Michael Jeffrey Jordan was born on February 17, 1963, in Brooklyn, New York, to James who worked at an electric plant and Delores Jordan who worked at a bank. Due to that fact, Michael was not a rags-to-riches story, his childhood was reasonably comfortable. He is the fourth children in the family with two older brothers; Larry and James, one older sister; Delores, and one younger sister; Roslyn. A few years after Michael was born, his parents were concerned about raising their family on the mean streets of Brooklyn, where drugs and violence could become a way of life for those unable to resist the temptations. That's why they moved the whole family to Wilmington, North Carolina, the small, laid back town, which they perceived as a better place to raise their family. And so Wilmington was where Michael and his brothers and sisters grew up.

At their early settlement in Wilmington, Mr. and Mrs. Jordan began to set an example for their children, showing them an eagerness to work and achieve that never released, encouraged them to make things happen rather than wait around for them to happen. When still a young children, Michael was more of a recreational athlete, sometimes lazy, usually discouraged because he could not compete with his older brother Larry. Also he was not very tall during his early years and did not have much hope of being that tall since none in the Jordan family history could ever reached over six feet. It was understandable that before entering high school, Michael gave no thought at all to an athletic career. He wasn't in purposely loved to play baseball when he was a child, and so did basketball and football. But, instead of basketball, baseball was the sport he took to initially and by the age of twelve he was favourably named the top player of the league, for which he played pitcher and outfield.

When he attended D.C. Virgo Junior High School, Michael was a typical 15-year-old all-around athlete. He played three sports, but was fanatical about none of them. Everything was changed when he reached Laney High School as a tenth grader and was already 5'10'', two inches taller than his dad and three inches taller than his brother Larry. That was the very first time in his life when he became the quarterback for Laney JV football team in the fall. Happened by chance, Michael's love for basketball began when his older brother, Larry, continuously beat him in one-on-one pickup games that actually provided him any challenges which at last determined him to become a better player. Shortly after realizing his love to basketball, he moved right into JV basketball and learnt something started to happen to him, which greatly influenced his career.

As faith would have it, the main team needed an extra player seeing the playoffs were coming up and everything, so Michael confidently felt that they would pick him, but when his teammate Leroy Smith was the chosen one he bacame very upset. It made sense anyway, since he was only 5'10" while Leroy was 6'5" and the team indeed needed someone high. After the refusal Michael even got a worse "look down" from the team members that eventually made him woke up from the desperation. Since that time he made up his mind and promised himself to not letting such thing happened to him again. This thought encouraged Michael to start working harder than ever on his basketball skills, and the result of that can be seen in the near future as he intensively dedicated himself to make his own varsity team, which drawn him to cut classes and go to the gym to practice. He was at that time practicing every day after school with his brother Larry.

The every day practice had shot Michael up from 5'10" to 6'3" in his sophomore and junior year. From now on things bigger had started. Shortly before his graduation, the University of North Carolina was trying to recruit him to go to college there and when he was graduated from Laney High in June 1991, Michael proudly received a full scholarship to the university. Being a freshman there, Michael got his ever-growing popularity when he scored the game-winning basket in the 1982 NCAA championship game against the Georgetown Hoyas. Because of the success, he was selected college player of the year in the 1983-1984 season, and led the US Men's Basketball Team to an Olympic Gold Medal in the 1984 Summer Olympics under coach Bobby Knight. And so Michael began dreaming of something greater that he said he wanted to play in the NBA instead of finishing college. Thus, he decided to leave college and enter the NBA in 1984 and was selected at number 3 in the draft by the Chicago Bulls, a team that had won only 28 games the previous season.

