The other MJ

Greetings from Berlin. I was based more or less in Frankfurt for the past three weeks with periodic trips to different cities for meetings. But we’ve relocated back to Berlin, where I originally started, for a new round of companies to meet with in this area. The trip here took me from Munich in the deep south of the country northwest to a small town called Unna and then northeastwards up on over to Berlin. If you look on a map and see the location of the three cities we basically did two sides of an equilateral triangle through Germany. But this entry isn’t to tell you about the truckloads of pigs I saw on the autobahn coming from the Netherlands which were the size of a Chevy Cobalt. Nor is it to bitch about the 50 cent fee that every rest station in this country charges to use the bathroom. Amazing, European countries dish out free and universal health coverage but they can’t even spot you a free wee and a poo.

Last weekend I caught Michael Jordan’s now infamous Hall of Fame induction speech that has been widely debated amongst sports circles. I’m sure most, if not all, of the four readers of this blog have seen the same speech or at least know what I am talking about. I went poking around for it on YouTube out of normal interest as a sports fan after seeing a Michael Jordan shout out on a friend’s Facebook page and not because of headlines referencing the controversial nature of his comments. The next day I started seeing the headlines that he bitterly called out past coaches and teammates so I went back and re-watched the speech with a keener, more cynical eye. One column on Yahoo sports particularly caught my attention. It did more than that actually. It revved me up enough to email the columnist and give him my thoughts. Rather than explain all over again, I’ve pasted the email that I wrote and the link to the original article.

I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts sports fans.

Link to the original column:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-jordanhall091209&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

My reply

Mr. Wojnarowski,

I watched the same speech as you but after reading your column, my reaction to it couldn't be any more different.

Let me preface by saying that I am a lifelong New York Knicks fan. It's been an ugly decade for us to say the least, but as I am in my late twenties the team of my youth and adolescence was the gritty, scrappy, hard fighting Knicks of the 1990s who had a “rivalry” with Jordan’s Bulls. Ewing, Oak, Mase, Starks, Doc, Derek Harper - those were my Knicks. I say this because I grew up witnessing Michael Jordan in his prime beat my team year after year. Having cried for those Knicks EVERY time they succumbed to Jordan and the Bulls, the central message of his acceptance speech that permeated his entire twenty some odd minutes on stage was so obvious.

Michael Jordan is the ultimate competitor.

He is not just the greatest basketball player ever he is the greatest athlete and greatest competitor ever.

His greatness is defined by his sense of competition. I interpreted from your column that you see his sense of competition as arrogance, particularly on that stage at that venue. If that is the case I respectfully disagree. Jordan's competitive spirit is a legacy, the paragon of athletic excellence, and a standard by which every athlete strives for.

It is through that lense that I thought his speech – filled with anecdotes of past coaches, colleagues, teammates, and rivals – to be an homage to all those who have shaped his competitive nature by which he reached the stratosphere of greatness. That greatness is inspiration for everyone. I thought he was complimenting his colleagues by allegorizing them as "wood on his fire". I saw it as respect and indebtedness rather than bitterness or a need to settle a score, as you wrote.

Yes, the speech was a little crass especially when he talked about his kids. I did cringe slightly when he reminded them just how big a shadow is cast over them. He probably should have rehearsed Jeff Van Gundy's name instead of referring to him initially as "the short guy." (You can't fault him for the Bryon Russell story. Even though Jordan did push off to create the shot, Russell will forever be posterized as THAT guy who got burned on THE SHOT. And who knew about the trash talking years prior??? It was pure poetic justice). So he doesn't have an Obama-esque eloquence, clearly writes his own speeches, and his lack of delivery is why he never went into the broadcast booth. But he spoke from the heart and he paid tribute to the game which, are the most important things.

I never thought fifteen years ago that I would be honoring Michael Jordan to this extent. But growing up on those games I knew as much back then as I do now that when Michael Jordan was on the court he willed his team to win. Basketball and sports have been transformed by Michael Jordan because of his competitive nature to be the best, which in turn has brought the best out in athletes and individuals alike. “Be like Mike” is a global message. He is fully cognizant of the standard of competitive excellence that he set and that – not a bitterness or score to settle – was the central message of his speech.