told by the G.O.A.T. himself. These are people that provided the “wood for the fire” that Jordan kept talking about.
It’s really that simple. Read the rest of this entry »
