By Mark Alesia
SportsLine Regional Columnist
Jan. 13, 1999
CHICAGO -- A pair of shoes tied together -- you know what brand -- hung on an electrical wire over Ogden Ave. on the road to the United Center.
Is Michael Jordan really hanging it up?
With more than
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It would not be found at the news conference on the United Center floor, where about 1,000 people gathered to hear Jordan say he was "99 percent" sure he wouldn't play again.
To many of the prominent Jordanologists present, that meant that this retirement might be only No. 2 in a trilogy.
Regardless, it was an extraordinary scene. A full complement of security kept the press at bay, and everyone had to wear slick-looking press passes specially made for the event. All that was missing were hymns as the congregation waited for Jordan and his entourage to descend from the section 120-121 ramp.
"MENTALLY, I'M EXHAUSTED," Jordan said. "Physically, I feel great. ... Right now I don't have the mental challenges I've had in the past to proceed as a basketball player."
That didn't sound like a guy ready to leave the game for good.
Several times, he had a chance to close the door for good. Every time he left it open.
"I never say never," Jordan said.
So where will he surface next? Will it be New York, rejoined with coach Phil Jackson next season? How about Phoenix? Lots of good golf there.
Or is that too cynical?
On this day, do you just take the man at his word?
"It's not really 100 percent, but it's close," Jordan said. "That's where I stand. I'm not going to say never. I say 99.9. You take it for what it's worth."
If you do, where does this man stand among the icons of 20th-century sports?
HE DIDN'T BREAK THE racial barrier in baseball like Jackie Robinson. He didn't lose the prime of his career while holding onto political and religious convictions like Muhammad Ali.
Unlike Babe Ruth, he didn't play major league baseball, the game most revered for nostalgia and history, one where statistical feats -- 714 home runs, 70 home runs -- are etched in people's memories.
If Ruth is the Bambino, is Jordan the "Jambino"?
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Michael Jordan, with his wife Juanita, says he's retired ... again.
(AP)
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Apolitical, with only a short-lived baseball career, Jordan has to his credit generally accepted status as the greatest basketball player ever and undisputed status as the all-time sports marketing champion.
His grace, his looks, his charisma fit in perfectly in an era when sports media exploded into cable television, talk radio and global markets, not to mention the Internet.
Fortune magazine last year estimated Jordan's impact on the economy at $10 billion.
"The same way Ali benefited from satellite television, which allowed fights to be broadcast live as they were happening all over the world, Jordan has benefited from the explosion in sports marketing over the past decade," said Thomas Hauser, author of the book "Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times." "Michael came along at a time when sports endorsements were really, really exploding, and the country as a whole was ready to accept black athletes as endorsers."
HAUSER NOTED THAT ALI'S 1960 gold medal-winning bout in the Olympics was televised on a one-day delay in the United States. The tape had to be flown in from Rome.
Lack of exposure has never been a problem for Jordan.
Hauser ranks Jordan and Ruth as the greatest athletes of all time. He does not mean to diminish Jordan's accomplishments, but he's uncertain whether the man's legacy will endure the same as Ruth's and Ali's.
"Probably not, and I'll tell you why," Hauser said. "I've worked closely with two athletes: Ali and Arnold Palmer, whose biography I wrote a couple years ago. One of the things that struck me about Palmer is that over the course of 30 years, he was the top grossing athlete in the world in terms of endorsement income. In 1991, he was replaced by Michael Jordan. As great of an endorser as Michael Jordan is, I doubt he'll be No. 1 for 30 years.
"It's not quite the same as Ali. Michael Jordan's greatness is based on his greatness as a basketball player, the same way Jack Nicklaus' greatness is based on his greatness as a golfer. Arnold Palmer brought golf to the masses.
"One could argue that without Michael Jordan, the history of basketball would be about the same. Larry Bird and Magic Johnson ushered in a new era for professional basketball, and Michael built on what they had started."
Ali, of course, remains a durable cultural icon. A recent biography, "King of the World," was on the New York Times' best-seller list. Once reviled by some for refusing to enter the military during the Vietnam War, Ali was chosen to light the torch during the opening ceremonies of the 1996 Olympics.
RUTH HAS A MUSEUM at his birthplace in Baltimore. A management company sells the use of his name and image, some years generating more than $1 million in royalties. In 1995, the 100th anniversary of Ruth's birth, Hofstra University had an academic conference to discuss his impact on society.
Whether Jordan will be able to match that is very much in question.
"I don't think I can go into seclusion and certainly I can't solve the world's problems," Jordan said. "But there are a lot of things I can lend my support to, and I will do that."
The game continues.
If it's not on the basketball floor, it's somewhere else.
Mark Alesia is a columnist for the Arlington Heights (Ill.) Daily Herald.
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