Michael Jordan: Outlier

“Maybe this guy is god disguised as Michael Jordan” (Michael Jordan). Michael Jordan is clearly the best basketball player to have ever set foot on a basketball court as Larry Bird put it jokingly. He wasn’t the perfect basketball player but he was good enough to surpass the rest of the league as a whole. Because of his superior skills and incomprehensible work ethic, he can be considered an outlier. There is no other player that has accomplished as much as Jordan and will probably never see something like it again.

Michael Jordan was born on February 17th, 1963 to father James and mother Delores Jordan (King, Jason). Although the Jordans put real emphasis on academics over athletics, they encouraged Michael to practice hard, set high but realistic goals, and keep his grades up after learning that he had athletic skills. Michael preferred baseball and football to basketball, but one he hit high school he decided to play professional basketball (Michael Jordan).

As a 5’9” sophomore in high school in Wilmington, North Carolina, he tried out for his school’s basketball team but wasn’t good enough, neither tall enough, to make it. He then practiced throughout the year and came back as a 6’3” junior to try out. With his improved skills and After graduating from high school, he accepted a basketball scholarship to the University of North Carolina. In his first season at Carolina, he became the second Tarheel player to start in every game as a freshman and was named Atlantic Coast Conference Rookie of the Year (1982). At the end of his freshman year, he made the game-winning shot against Georgetown University for the championship of the NCAA. The Sporting News named him college player of the year in 1983 and in 1984. He left North Caro...

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...son).

If Michael Jordan wasn’t as good as people say, look at his statistics and the numbers will prove that he is the best basketball player in the history of the sport making him an outlier. If he was just an average kid from North Carolina without athletic skills, he wouldn’t have gotten as much attention as he received. He would’ve been “Michael Jordan from down the street”, not “Michael Jordan: Hall of Famer.”

Works Cited

King, Jason. "Jordan, Michael (1963—)." St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Ed. Sara Pendergast and Tom Pendergast. Vol. 2. Detroit: St. James Press, 2000. 570-572. Student Resources in Context. Web. 26 May 2014.

"Michael Jordan." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Student Resources in Context. Web. 26 May 2014.

"Michael Jordan." UXL Biographies. Detroit: U*X*L, 2011. Student Resources in Context. Web. 26 May 2014.