Firstly played for the team, Michael got his first game as a pro against Washington on October 26, 1984. Yes he did it very well and became an immediate impact in the league and proved that he belonged among the elite players. Moreover, Michael could also finished his rookie season as one of the top scorers in the league, averaging 28.2 points per game, was named Rookie of the Year, and also made the All-Star team. From that time he went on to win numerous awards and trophies, including three Most Valuable Player awards, two slam dunk contest in 1987 and 1988, named defense player of the year in 1988, named the All-Star Game MVP in 1988 and 1996, and was also be the second player to win seven consecutive scoring titles. To add those awards, Michael too, had some achievements, which among others member of two gold winning Olympic teams 1984 and 1992; scored his career best, 69 points, against Cleveland, March 28, 1990; and led the Chicago Bulls to three consecutive NBA Championships, 1990-1991, 1991-1992, and 1992-1993.

Unfortunately, a tragic thing happened to Michael after he won his third championship in 1993. His father James, was murdered in August that year. Though the murderers had been found, it didn't stop media outlets to initially relate James' murder to Michael's alleged gambling habit, which had been widely publicized when Michael confessed to losing tens of thousands of dollars betting on his golf games. Far from rumors spread among public, the incident obviously mourned Michael very much because he loss someone he loves, someone who left lots of memories in his life. This incident had mentally affected the athlete that he retired from the basketball two days before the 1993-1994 NBA season and decided to play baseball for his father.

Following the decision, Michael tried out for the Birmingham Barons, a Chicago White Sox farm team. He didn't make the team, but was promoted to a minor league team and played ball for one or two seasons. That summer he batted .202 with the Birmingham Barons, a class AA affiliate of the White Sox. Later in the year he batted .252 with the Scottsdale Scorpions in the Arizona Fall League. Despite all, Michael's baseball career was not taking off like he expected. Facing such reality, on March 19, 1995, he ended his basketball retirement by rejoining the Bulls, near the end of the 1994-1995 NBA regular season. In the 1995-1996 season Michael once again enjoyed another great year, leading the NBA in scoring with 30.4 points per game and being named league MVP and led them to the Eastern Conference Semifinals that year, ultimately bowing out to the Orlando Magic. Additionally to the succession, the Bulls also became the first NBA team to win 70 games in a season, finishing with 72 victories, and they went on to win the NBA championship title. And beginning the next year, Michael favourably won three consecutive NBA titles between 1996 and 1998 and was named MVP of the NBA finals, becoming the first player to earn the honor four times.

After getting plenty of awards, Michael decided to retire again on January 13, 1999, mainly because the breakup of the Bulls dynasty by Jerry Krause, which caused him not play basketball for anyone else other than Phil Jackson. In chain of that, the star also expressed a desire to spend more time with his wife, Juanita, whom he married on September 2, 1989, and their three children, Jeffrey, Marcus, and Jasmine. After the clash in Bulls, Phil Jackson made the move to L.A. Lakers which was the new reincarnation of the Bulls, while Michael later joined the Washington Wizards as President of Basketball Operations and part owner in January 2000. In 2001 he retired and played for the Washington Wizards, though his skills were noticeably diminished by age. Yet despite an injury-plagued 2001-2002 season, he still averaged nearly 23 points per game. Playing through pain, especially in his knee, Michael was still an important player for the Wizards. Then he played in his 13th and final NBA All-Star Game in 2002-2003 before coming to his endmost retirement.

Separate ways from sport Michael is known as a business man too. He is arguably one of the most marketed sports figures in history as well. Michael once became a major spokesman for such brands as Nike, Gatorade and MCI. To add, he has also been connected with the "Looney Tunes" and a Nike commercial in the 1991 Super Bowl where he and Bugs Bunny played basketball against some Martians had inspired the 1996 live action/animated movie "Space Jam" which starred Michael and the Looney Tunes in a fictional story set during his first retirement. They have subsequently appeared together in several commercials for MCI. Besides, Michael also has his own-line of sport clothing called (JORDAN) [1997-1998 season]. On top of that, he is notably a generous athlete too. At the beginning of the 2001-2002 basketball season he donated his entire $1 million salary to help the victims of the September 11 attacks.