‘’The game of basketball has been everything to me. My place of refuge, place I’ve always gone where I needed comfort and peace. It’s been the site of intense pain and the most intense feelings of joy and satisfaction. It’s a relationship that has evolved over time, given me the greatest respect and love for the game”- Michael Jordan (“Michael Jordan Quotes”). There has been a large sum of influential people in the 20th century, some say the most influential person is Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Junior, or Winston Churchill, but I think Michael Jordan is the most influential person of this century. He has done so many things to get this role in my eyes such as playing in the NBA, all the charity work Michael has done and, his early life was a big part of him becoming the influence he became.
Michael Jordan played professional basketball which is one of the reasons he deserves the role he has in my eyes. Jordan has earned six NBA championships along with most important player five times. During his 1988 season he won defensive player of the year. Along with Michael winning rookie of the year during his 1985 season. He won all star MVP in 1988, ‘96, and ‘98. In 1996,Michael won one of fifty Greatest Players in NBA History . Jordan’s also won Olympic gold medals in 1984 and in 1992. Michael had an all time high of 31.1 points per game (career averages). Jordan scored 32,292 in his entire career (“Michael Jordan Career Stats”). He is the fourth highest scoring player of all time. He ranks third among NBA career playoffs steal leaders with a total of 376. He also played baseball at 31 years old in the season of 1994. Four months after his first retirement, Michael signed a contract for the minor league team, Chicago White Sox. Because his father had been murdered the prior summer and always wanted Jordan to play baseball, he wanted to give it a try to make his dad proud. The last time Jordan had played baseball was his senior year of 1981 (“Michael Jordan Career Stats”).
Michael Jordan was involved in a lot of charities including, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Make-A-Wish Foundation, and many more. The Boys and Girls Club helps all young people reach their full potential as a good citizen. They work with disadvantaged and or at-risk youth. Another charity he has worked with is Buoniconti Fund To Cure Paralysis and what they do is serve as a national fundraising leg of The Miami Project (which is the world’s biggest comprehensive spinal cord injury center of research) by raising awareness and funds toward research treatments and or cures for paralysis. Michael has worked with the Jackie Robinson Foundation and this foundation is a nonprofit organization created in 1973 giving a higher education to underprivileged neighborhoods (“Michael Jordan: Charity Work…”). Uniquely, this foundation provides a four–year college education working towards the underprivileged students’ comprehensive skill set and opportunities for the impoverished students of color. The goal is to give underprivileged students the opportunity to be successful in college and work toward further development of their leadership capabilities. Michael worked with the Make-A-Wish Foundation and what Make-A-Wish Foundation does is they grant the desires of children with health issues that are serious medical problems that could take their life, in order to make their life happier and fill them with strength, joy, and hope. Nevada Cancer Institute is another one of the charities he has worked with and they are a group of professional doctors who research and further the knowledge about cancer and further the effectiveness of the medicine made to cure cancer (“Michael Jordan: Charity Work…”). St. Jude Children’s Hospital and their research arm of their foundation. Along with their children’s hospital unit is America’s third largest healthcare provider through a charity, researching and creating the procedures Americans use to help seriously ill children. Opportunity Village is a nonprofit organization that is organized for the people in the Southern Nevada community with mental disabilities, to make their lives happier and more fun along with the lives of their family. Opportunity Village also helps people with physical disabilities to become the best person and citizen they can possibly be. Through community employment, vocational training, advocacy, day services, arts and social situations, they help these citizens with severe disabilities find new friends, future career paths, and work toward being as independent as possible and to become as community integrated and to use their creative passions. Special Olympics is another one of Michael’s many charities he works with. This organization provides year-around training and athletic competitions to more than two million people with intellectual disabilities in more than one hundred fifty countries (“Michael Jordan: Charity Work…”).
Michael Jordan’s early life is what molded him to be the man he is today. In Brooklyn, New York during the year of 1966, Michael Jordan was born on February 17. Michael had four siblings from James and Deloris Jordan.. As a young child, Michael’s family moved to Wilmington, North Carolina. Jordan’s father was a plant supervisor while Deloris worked at a bank. His father bestowed in him his will to work hard and told him to not be tempted and live the “street life” while his mother taught him to sew, clean and do laundry. Jordan had a passion for sports from a young age and all through the rest of his life but failed to make the high school basketball team his sophomore year of his high school career (Jordan, Michael).. He practiced at home very often which resulted in him making the team the next year. After he graduated from high school, he applied to UNC (University of North Carolina) where he would be accepted to college with a scholarship for basketball, and his head coach was Dean Smith. During his first season at UNC he received the award for being the Atlantic Coast Conference Rookie of the Year on 1982 (Jordan, Michael). His team then went on to win the championship when Jordan scored a game winning jump shot letting his team beat Georgetown University giving them the championship for the National Collegiate Athletic Association. He then left North Carolina University after his junior year resulting in him being selected to play for the Chicago Bulls of the NBA, also known as the National Basketball Association (Jordan, Michael).
In conclusion, Michael Jordan has the position of the most influential person in the 20th century for many reasons such as playing in the NBA, all the charity work Michael has done, and experiences in his early life. Those are all reasons why Michael Jordan has the most influential person of the 20th century award in my eyes. Playing in the NBA was most significant because he definitely dominated and had an amazing career. Thankfully, he used his influence financially to help others.