Michael Jordan’s Hall of Fame Speech: Raw and Uncut
by The greatest basketball player of all time delivered his Hall of Fame speech Friday evening and he has been under scrutiny ever since.
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As he stood in front of that crowd Friday evening Michael Jordan, the final inductee, the closing act, the main attraction, stood, wiping tears from his face, barely able to look over the crowd. He stuttered a bit to begin his speech, kept looking down, clearly emotional.
Critics have already been slamming Jordan since his speech, as they were prior to the induction ceremony. Many believed he should have chosen a Chicago Bull teammate (not Rodman of course) or perhaps Dean Smith, his coach at North Carolina, to introduce him. They’ve (critics) have picked him apart for years, his every move, every little piece of dirt, for a man that was more popular around the world at one time than any political leader ever has been.
Jordan was basketball in the eighties and nineties. He was also tormented. The man was under so much scrutiny early in his career that he developed a huge chip on his shoulder. The Chicago Bulls weren’t winners before Jordan joined them. They were awful. Michael scored and defended and played his heart out all those years and listened to the critics. He’s a ball hog. He’s not Magic Johnson. He can’t win the big one.
Image via Wikipedia
He eventually proved them wrong. While Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant and many others were apart and even essential to their success in the nineties, the Bulls never could have won without Michael. Take any of the players that he played with away and the result would likely have been the same; six championships in eight years.
There are of course defining moments in a person’s life when they stand back after the wake of a career and a life and they reflect on what brought them to that point. And while that person may smile and remember the good, they are also likely to remember the hard times, the dark times and what fueled them to push through the muck that life has to offer. While everyone in the world could criticize Michael Jordan as being blessed with an extraordinary talent and consider him to be lucky, they of course are looking from the outside.
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Post Commenthfj
On September 13, 2009 at 10:40 pm
Great article Army. I caught some of Jordan’s acceptance speech, and like you stated in your well written article, he was very direct and to the point on his career on and off the basketball court. He was truely one of the most gifted basketball players to ever lace up a pair of tennis shoes. As for David Thompson, i thought for his size of 6″4, he was the greatest leapers and college basketball player that i ever watched play. If he didn’t develope a drug habit during his pro-career, its untelling how many records David Thompson would have set. Well done friend.