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Michael Jordan's Basketball Hall of Fame Speech

MJ sure is looking old these days!!! I'm glad they finally inducted him in the hall of fame though. Seems like a long time coming.

Here in Chicago growing up he was like a GOD to the city.
 
TurtleDove said:
MJ sure is looking old these days!!! I'm glad they finally inducted him in the hall of fame though. Seems like a long time coming.

Here in Chicago growing up he was like a GOD to the city.
Click to expand...

He looks terrific for a man who is approaching 50. Remember, he has had no work done.

At its peak, Jordan's fame rivalled Jackson's.

Jordan Reveals Air of Honesty in His Induction Speech

By Michael Wilbon
Sunday, September 13, 2009

SPRINGFIELD, Mass.


For the better part of 25 years, Michael Jordan was praised to the heavens, but his public utterances were another story. His image, many said, was too managed. Too much corporate input, his critics said, from Nike to Gatorade to Wheaties. He wasn't real enough. He never let his hair down, if you'll pardon the expression. Never took stands, never spoke his mind, never let his adoring public see what made him tick, or let them understand what fueled his ruthless passion for basketball, for competition in general, and for, well, stomping all over other world-class opponents.

Well, in the ultimate curtain call Friday night, Jordan let it out publicly, for the first time in his career that most of us can remember. He wept at the beginning, then made us laugh, then called out a few folks including some nervous Hall of Famers, then warned us not to laugh about the assertion that he might come back to play basketball again at 50. It wasn't a speech so much as it was an entertaining rant, something you saw pretty often if you were one of Jordan's golf partners or card-playing friends or, to be honest, a sportswriter with an off-the-record relationship with him.

You can't accuse Jordan of picking on people who aren't his own size. The men who felt the needle Friday night included Pat Riley and Isiah Thomas, both of whom where sitting right in front of him. Even when the story was affectionate it had a little thorn at the end. Jordan said he still can't get over Dean Smith, whom he loves like a father, keeping him off the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1981 because Smith keeps a lid on all freshmen.

Speaking of another of his old coaches, former Bulls assistant Tex Winter, Jordan told the story of a game the Bulls were losing until he scored the final 18 or 20 points of the game. As Jordan came off the court, Winter looked at him and said, "Michael, there is no 'I' in team." Jordan said he shot back, "But there is an 'I' in win."

It's now a rather famous anecdote in the life and times of Michael Jordan that he was cut from the varsity when he was in high school. You think that's merely a footnote more than 30 years later? You think Jordan's forgotten the details or is willing to let go? Guess whom Jordan invited to the Hall of Fame Friday night? Leroy Smith, the kid who took his spot on the high school team. Jordan said he's still saying "to the coach who picked Leroy over me: 'You made a mistake, dude.' "

Bryon Russell, the Utah Jazz defender Jordan shoved aside as he rose for his last glorious championship shot for the Bulls, in 1998, had four years earlier made the mistake of telling Jordan he would shut Jordan down if he ever un-retired. You think that last shot in Salt Lake City evened the score? It's never even. Jordan called out Russell late in his speech Friday night, said he would come after Russell right now if he ever saw him in a pair of basketball shorts. "You heard him say it, didn't you, John?" Jordan said to John Stockton, a fellow inductee and Russell's teammate in Utah. As if Stockton wanted to be dragged into it.

He took a shot at Jerry Krause, the Bulls' general manager during the championship years, which pleased 90 percent of Chicagoans but came off to people in the hall as unnecessary. There were also shots at Knicks nemesis Jeff Van Gundy and a respectful jab at Riley.

Adrian Wojnarowski, writing for Yahoo Sports, said: "This wasn't a Hall of Fame induction speech, but a bully tripping nerds with lunch trays in the school cafeteria. Somehow, he thinks this is a cleansing exercise. When basketball wanted to celebrate Jordan as the greatest player ever, wanted to honor him for changing basketball everywhere, he was punitive and petty.

