{"id":9368,"date":"2026-06-20T06:50:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T06:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theezraprojectchicago.com\/?p=9368"},"modified":"2026-07-05T08:02:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T08:02:02","slug":"michael-jordan-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theezraprojectchicago.com\/?p=9368","title":{"rendered":"Michael Jordan"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Michael Jeffrey Jordan<\/strong>\u00a0(born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials\u00a0MJ<\/strong>,[8]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0is an American businessman and former professional\u00a0basketball<\/a>\u00a0player who is a minority owner of the\u00a0Charlotte Hornets<\/a>\u00a0of the\u00a0National Basketball Association<\/a>\u00a0(NBA). He played 15 seasons in the NBA between 1984 and 2003, winning six\u00a0NBA championships<\/a>\u00a0with the\u00a0Chicago Bulls<\/a>. Widely considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time,[9]<\/a>[10]<\/a>[11]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0he was integral in popularizing basketball and the NBA around the world in the 1980s and 1990s.[12]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0He is the wealthiest athlete of all time,[13]<\/a>[d]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0and one of the\u00a0world’s richest celebrities<\/a>, with a $4.3 billion net worth as of 2026.[15]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n

Jordan played\u00a0college basketball<\/a>\u00a0with the\u00a0North Carolina Tar Heels<\/a>. As a freshman, he was a member of the\u00a0Tar Heels’ national championship team<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a01982<\/a>.[5]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0As a junior in 1984, he was named the\u00a0national college player of the year<\/a>\u00a0and was selected by the Bulls with the third overall pick of the\u00a01984 NBA draft<\/a>.[5]<\/a><\/sup>[16]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0With the Bulls, he emerged as a league star known for prolific scoring, defensive prowess and vehement competitiveness.[17]<\/a><\/sup>[18]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0His leaping ability, demonstrated by performing\u00a0slam dunks<\/a>\u00a0from the\u00a0free-throw line<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0Slam Dunk Contests<\/a>, earned him the nicknames “Air Jordan<\/strong>” and “His Airness<\/strong>“.[5]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Jordan won his first NBA title with the Bulls in\u00a01991<\/a>\u00a0and followed that with titles in\u00a01992<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a01993<\/a>, securing a\u00a0three-peat<\/a>. Citing physical and mental exhaustion from basketball and superstardom, Jordan abruptly retired before the\u00a01993\u201394 NBA season<\/a>\u00a0to play\u00a0Minor League Baseball<\/a>\u00a0in the\u00a0Chicago White Sox<\/a>\u00a0organization. He returned to the Bulls in 1995 and led them to three more championships in\u00a01996<\/a>,\u00a01997<\/a>, and\u00a01998<\/a>, as well as a then-record 72 regular season wins in the\u00a01995\u201396 NBA season<\/a>.[5]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0Jordan retired for the second time in 1999, then returned for two NBA seasons from 2001 to 2003 as a member of the\u00a0Washington Wizards<\/a>.[5]<\/a><\/sup>[16]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0He was selected to play for the\u00a0United States national team<\/a>\u00a0during his college and NBA careers, winning four\u00a0gold medals<\/a>\u2014at the\u00a01983 Pan American Games<\/a>,\u00a01984 Summer Olympics<\/a>,\u00a01992 Tournament of the Americas<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a01992 Summer Olympics<\/a>\u2014while also being undefeated.[19]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Jeffrey Jordan\u00a0(born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials\u00a0MJ,[8]\u00a0is an American businessman and former professional\u00a0basketball\u00a0player who is a minority owner of the\u00a0Charlotte Hornets\u00a0of the\u00a0National Basketball Association\u00a0(NBA). He played 15 seasons in the NBA between 1984 and 2003, winning six\u00a0NBA championships\u00a0with the\u00a0Chicago Bulls. Widely considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time,[9][10][11]\u00a0he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"postBodyCss":"","postBodyMargin":[],"postBodyPadding":[],"postBodyBackground":{"backgroundType":"classic","gradient":""},"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theezraprojectchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theezraprojectchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theezraprojectchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theezraprojectchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theezraprojectchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9368"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/theezraprojectchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9368\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9395,"href":"https:\/\/theezraprojectchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9368\/revisions\/9395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theezraprojectchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theezraprojectchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theezraprojectchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theezraprojectchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}