Considered by many to be the most successful athlete of all times, Michael Jordan benefited from multiple combining physical and temperamental advantages. They helped him to become a basketball star and then a giant brand name. He was not only extremely talented, but also extremely disciplined, hard-working and competitive, which caused him to be remarked as a future star from high-school. However, as an NBA star, his entertaining playing style, and his extreme drive which caused him to see every match as a life and dead struggle, contributed to the popularity he gained among basketball fans. His unique set of qualities drove many Americans to shift their attention towards basketball, and his rising stardom increased the global viewing of the NBA league. With his popularity among the viewers, Jordan soon became a game changer for big companies which named products and even brands after him. Driven by the media culture which transformed sports into spectacle, and spectacle into business success, the products which bore Jordan’s name, image or signature became goldmines and were sold in record numbers all over the world. Jordan therefore rose as a basketball star at the perfect moment when the advancement of the audiovisual and internet technology allowed people all over the world access to Jordan’s games. Besides, the aggressive promotion of his image in the media also increased his fame to the level that he soon became legend. Therefore, Jordan’s rise from stardom to being a giant brand name was determined by several interrelated factors, including his personal qualities, the advancement of technology and the aggressive promotion of the media.
Michael Jordan was born to James and Deloris Jordan, an upper Middle class couple of North Carolina, which transmitted to young Jordan ideas that one should work hard and make use of his talent, as opposed to wasting it, ideas which he would use later in his career. Part of a large family of 7, Jordan was always in competition with his siblings, and in particular, with his older brother, who was an equally passionate athlete. As Jordan became taller and stronger, Laney High where he studied began to be recognized for its basketball team, and Jordan was its rising star. The next important step in his development as an athlete was the invitation to go to Dean Smith’s basketball camp, which was a privilege reserved for the best young athletes. At the camp, the coaches recognized his raw talent, which separated him from other youngsters his age, and represented the particular trait that coaches hoped to find. However it was at the Five-Star Camp that Jordan was truly remarked. From that moment, the word about Jordan’s talent began to spread not only throughout the college world, but in the professional world as well, with the help of the unofficial alumni network. Jordan attended the University of North Carolina where his skills improved due to the careful mentorship of the coach, Dean Smith.
After 3 years in college, during which he helped to take his team at the highest level, Jordan was ready to become a professional player. Coach Smith believed that he had nothing more to play at the collegiate level, and besides, he was afraid that he might be injured, which would destroy his professional career before it started. Consequently, he advised Jordan to enter the National Baseball Association Draft. However, his mother opposed this idea, and insisted that he should graduate first. Therefore, in1984, Jordan joined the Chicago Bulls, where it soon became obvious that he was meant to be a star. As Halberstam showed, many other young players who joined the NBA soon proved not to have the physical strength to resist in the professional world, fading rapidly instead. However, he had a unique energy level, which supported him throughout the season. Not only was him a great athlete, but he was also a very popular one. Jordan fascinated the crowds with his slam dunks and his skillful play.
Soon after beginning his NBA career, Jordan also began to become a brand name. One year into his professional career, Jordan signed a seven-year contract with Nike, which created the Air Jordan shoes. Jordan would receive a royalty for every pair which was sold and his popularity both in America and abroad caused the brand to become world’s most profitable shoe brand in the world. According to Andrews, “Jordan’s acclaim and popularity result in part because he is aa perfect embodiment of the sports spectacle in which media culture uses high tech wizardry to magically transform sports into a media extravaganza of the highest order”. Consequently, as his career developed, he began being approached by many other high-profile companies. McDonald’s named one of their products “McJordan”, and Gatorade made a large number of commercials featuring him . According to Kellner, this is not surprising because, in the American commercial culture which “blends celebrity, product and image, it is only natural that a sports shoe corporation like Nike – as well as many other corporations- would purchase Jordan’s star power to promote its products”. Therefore, in time, Jordan’s yearly endorsements provided the greatest part of his income. Also because of his huge popularity, the Bulls sold out their tickets for all of the games they played, which increased Jordan’s overall income.
Even though he had an injury which kept him far from the field for dozens of games, and he retired three times, he came back to be acclaim at the same level each time. Besides, Jordan’s success caused the sport in itself to grow in popularity over the decades. In a decade, the NBA became a world-renowned league which was watched all over the world He was well on his way of becoming nothing else than a one-man corporate conglomerate, and he now spoke of the owners of the basketball team he played for as well as the heads of the sneaker company and hamburger company and soft drink company he represented as “my partners” . Jordan and his skillful agent, David Falk, skillfully took advantage of celebrity and the interest of the company, and made sure that company had a great image to sale. Apart from promoting the products of countless conglomerates, Jordan developed his own cologne brand, Eau de Michael Jordan, and also played in an animation film, “Spage Jam”, featuring other basketball players, as well as Bugs Bunny, and other cartoon characters He was not only a great basketball player but he was also a great salesman, selling the sport to people all around the world.
Michael Jordan earned more and more from the Bulls and established himself as the world’s highest payed athlete. In 1998, Fortune estimated that Jordan generated more than $10 billion throughout his career, from increased ticked sale, television advertisement revenue the higher profits of the products he endorsed and his own businesses and products, among others. The nickname “His Airness” summarizes the deserved recognition for his achievements, but also summarizes the power of media in transforming a talented athlete into a giant brand name, generating profits globally and driving the transformation of sports into successful business.
Bibliography
Halberstam, David. Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made. New York: Broadway Books. 1997.
Kellner, Douglas. “The Sports Spectacle, Michael Jordan and Nike an Unholy Alliance?” in Michael Jordan, Inc.: Corporate Sport, Media Culture, and Late Modern America, edited by David Andrews. 37-65. New York: State University of New York Press. 2001.
David Porter. Michael Jordan: A Bibliography. Westport, CT Greenwood Press. 2007.