"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."

My brother, Don, called me first thing Saturday morning, having watched Jordan's induction, and said, "Why did Michael, who's the most beloved, the most revered athlete in history need to have a chip on his shoulder on the night he's inducted into the Hall of Fame?" Something you should know about my brother: He named his only son Jordan.

The answer to my brother's question and to Wojnarowski's annoyance is because that's how he became Michael Jordan. Without that specific personality trait -- the need to win at everything all the time, forever -- he's somebody else, probably not in the Hall of Fame, probably accepting of Leroy Smith and Bryon Russell.

Jordan said himself toward the end of his speech that he took all these perceived slights as challenges and turned them into wood that made the fire rage. Michael Jordan has always known who he is and what he needed to be Michael Jordan. It's just that few people knew this particular side until Friday night and almost nobody knew he was going to let the wall down when he did.

Oh, there were some annoyed Hall of Famers and NBA people in the house Friday night who undoubtedly wanted comments that were typically safe and syrupy. But I love Jordan unplugged. For a quarter-century people said they wanted Jordan unvarnished. Yet when they got exactly that, they thought it was too rough.

Do we really need everybody to be the same? For anybody who loves basketball, the Hall of Fame ceremonies were more than, well, ceremonial.

There was more than enough graciousness before Jordan took the stage. David Robinson, during his speech, was measured and eloquent. It was a reminder that we never heard enough from Robinson as a player, perhaps because he played in such a small market or because humble doesn't sell like arrogance and self-promotion.

Stockton, who barely made a peep in a 19-year career, delivered a speech that was so smart and so funny he might as well have been Jon Stewart. Who knew? Jerry Sloan, for my money the toughest guard who ever played in the NBA, told me just before his speech, "This is the first time I've ever felt intimidated in my life."

Sloan hates ceremonies or formalness of any kind, and knew he would struggle with his emotions considering the recent losses in his life. Still, the room was completely silent when Sloan talked about attending an elementary school where all eight grades were in the same room. And he made more than a few of us, including Jordan, cry when he broke down upon mentioning the recently departed Norm Van Lier, his back-court mate and dear friend with the Chicago Bulls.

But of course, Jordan was the reason people came. Jordan was the reason the ceremony had to be moved from the Basketball Hall of Fame down the street to the much larger Symphony Hall. Jordan even quipped he was the reason the price of a ticket was jacked up to $1,000. Jordan was the reason I sat on an ESPN set just inches off the stage for a live telecast. Jordan, as he was since he hit that jump shot for North Carolina to beat Georgetown in March of 1982, was the reason we all got dressed up, sat up straight in our seats and waited to be engaged, to be entertained, to see something we could talk about for two or three more days. And damned if Michael Jordan didn't do exactly that one more time.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/12/AR2009091202344.html?hpid=sec-sports
 
I always thought Jordan was in the Hall of Fame. When I was young(the 1990s) there were two big MJs, the music MJ and the basketball MJ. It was great seeing them together in "Jam".
 
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TurtleDove said:
MJ sure is looking old these days!!! I'm glad they finally inducted him in the hall of fame though. Seems like a long time coming.

Here in Chicago growing up he was like a GOD to the city.
Click to expand...
I don't think he looks that old at all! He's such a sweet person. And HUGE! :giggle:
 
Been a Jordan fan almost as long as I've been a Jackson fan (about 20 of my 24 yrs. on earth). I remember watching alot of Bulls games growing up, and feeling for him when the Pistons used to beat him up all the time. I thought I was a member of the team at some points lol. I don't get all the outrage over Mike's speech. If these writers really followed MJ's career, they would've known that his competitive drive is like no other. If anything, he just elaborated on everything he said in his videos from the '80's and '90's ("Come Fly With Me" & "Air Time" in particular). Because he had an image to uphold as "Air Jordan", alot of his comments up until his 1st retirement were probably PG-13. All those years, people wanted to know who the "real" Michael Jordan was, and now that they got a glimpse of it, they get all ultra-sensitive! lol All of the players & coaches at the ceremony found the humor in all of this because they knew the "real", uncensored MJ that the general public had yet to see.
 
