Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan was born Feb. 17, 1963, in Brooklyn, N.Y. He first burst onto the national stage as a freshman in the 1982 NCAA title game, when he hit the game-winning jump shot in North Carolina's victory over Georgetown.
|  | | Jordan was the College Player of the Year in 1984. |
Nearly 20 years later, Jordan is remembered for more than just his unequaled ability on the basketball court. He is recognized as an icon. The former Chicago Bulls guard had the rarest of gifts, the ability to transcend his sport.
Snapshots from Jordan's basketball career pepper the memory:
There was his hanging, double-clutch jumper at the buzzer, lifting the Bulls past the Cleveland Cavaliers in the deciding game of a 1989 playoff series.
In Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals, plagued by a stomach virus, Jordan scored 38 points -- including the decisive 3-pointer with 25 seconds left.
In his final contest, Game 6 of the 1998 Finals, with the Bulls down by three with 40 seconds left, he scored on a layup, stole the ball at the other end, then hit the winning jumper.
That final jump shot gave the Bulls their second three-peat of the '90s. If not for Jordan's decision to take more than a year and a half off beginning in 1993 to play minor league baseball, it's possible the Bulls could have won eight consecutive championships.
Playing 11 full seasons, Michael Jordan led the league in scoring a record 10 times and won six championships. He was the MVP in each of those championships. His 31.5 career scoring average is the highest in NBA history, and with 29,277 points he's fourth all-time behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone and Chamberlain.
To a generation of fans never privileged to watch Superman out-race a speeding bullet, or leap over buildings in a single bound, they made up for it by watching Michael Jordan play basketball.
He is now president and a part owner of the Washington Wizards.
ESPN Celebrates Black History Month
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