The Hall Of Fame

One thing I can forever be grateful for, and give credit to for my enthusiasm about sports, is the great Michael Jordan. Maybe twenty years from now Michael Jordan, the name, the brand, the legacy, will only be remembered by middle-age Moms and Dads sitting in courtside bleachers of their son's youth league or high school basketball game. Their son, wearing #23 because of LeBron James, not Michael Jordan, mimics the player he grew up knowing as "the greatest to ever play the game" by throwing chalk in the air pre-game instead of chewing Gatorade flavored gum and worrying more about making sure his tongue is hanging out as he lays the ball up rather than making sure he's laying it up off the right foot. Instead of wearing two pairs of shorts (a Carolina pair under neath the game jersey pair) that son of theirs might be wearing a head band. And instead of referring to that childhood favorite by a nickname such as MJ because you feel like you know him on a personal level, that son might bow down and refer to him as 'King' James because in retrospect - LeBron was bigger than life to that kid.

I'll be that middle-aged Mom. I'll be the one wishing my son would wear the white basketball shoes, the one who hopes her son dreams of going to North Carolina and being a Tar Heel instead of getting the message that skipping college in general is okay. I'll be the sports-crazed mother who tells my children stories about Michael Jordan and offering up the fact that he was King James' idol as well, hoping that the more up to date name and legacy might catch their attention.

I'll tell my kids about Dean Smith and how I cried the day he announced his retirement. I'll teach them confidence and refer to a 1982 college freshmen hitting the game-winning shot against Georgetown. I'll teach them about family and show the iconic image of Michael Jordan clinching on to that World Championship trophy and doing it in honor of his father. I'll teach them to have no fear by telling stories of Michael Jordan as a minor-league Birmingham Barons baseball player and how you never know something until you try.

I'll teach them about hard-work, dedication and tell the infamous story of MJ being cut from the Varsity basketball team at Laney High School. I'll refer to many life lessons with the quote I remember my own mother and father telling me that Michael Jordan said, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

I'll tell them how Michael Jordan, years after he was worth hundreds of millions of dollars, his mother still worked two jobs and supported herself. I'll remind them of how much work goes into greatness and tell them how Michael Jordan would stay at Carmichael Auditorium and The Smith Center in Chapel Hill until the wee hours of the morning taking shot after shot until it was a perfection.

I'll remind them that a legacy is forever, and just because the jersey hangs in the rafters, the Hall of Fame speech has been said, and the young guns of today approach basketball with different styles that may surpass some of the records in the records book, you still have to respect what was in order to appreciate what is.

I hope that Michael Jordan's induction into The Basketball Hall of Fame was as inspiring and appreciated by all the other young adults in their 20's and 30's like it was for me. We're the generation that grew up 'wanting to be like Mike.' A silly cartoon movie was a favorite because Michael Jordan was in it. Before 3-D movies, the innovative I-Max theater was the big deal and the first I-Max movie some of us ever saw was called "Mike". We're the generation that played pick-up games at the elementary school and would fight until blood was drawn over who would be 'the Michael Jordan' and you always knew the kid with the disappointed look on his face was 'the Reggie Miller' and the next best thing to being the pretend #23 was being 'the Scottie Pippen' because at least you were his side-kick.

My generation tested out the "Penny Hardaway" sneakers, but made sure to get all A's on our progress reports and report cards so that Dad would take us to Foot Locker to buy the new "Air Jordan" sneaker. We were all Chicago Bulls fans and Indiana Pacer haters. We hated John Stockton and Karl Malone because they were threats to the empire we so badly wanted to be. We didn't mind playing a year of JV ball before we made the Varsity team, that's how it was supposed to be, right? We ended decades of racial controversy in sports because the black man could fly and a white boy can't jump. Despite being forbidden by our mothers, spray painting your hair for a big sport's tournament was a trend because MJ's leading rebounder Dennis Rodman did it. Our generation deemed it unruly to EVER miss a free-throw because we rarely saw our idol do it. We bought the newest biography when the book fair came to our schools. We were jealous of the kids our age that we saw on TV sitting on the sidelines of The United Center. Whether we were Tar Heels, Blue Devils, Bruins, or Demon Deacons, we got chill bumps at the sound of "and starting at guard, 6'6, No. 23 from Noooorth Carolinaaaa, Michaeeellll Jordannnnn".