Be like Mike? No thanks By Rick Reilly ESPN The Magazine

Michael Jordan's Hall of Fame talk was the Exxon Valdez of speeches. It was, by turns, rude, vindictive and flammable. And that was just when he was trying to be funny. It was tactless, egotistical and unbecoming. When it was done, nobody wanted to be like Mike.

And yet we couldn't stop watching. Because this was an inside look into the mindset of an icon who'd never let anybody inside before. From what I saw, I'd never want to go back. Here is a man who's won just about everything there is to win -- six NBA titles, five MVPs and two Olympics golds. And yet he sounded like a guy who's been screwed out of every trophy ever minted. He's the world's first sore winner.

In the entire 23-minute cringe-athon, there were only six thank yous, seven if you count his sarcastic rip at the very Hall that was inducting him. "Thank you, Hall of Fame, for raising ticket prices, I guess," he sneered. By comparison, David Robinson's classy and heartfelt seven-minute speech had 17. Joe Montana's even shorter speech in Canton had 23. Who wrote your speech Mike? Kanye West?

Not that Jordan's speech wasn't from the heart. It was. It's just that Jordan's heart on this night could give you frostbite. Nobody was spared, including his high school coach, his high school teammate, his college coach, two of his pro coaches, his college roommate, his pro owner, his pro general manager, the man who was presenting him that evening, even his kids!

"I wouldn't want to be you guys if I had to," he said as they squirmed in their seats.

He even mocked his own brothers, calling them maybe 5-foot-5 and 5-6. Actually, they're about 5-8 and 5-9. Michael was the one blessed with the height gene, not the tact one.

Jordan had decided that this was the perfect night to list all the ways everybody sitting in front of him had pissed him off over the past 30 years: Dean Smith, Doug Collins, Jerry Reinsdorf, Pat Riley, Isiah Thomas, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, George Gervin and Jeff Van Gundy. It was the only one-man roast in Hall of Fame history. Only very little of it was funny.

He was like that Japanese World War II soldier they found hiding in a cave in Guam 27 years after the Japanese surrendered. The only difference is, Jordan won! What good is victory if you never realize the battle is over?

This is how Jordan really is, I just never thought he'd let the world see it. His old Bulls' assistant coach, Johnny Bach, told me early on, "This guy is a killer. He's a cold-blooded assassin. It's not enough for him to beat you. He wants you dead."

I covered his entire career and saw examples of it throughout. Saw him break Rodney McCray in after-practice, $100 shooting games, humiliate him until McCray lost his stroke. Watched him race his car up the shoulder of Chicago interstates just because he didn't have the patience to wait in traffic. Heard how he'd kept his friends confined to his hotel room at the Barcelona Olympics so he could play cards -- and keep playing until he won. For Jordan, it was never enough to win. He had to have scalps.

Now here he was, in Springfield without a filter or a PR guy to cut him off, while his staff must've been covering their eyes. And suddenly, it hit you: Michael Jordan is the guy who gets up at the rehearsal dinner, grabs the mike and ruins the night.

The thing Jordan doesn't understand is, it doesn't have to be this way. Terry Bradshaw won four Super Bowls and gave one of the greatest speeches in the history of the Hall of Fame. "Folks!" he hollered. "You don't get elected into the Hall of Fame by yourself! Thank you number 88, Lynn Swann! Thank you, Franco Harris! Thank you Rocky Bleier! What I wouldn't give right now to put my hands under
Mike Webster's butt just one more time! Thank you Mike!" He thanked linemen, tight ends, everybody but the ushers.

Had Jordan been in his shoes, he'd have said, "Hey, Steve Kerr! Remember when I kicked your ass in that fight?"

