On Michael Jordan’s Hall of Fame Speech

I’m not religious, but clearly the trend in the recent years is that publicly speaking about one’s religion as a driving force in his or her own life is looked down upon. This is wrong. Just as someone is able to claim that their parents drove them to success, or their coaches, or mentors or friends, one should be able to say the same about God, Allah, Jesus, Yahweh, or even Satan. We have this formula that we want to be fulfilled, even if it’s BS.

I personally found Jordan’s speech distasteful, but as Voltaire so eloquently put: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” We learned that Michael Jordan is not what we want him to be. On the court, he was the most feared and deadly force the game has ever seen. Off the court, he wasn’t quite the superhero. Criticism is our right as well, but character judgment shouldn’t be.

Jordan obviously has deep-seeded issues, all of which are responsible for the player we all at one point admired and ‘oohed and aahed’ at. He denigrated his teammates, coaches, opponents, and even friends. He subsequently acknowledged that this feeling of superiority led to his basketball success and no one can argue this claim.

At the very least we should be thankful that he was honest, even if this honesty does not hold up to our standards of the ‘selfless superman’ mold we love to fantasize about. We wanted him to be Jordan on the court and Jesus off the court. He’s a man with flaws, and this became evident in his acceptance speech. But we all also have major flaws if we believe that someone we revere should pretend to be something he is not.

Does anyone remember when Dickey Simpson joined the Bulls, and Jordan and Pippen would sit on the bench laughing out loud at him when he’d miss a shot? I always thought, “Wow, you COULD be mentoring him to get better, but I guess laughing at him is almost as good . . .jerks.”

I hate basketball, but I thought the speech was great. I love all the haters here, including the author, badmouthing the speech. Jealously is a nasty thing boys. Just because you have not led successful lives is no reason to hate on someone who has. Oh well, continue on, you bitter little men. I think I’ll go watch the speech again and laugh at all of you!!!!

The only guy Jordan didn’t beat is the guy in the mirror.. he has been consumed by that guy.

Although I rarely write comments on blogs these days, I feel compelled to chime in on this issue, however self-indulgent. First, I wonder if any of us criticizing or commenting about M.J.’s Hall of Fame Speech realize the intrinsic irony of that criticism.

By putting forth our personal judgments of another man so publicly, especially at what was clearly such an emotional ceremony for him, there is an implied claim of our own superiority. Those who would claim M.J. lacked class, has an over-inflated ego and/or serious psychological issues in regards to competition and defeat, should perhaps look in the mirror. After all, why would one person seek to voice his opinion so publicly about another individual unless they themselves had their own ego-gratifying motivations? Why would one spend their own time plastering the walls of the internet with criticisms and negativity, if they themselves were not insecure and flawed? Why indeed am I even writing this now?

Secondly, as Quincyscott said above, “These are athletes, not statesmen…”. Michael Jordan is a competitive basketball player. He is not a professional orator, nor an accomplished speech writer. And yet, I personally found his speech (which to me was more of a dialogue) to be honest and refreshingly genuine.

Rather than putting a rosy face on everything and simply waving a plastic smile at the cameras, M.J. gave us an intimate look at what the life and mind of a sports hero is like. One could not have asked for a more candid or truthful moment.

Rather than reciting the standard thank you list and cordial but often vaguely detached socially-expected words, M.J. spoke from the heart. To be sure, some of what he said could be seen as immature. But to quote Socrates “An honest man is always a child.”

M.J. was talking about his career playing a competitive game, at an event honoring that role. Therefore, it was very relevant for him to discuss who he was, and how his career was formed, along with his adversaries along the way. He opened up and showed us what created the drive within him, and what kept him going during the hard times.

To be sure, much of what we see powered him was insecurity and desire - desire to be the best, to be superior, to dominate. But this is the very nature of sports and perhaps of humanity in general. M.J. himself personifies the word competition, and he clearly knows that.

Perhaps what some may find so offensive is how in your face he is about illuminating this dark dichotomy of sports. Do we as fans not yearn for the team we root for to be victorious? Do we not shout and hoot and holler while rooting for men like M.J. to crush those competing against him, thus leaving one team to suffer defeat? All fans of any champion surely share a kind of common ego who’s desire is to win and revel in that victory. To think that this is a wholly healthy activity in general, not motivated by any darker personal insecurities is to be in a state of denial.

To be the greatest at anything, one needs both competition and collaboration. To wallow in whatever negative connotations there may have been in M.J.’s words, is to miss the bigger picture in his message. M.J. is saying to us - look, I am this man because these other men and women made me so, whether on purpose or not. M.J. is illustrating the words Confucius spoke “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do.”

And finally, he embodies an era. I grew up with the basketball greats of the early to mid 80’s, including Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas and M.J.. They were brazen, trash-talking, egotistical men who thrived on competition and beating each other. They often came from low-income homes and struggled against all odds placed in front of them to become the best. And yet, they did it with a sense of humor and grace, and ultimately, they all became great friends.

Those on the outside looking in may have seen M.J.’s words here as cheap shots and low blows, yet the truth is he is playing a game that he has been playing for years - a game he has mastered. He is poking fun at his old friends - jesting with them while also reminiscing, and reminding them, as they each in turn would remind him, that he is the best. He is embodying that idolized basketball persona - the essence of a star.

The bottom line is, he spoke from the heart about his career and his personal relationships, with a sense of humor and his classic, playfully cocky attitude that made him who he was and is. Again, in the words of Confucius, “Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue.” None of those he spoke about seemed to be hurt by any of his words, and in the end, he left us with a perfect portrait of a competitive athlete at the end of an illustrious career.

Although time has taken away his physical abilities, as it will all of us, his mind remains the same. At heart he is still the same M.J. we adored back in his glory days, and if he could, he’d don a jersey tomorrow morning and hop right back on that court to millions of screaming fans and trash talk his way to the top again.

Lets remember one thing - he is one of the greatest basketball players (if not the greatest) of all time.
He is not a speech writer or maker.
Basketball made him their PR machine, showed him a life he could never have trained for or learnt from another the right (or as it seems most want to argue - the preffered way).
He is competitive in nature and that is what he showed in his speech. He will never stop this, and this is why he comes across the way he does.Â
Dont mistake it for arogance - as most seem to want to ridicule him for being.

very cool

when he cried on the stage, I cried.

Ok listen up critics and psychologists. First of all, I love that Michael Jordan enshrinement speech. I’ve watched it often because it deeply inspires me. To me, it shows the true essence of turning a negative into a positive, and gives you a rare glimpse of the driving force behind an absolute phenomenon. I’m not going to criticize you guys for criticizing Mike’s speech, because honestly I really don’t think you guys get it. As smart as you are and as intellectual you guys might seem, I think your missing the true beauty of it. Ya see, that’s just it, he is just human. And I respect and admire the fact that he spoke from his true heart, not just what was the token rrhetoric. That’s the essence of why Jordan was so great, because he dared to be different and didn’t conform to the robotic normalcy that everyone seems to feel the pressure to be. Do you understand how rare this talent was? Can you fathom how perfect the stars would have to be aligned to create this? This is a perfect storm your dealing wit gentlemen, and until you could truly know what it takes to accomplish the incomparable, and defy impossible odds, you can only simply sit back in awe. “Thank you very much, looking forward to it” Lol

Nice spelling and grammar, you seem like a genius…..