Sant namdev biography of michael jordan s life

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Michael Jordan spent his early years in a rollicking house in rural North Carolina, surrounded by generations of family that stretched back to his great-grandfather. Jordan's stable home life remained consistent even after his immediate family moved to the city of Wilmington in the late s, with parents James and Deloris establishing high academic standards and firm ground rules to keep their five children out of trouble.

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It was James, a maintenance worker turned supervisor at General Electric, who introduced Jordan to his first athletic love, baseball and built a basketball court in the backyard and also reportedly inspired Jordan's notorious tongue wag with his own facial contortions. However, companions recall Deloris, a bank teller, as the more forceful presence of his parents.

Her strong will would later be reflected in her son's renowned drive to succeed. If the backyard court provided the canvas for Jordan to develop his basketball genius, then it was the presence of its other regular occupant that unleashed the beast of his competitive spirit. Larry Jordan was a year older, and while Michael was already taller, Larry was stronger, equally athletic and not inclined to lose to his younger brother.

The two went full steam at each other on the court every day until bedtime, with Deloris stepping in to calm the boys when things grew too heated. A determined Jordan eventually figured out how to win on a regular basis and his continuing growth widened the gap between them, but it wasn't clear who the superior athlete was before he reached that point.

Noted their high school basketball coach, Pop Herring, "Larry was so driven and so competitive an athlete that if he had been 6'2" instead of 5'7", I'm sure Michael would have been known as Larry's brother instead of Larry always being known as Michael's brother. Jordan has often rehashed the popular legend that he was cut from the Laney High School varsity basketball team as a sophomore, inspiring him to work harder and get better, but that's not exactly how things went down.

All basketball hopefuls tried out for coach Herring in the fall of , and Jordan, along with the rest of the promising underclassmen, were assigned to the junior varsity team, with the lone exception of his friend, classmate and rival, Leroy Smith. It's difficult to argue with the reasoning: The team was returning 14 of 15 players from the previous year, and most — like the then-5'9" Jordan — played one of the smaller guard positions.

With the Buccaneers in need of a tree to block shots and rebound, it made perfect sense to select the 6'7" Smith for the final roster spot. Along with providing a jolt of motivation, the decision helped Jordan develop into a floor leader with regular playing time, and the Laney JV games soon became the hot ticket in town.