I thought I would touch on Michael Jordan's Hall of Fame 23-minute speech for a second. I'm not going to say much because the issue is rather old news to me. But I talked about it on a Charlotte radio show earlier this week.
So, I thought I would blog about it real quick. A lot of talk has been made of MJ's speech, and how Jordan talked down on former rivals, poked fun at his old high school coach that cut him, his old college roommate, his pro owner, general manager, the guy presenting him and his kids.
He apparently decided that this was the perfect night to list all the ways everybody sitting in front of him had pissed him off over the past 30 years.
But it was still cool. I thought there were a lot of good parts of his speech. The fact of the matter is that it was MJ's speech. He was the greatest basketball player of all-time. He was probably the biggest star to play any sport. How many times have you heard someone say that someone was the Michael Jordan of their sport. Rapper Jay-Z once said that he's the Michael Jordan of recording. And, we'll probably always compare the next great hoops star to Jordan. He's just that great. Jordan will always be the greatest to me, no matter what he said
The problem is that people wanted him to talk about history, and say what they wanted him to say. A caller even hit the radio show up with, “How many times have you heard a hall of fame speech like that? He should have been humble and gracious.”
See, that's an example of someone wanting MJ to say what they wanted him to say. How many times have you seen an athlete take over a sport, nation and culture like Jordan? His shoes are still the hottest sneakers available. His Airness won just about everything there is to win -- six NBA titles, five MVP awards and two Olympics golds. I haven't talked to Jordan about this. I haven't even tried to call him or catch him at the links to get a quote either. I personally think that he was just trying to have fun with the speech. And, he seemed to be coming from the heart. So many people apparently had a huge problem with what MJ was saying, especially media guys. But no one seemed to be offended during the event in Springfield last week. That's one of the things I scanned for as I watch YouTube footage.
Michael was seemingly trying to make light of the whole situation. Anyone that's ever asked MJ about being the best ever could tell you that he's not comfortable proclaiming himself the greatest ever. We could also tell you this was kind of a sad time for Mike. He still wants to play. He realized that being in the hall of fame means that his career is really over. No more dropping 55 on the Knicks. No more people questioning his legacy. No more dream match ups with some of the younger guys. I would've loved to have seen my main man Chris Paul try to cross MJ up and then toss and alley-oop to Emeka Okafor (his new Tyson Chandler). We all would've liked to have seen a seasoned Kobe or LeBron get it in against MJ too. But those match-ups will never happen.
REAL QUICK NOTE:
What in the hell were the Carolina Panthers thinking this week? So many fans and experts have bashed them and quarterback Jake Delhomme this entire week. The Panthers looked awful in a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles during week one.
Jake accounted for four interceptions. He's still that sorry quarterback I've been bashing for the last three years. I bashed the Panthers for signing him to an extension during the off season – $20 million guaranteed. Then, the team signs Jay Feely (a kicker) and allows the Eagles to pick up seasoned quarterback Jeff Garcia.
Boy, it's already a long season in Charlotte.
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