Jordan owes a roomful of apologies. But it'll never happen. I know firsthand.

Before his second comeback -- with the Washington Wizards -- I was the first out with the story by a month. Jordan and his agent, David Falk, denied it, said I was crazy, practically said I was smoking something. Then, after a month of lies, Jordan admitted it was all true. I saw him in the locker room before his first game back and said, "You wanna say something to me, maybe?"

And he said, "You know you don't get no apologies in this business."

So I wouldn't hold your breath.

They called it an "acceptance" speech, but the last thing Jordan seems to be able to do is accept it's over. In fact, Jordan hinted that he might make yet another comeback at 50.

I just hope Comeback No. 3 doesn't come with a speech.

Because then I'm really screwed.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=reilly_rick&id=4477759​
 
Interesting you should mention Michael Jordan on MJ's forum. Takes me back to the 90s, when those two were the absolute main dudes I looked up to most.

Michael Jordan at the top of his game,
Michael Jackson at the top of his.

Unbelievable times..
 
Agent M said:
He looks terrific for a man who is approaching 50. Remember, he has had no work done.

At its peak, Jordan's fame rivalled Jackson's.

Jordan Reveals Air of Honesty in His Induction Speech

By Michael Wilbon
Sunday, September 13, 2009

SPRINGFIELD, Mass.


For the better part of 25 years, Michael Jordan was praised to the heavens, but his public utterances were another story. His image, many said, was too managed. Too much corporate input, his critics said, from Nike to Gatorade to Wheaties. He wasn't real enough. He never let his hair down, if you'll pardon the expression. Never took stands, never spoke his mind, never let his adoring public see what made him tick, or let them understand what fueled his ruthless passion for basketball, for competition in general, and for, well, stomping all over other world-class opponents.

Well, in the ultimate curtain call Friday night, Jordan let it out publicly, for the first time in his career that most of us can remember. He wept at the beginning, then made us laugh, then called out a few folks including some nervous Hall of Famers, then warned us not to laugh about the assertion that he might come back to play basketball again at 50. It wasn't a speech so much as it was an entertaining rant, something you saw pretty often if you were one of Jordan's golf partners or card-playing friends or, to be honest, a sportswriter with an off-the-record relationship with him.

You can't accuse Jordan of picking on people who aren't his own size. The men who felt the needle Friday night included Pat Riley and Isiah Thomas, both of whom where sitting right in front of him. Even when the story was affectionate it had a little thorn at the end. Jordan said he still can't get over Dean Smith, whom he loves like a father, keeping him off the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1981 because Smith keeps a lid on all freshmen.

Speaking of another of his old coaches, former Bulls assistant Tex Winter, Jordan told the story of a game the Bulls were losing until he scored the final 18 or 20 points of the game. As Jordan came off the court, Winter looked at him and said, "Michael, there is no 'I' in team." Jordan said he shot back, "But there is an 'I' in win."

It's now a rather famous anecdote in the life and times of Michael Jordan that he was cut from the varsity when he was in high school. You think that's merely a footnote more than 30 years later? You think Jordan's forgotten the details or is willing to let go? Guess whom Jordan invited to the Hall of Fame Friday night? Leroy Smith, the kid who took his spot on the high school team. Jordan said he's still saying "to the coach who picked Leroy over me: 'You made a mistake, dude.' "

Bryon Russell, the Utah Jazz defender Jordan shoved aside as he rose for his last glorious championship shot for the Bulls, in 1998, had four years earlier made the mistake of telling Jordan he would shut Jordan down if he ever un-retired. You think that last shot in Salt Lake City evened the score? It's never even. Jordan called out Russell late in his speech Friday night, said he would come after Russell right now if he ever saw him in a pair of basketball shorts. "You heard him say it, didn't you, John?" Jordan said to John Stockton, a fellow inductee and Russell's teammate in Utah. As if Stockton wanted to be dragged into it.

