Mikey Links
The Official Micahel Jordan Web Site - CBS Sportsline: Everything cool here100 Most Powerful People in Sports: Mike's #1
The Michael Jordan Virtual Gallery: All right ! Lotsa good stuff here
Chicago Bulls Locker Room - Michael Jordan: Mike , Mike , Mike ...
Michael Jordan Beyond the Court: Outside Basketball ...
Ok , so this guy makes loads of money ! $34 million this season alone , excluding the sponsorships of other stuff . I admire this but compared to his spirit , the money is nothing to be admired , really ...
At 34 , his athletic career should be winding down (which will probably happen this year) , but instead , he came for another season to try to get his 6th championship ring .
Mike's competitiveness never fails to inspire me . The intensity level he is always in and the hard work he always puts in no matter how talented others may feel he is , are also factors to why I admire him so much .
Besides that , he seems to always have this burning desire to meet any challenge which makes his games so watchable . In a sense , wha5t sets Mike apart isn't so much his five championship rings (with a sixth looming near the horizon) , but the way he inspired the Bulls to play night in and night out during the season . That ability to be consistently brilliant is one big factor to why Bulls games always receive astronomical ratings on TV .
So , is it any wonder why he is the living person I respect and admire most ?
When David Stern (NBA Commisioner) insists that the league's young stars will be able to replace Mike , Barkley and Ewing at al. , he is both right and wrong . Barkley , Ewing and all the others are replacable .
They sure are great players - Hall of Famers - but they simply don't bring the same feeling to the game . They don't give you the impression that they are about to see something extraordinary whenever they touch the ball . They will go and the Gen X-ers will fill their shoes just fine .
But Mike , the man who re-invented shoes , is the most irreplacable athlete in the history of sports . It doesn't matter who you are talking about - there always has been someone who could take their spot .
But there is no one who can step in and be Mike - not Grant Hill or Kobe Bryant or anybody else . When Mike goes , the NBA will change forever . It won't die but it won't be the same . It won't be as exciting or as glamorous .
Whenever Mike steps onto a court , everyone knows they are going to see the absolute best he has to give . That , more than anything else , sets him apart from fromn all the others - reagardless of age , contracts , or marketability . He is the last of his kind . But he also was the first of his kind ...