Of course there are going to be the people out there like the ones who ridiculed the 46-year old Hall of Fame Inductee because of his jokingly manner during or his "cocky comments" during the largest Hall of Fame ceremony to date. But, we've watched his life. We've heard what he has to say. Can a man not get up there and be human? He's been some surreal, larger than life hero to us all since Dean Smith introduced us to him in 1981 in Chapel Hill, NC and he's inspired athletes, coaches, fathers, sons, and little girls in soccer and cross-country uniforms like me since the day we were born.

For heaven's sake, my middle name is Jordan. Baily Jordan Jones. Jordan. Why? Because a a three-year old in 1987 was smart enough to realize that this man was iconic. He was great. People liked him. Hell, people loved him. And the best part about him was that he was from North Carolina. So she went to pre-school announcing that her baby sister was going to be named in honor of Michael Jeffrey Jordan. So before I even had a choice, I was part of the crazed Michael Jordan generation and I have yet to cease my "one-up" I have on the rest of my Generation #23'ers - I have Jordan on my birth certificate and I, like the man himself, will always be a Tar Heel.

Hopefully the miserable types, the ones that hate to admit greatness, have let the facts of this epic sports figure have its feat over the small jabs and jokes he shared with us at Symphony Hall this month. We got to see Michael Jeffrey Jordan be human, out of jersey, no blood and sweat, but yet sentimental tears, and for what it's worth: he can say whatever he damn well pleases.

So before you find reason to argue against me that his speech was out of line do these things for me, then shut up.

1. Remember Dean Smiths grin as MJ was inducted

2. Remember the laughs on each man's face that was made a jab at as the camera zoomed in on him as he was beeing 'victimized'

3. Remember everything Michael Jordan taught us

4. Be honest with yourself and admit most of us couldn't have done it without our father in the bleachers; but he did it with the whole world watching

5. Find the difference between cockiness and confidence; recall his comments; and circle the one that applies best to the legacy Michael Jordan left behind for us

6. Think of all the jabs you've mad at someone. And who are you again? I don't recall you being an Olympian, collegiate champion, 6-Time World Champion, father, minor-league baseball player, and NBA team owner. Oh yeah, and CEO of that company that doesn't even need a name - your personal silhouette is a brand in itself.

7. Remember this one: "If you talk the talk then you better be able to walk the walk" - I think Michael Jordan had this one covered by the time he got up to accept his induction into the Hall of Fame.

I realize that as sport's fans we are separated by dozens of things. What colors do we sport for our fanhood? What college fanhood were we born in to? What college fanhood did we decide to be a part of when we were 17? Do we give a damn about The Stanley Cup or do we just consider every season but basketball the "off-season"? Do we remembered legends like Vince Lombardi, Bear Bryant, and John Wooden or do we care only about the hear and now's like LeBron, Kobe, and Tiger? Do we cry over wins and losses or just losses? Do we say "we'll get them next time" or do we see the game today as "the next time"? Are we biased, unconditional, or bandwaggoning? Will we fight for our team or will we find a new one when the Championship era is over? Will we raise our kids teaching them winning and greatness is all about class and sportsmanship or will we let them think accusatory rape, DUI's, murder-suicides, and sex scandals are part of being an NFL or NBA great? We're all different - but, if we're all true basketball fans, and sport's fans in general, then what's so bad about respecting an icon and letting him say, at last, what he wants to say?

For the Wilt Chamberlain era to the Magic Johnson era to the Michael Jordan era to the Kobe Bryant and LeBron James era - each was great, each gave a little and a took a little for and from the game of basketball, and at one time or another we all wanted to be like 'the one and only' - no matter which one was your 'one'.

Hold on, I get to "one-up" you now, just for the norm's sake. Which one were you named after?

As always, Roll Tide and Go Heels!

(And Go Bulls!)

"Even when I'm old and grey, I won't be able to play it, but I'll still love the game." -Michael Jordan

"I never thought a role model should be negative." -Michael Jordan

"I've failed over and over and over and over in my life; and that is why I succeed." -Michael Jordan

"MY HEROES ARE AND WERE MY PARENTS. I COULDN'T EVER SEE HAVING ANYONE ELSE AS MY HERO." -Michael Jordan

"You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them." -Michael Jordan

"There is no "I" in team. But there is in win. Which one do you want?" -Michael Jordan

"To be successful you have to be selfish, or else you'll never achieve. And once you get to your highest level, you have to be unselfish. Stay in touch; don't isolate." -Michael Jordan