He took a shot at Jerry Krause, the Bulls' general manager during the championship years, which pleased 90 percent of Chicagoans but came off to people in the hall as unnecessary. There were also shots at Knicks nemesis Jeff Van Gundy and a respectful jab at Riley.

Adrian Wojnarowski, writing for Yahoo Sports, said: "This wasn't a Hall of Fame induction speech, but a bully tripping nerds with lunch trays in the school cafeteria. Somehow, he thinks this is a cleansing exercise. When basketball wanted to celebrate Jordan as the greatest player ever, wanted to honor him for changing basketball everywhere, he was punitive and petty.

"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."

My brother, Don, called me first thing Saturday morning, having watched Jordan's induction, and said, "Why did Michael, who's the most beloved, the most revered athlete in history need to have a chip on his shoulder on the night he's inducted into the Hall of Fame?" Something you should know about my brother: He named his only son Jordan.

The answer to my brother's question and to Wojnarowski's annoyance is because that's how he became Michael Jordan. Without that specific personality trait -- the need to win at everything all the time, forever -- he's somebody else, probably not in the Hall of Fame, probably accepting of Leroy Smith and Bryon Russell.

Jordan said himself toward the end of his speech that he took all these perceived slights as challenges and turned them into wood that made the fire rage. Michael Jordan has always known who he is and what he needed to be Michael Jordan. It's just that few people knew this particular side until Friday night and almost nobody knew he was going to let the wall down when he did.

Oh, there were some annoyed Hall of Famers and NBA people in the house Friday night who undoubtedly wanted comments that were typically safe and syrupy. But I love Jordan unplugged. For a quarter-century people said they wanted Jordan unvarnished. Yet when they got exactly that, they thought it was too rough.

Do we really need everybody to be the same? For anybody who loves basketball, the Hall of Fame ceremonies were more than, well, ceremonial.

There was more than enough graciousness before Jordan took the stage. David Robinson, during his speech, was measured and eloquent. It was a reminder that we never heard enough from Robinson as a player, perhaps because he played in such a small market or because humble doesn't sell like arrogance and self-promotion.

Stockton, who barely made a peep in a 19-year career, delivered a speech that was so smart and so funny he might as well have been Jon Stewart. Who knew? Jerry Sloan, for my money the toughest guard who ever played in the NBA, told me just before his speech, "This is the first time I've ever felt intimidated in my life."

Sloan hates ceremonies or formalness of any kind, and knew he would struggle with his emotions considering the recent losses in his life. Still, the room was completely silent when Sloan talked about attending an elementary school where all eight grades were in the same room. And he made more than a few of us, including Jordan, cry when he broke down upon mentioning the recently departed Norm Van Lier, his back-court mate and dear friend with the Chicago Bulls.

But of course, Jordan was the reason people came. Jordan was the reason the ceremony had to be moved from the Basketball Hall of Fame down the street to the much larger Symphony Hall. Jordan even quipped he was the reason the price of a ticket was jacked up to $1,000. Jordan was the reason I sat on an ESPN set just inches off the stage for a live telecast. Jordan, as he was since he hit that jump shot for North Carolina to beat Georgetown in March of 1982, was the reason we all got dressed up, sat up straight in our seats and waited to be engaged, to be entertained, to see something we could talk about for two or three more days. And damned if Michael Jordan didn't do exactly that one more time.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/12/AR2009091202344.html?hpid=sec-sports
Click to expand...

again..speculation on 'work done'. i just wish people would stop..

contrary to pop opinion..the way a person looks and how much 'work, speculated to have been done' don't necessarily relate. besides..all this crap about looks is in the eye of the beholder. one person might think Jordan looks old. you think different. to each their own.

but anyway..on the subject of Jordan's speech...he speaks like i think many of us think. lol. i liked it. i didn't see anything wrong with the speech, like i heard people in the media said there was something wrong with the speech.
 
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