Michael Jordan

Unfortunately, it fell victim to the dot-com bust, and the rights to the domain were sold to CBS SportsLine in 2001. He previously won "The Great American Race" in 1997 and 1999. After his second retirement, Jordan formed the MVP.com sports apparel enterprise with fellow sports greats Wayne Gretzky and John Elway in 1999. On February 20, 2005 Jeff Gordon won the Daytona 500 for the third time. They have subsequently appeared together in several commercials for MCI. He was slated to run it again in 2004 against Formula 1 Champion Michael Schumacher but was sidelined by the flu, and Casey Mears took his place. A Nike commercial in the 1991 Super Bowl where he and Bugs Bunny played basketball against some Martians inspired the 1996 live action/animated movie Space Jam, which also starred Michael and the Looney Tunes in a fictional story set during his first retirement. Gordon has also participated in some off-road events, including a winning drive with Team USA at the 2002 Race of Champions.

He has also been connected with the Looney Tunes. Their marriage ended in a very public and bitter divorce in 2003. wearing Jordan apparel. Gordon was married to Brooke Gordon (also known as Brooke Sealy) who was Miss Winston in 1992. It has even crossed over into other sports, with athletes such as Randy Moss, Derek Jeter, and Roy Jones Jr. Gordon remains popular in his home state of Indiana and his birth state of California, but is often booed by fans in the deep South. Athletes who endorse the company include Ray Allen, Michael Finley, Derek Anderson, Gary Payton, and Jason Kidd. fans.

Subsequently Nike spun off the Jordan line into its own company. Currently, many fans in NASCAR divide themselves into two major factions: Jeff Gordon fans and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. The innovation of designer Tinker Hatfield spurred the basketball shoe industry to new heights. Fan reaction to Gordon's continuing success has been sharply divided. The hype and demand for the shoes even brought on a spat of "shoe-jackings" where young boys were robbed of their sneakers at gunpoint. Gordon is still one of the best known drivers in NASCAR. Nike created a signature shoe for him, called the Air Jordan. It is also thought by many that he opened NASCAR up to the rest of the nation; before Gordon's success in NASCAR, the sport and organization was not popular outside of the Southeast United States.

He first appeared on Wheaties boxes in 1988, and acted as their spokesman as well. Jeff Gordon is widely regarded as the best active driver in NASCAR because he achieved so much through sheer talent at such a young age. He has been a major spokesman for such brands as Nike, Gatorade, Hanes, McDonald's, and MCI. In 2004, Jeff Gordon also became the only NASCAR driver with four Brickyard 400 victories at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and one of only four drivers to have four victories at the historic track. Jordan is one of the most marketed sports figures in history. There are only two other drivers with more than four Cup titles: Richard Petty and Dale Earnhardt (both had seven titles). By the time a report was filed, James' body had been cremated per local health laws as a John Doe. Finally, in 1995, at the age of 24, Gordon won the first of four NASCAR Winston Cup Championships.

Michael and family did not immediately file a missing persons report, because the elder Jordan frequently took long trips by himself. In 1993, Gordon raced a full season in the Winston Cup for Hendrick Motorsports, he won the Rookie of the Year award. But James' body was not immediately identified. Coincidentally, almost symbolically, Gordon's first Winston Cup race, the 1992 Hooters 500 at the Atlanta Motor Speedway, was also the final race for Richard Petty. The perpetrators made several calls from James' cell phone and were quickly captured. Gordon then went on to spend two successful years in the NASCAR Busch Series (he set a NASCAR record by capturing 11 poles in one season). Two local criminals killed him and stole his Lexus, a gift from Michael. In 1991, Gordon moved up to the USAC Silver Crown and at the age of 20 became the youngest driver to win the title.

While returning from the funeral of a friend, he pulled over onto the side of an interstate highway in North Carolina for a nap. The next year Gordon won the USAC Midget title. Jordan's father, James, was murdered in August 1993. Before the age of 18 Gordon had already won three short-track races and was awarded USAC Midget Car Racing Rookie of the Year in 1989. Michael Jordan currently lives in Highland Park, Illinois. Gordon's family moved to Indiana just for the racing opportunities available for drivers in general but especially for minor-aged drivers. James gained certain celebrity when he announced, at the age of forty-seven, that he intended to stay in Iraq until the U.S. occupation ended. It may have been Jeff's idea, but his family fully supported him.

Jordan is a Sergeant Major in the 35th Signal Brigade of the XVIII Airborne Corps in the U.S. Army. According to his step-father racing was Jeff's idea. James R. Gordon began racing when he was about four years old. Michael Jordan has two older brothers, Larry and James R., one older sister, Delores, and one younger sister, Roslyn. Jeff Gordon was a racing child prodigy. Jordan is notoriously competitive, and is rumored to have lost enormous amounts of money playing golf and gambling. His sponsors include DuPont, Pepsi, Frito-Lay, Quaker State, SDRC, AC Delco, Rain-X, Slick 50, Haas, GMAC, Delphi Automotive, Lowe's.

At UNC, he majored in geography. Jeffrey Michael Gordon (born August 4, 1971 in Vallejo, California), a four-time NASCAR Winston Cup champion, drives the #24 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. Laney High School, where he was a standout in football, baseball, and basketball. He attended Emsley A. Jordan spent his childhood in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Nonetheless, it was a star-studded roster that cruised through pool play and the medal round, restoring America to its place atop the basketball world. It is often rumored that Jordan kept guard Isiah Thomas off the roster due to personal differences. Jordan played on two Olympic gold medal-winning American basketball teams: as a college player in the 1984 Summer Olympics, and in the 1992 Summer Olympics as a member of the original "Dream Team," with other legends such as Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. It was the first jersey the Heat retired in their then-15-year history, and it was half Wizards blue, half Bulls red.

Out of respect for Jordan's legacy, the Miami Heat retired his #23 jersey on April 11, 2003, even though he never played for the Florida team. At the beginning of the 2001-2002 basketball season, Michael Jordan donated his $1 million salary to help the victims of the September 11 attacks. The 2002-03 season was heralded from the beginning as Jordan's final goodbye to his fans and he retired for the third time at the season's conclusion. He played in his 13th and final NBA All-Star Game in 2002-03.

He returned for the 2002-03 season and averaged 20 points. Playing through pain, especially in his knee, he was still an important player for the Wizards. Yet despite an injury-plagued 2001-02 season, he still averaged nearly 23 points per game. In 2001, he came out of retirement a second time to play for the Washington Wizards, though his skills were noticeably diminished by age.

Jordan retired again on January 13, 1999. But it was back to winning ways the following year, the Bulls won three consecutive NBA titles between 1996 and 1998, with Jordan becoming the first and only player to win six NBA Finals MVP Awards. The switch did not immediately bring him luck, and the Magic prevailed. As he struggled with unaccustomed playoff difficulty, he broke out his old #23 jersey during a second-round playoff series against the Orlando Magic.

Jordan led the Bulls to the Eastern Conference Semifinals that year. Because jersey #23 had been retired, he wore #45, his Barons number. He ended his basketball retirement on March 19, 1995 by rejoining the Bulls. Many consider this brief stab at baseball the only tarnish on his athletic career.

He was never called up to the majors. He led the club with 11 bases-loaded RBI and 25 RBI with runners in scoring position and two outs. He had an unspectacular professional baseball career for the Birmingham Barons, a Chicago White Sox farm team, batting .202 with 3 HR, 51 RBI, 30 SB (tied-5th in Southern League), 11 errors and 6 outfield assists. Jordan spent the next year pursuing a childhood dream: professional baseball.

Perhaps weighed down by the August 1993 murder of his father, Michael retired from basketball two days before the 1993-94 NBA season, and the Bulls retired his #23 jersey. He had the following to say about Jordan:. Jordan's coach was Phil Jackson. In 1997, he also recorded the only triple-double in an All-Star game.

Only Willis Reed (1970) and Shaquille O'Neal (2000) have won all three MVP awards in the same season. He also earned the elusive MVP triple crown (league, finals, all-star game) twice when he won All-Star MVP in both 1996 and 1998 (he also won in 1988). He was also named Rookie of the Year (1985) and Defensive Player of the Year (1988), and won the Finals MVP award every year the Bulls reached the Finals -- a feat not likely to ever be duplicated. He won six NBA Championships (1991-1993 and 1996-1998) and was league MVP five times (1988, 1991, 1992, 1996 and 1998).

Jordan played 13 seasons for the Bulls, generally as a shooting guard, but his height (6'6", or 1.98 m), skills, and physical conditioning also made him a versatile threat at point guard and small forward. He was selected by the Chicago Bulls in the first round of the 1984 NBA Draft as the third pick overall. By his sophomore year, he was clearly the team's biggest star; as a junior, he was named the national player of the year. He ended the 1982 year in grand style, hitting the winning shot in the 1982 NCAA championship game against Georgetown, led by future NBA rival Patrick Ewing.

As a UNC freshman, Jordan was an exciting but not dominant player. (Others call Jordan overrated [2] (http://airjudden2.tripod.com/jordan/index.htm) and point to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson, Oscar Robertson, Bill Russell, and Shaquille O'Neal.) His jumping ability -- he could once dunk from the foul line -- earned him the nicknames "Air Jordan" and "His Airness.". In 1991, he was on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, and was named the magazine's "Sportsman of the Year." These and other achievements have persuaded many fans and several basketball legends[1] (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/nba/features/jordan/news/2001/08/22/jordan_greatest/) that Jordan was the best ever to play the game. He was named to the All-Defensive First Team nine times, and led the league in steals three times.

He won six championships, notched 10 scoring titles, and was league MVP five times. A remarkable force at both ends of the floor, Jordan ended a career of 15 full seasons with a regular-season scoring average of 30.12 points per game, the highest in NBA history (ahead of Wilt Chamberlain's 30.06). Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963, in Brooklyn, New York) is a former National Basketball Association player, considered by many to be the greatest basketball player of all time. NBA All-Star Dunk Contest Champion: 1987, 1988.

ACC Men's Basketball Player of the Year: 1983-84. Adolph Rupp Trophy: 1984. Wooden Award: 1984. John R.

Naismith College Player of the Year: 1984. NBA Rookie of the Year Award: 1984-85. NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award: 1987-88. NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award: 1990-91, 1991-92, 1992-93, 1995-96, 1996-97, 1997-98.

NBA Most Valuable Player Award: 1987-88, 1990-91, 1991-92, 1995-96, 1997-98.