He's Back

Those were my two favorite words as a 13 year old boy. Why? No, it's not because I was a particularly religious chap who contemplated the resurrection. These words carried the weight they did because of number 23. Words defy me. Defy was word often used to describe him. I feel bad for kids these days who wake up in the morning and don't have posters of him occupying the largest wall in their room (as I did until I graduated high school). Actually, "I'm back" were the words that resurrected the swooning world of sports back into greatness for a brief time. If you don't know who I'm talking about (and the picture wasn't a dead give away), shame on you.

Michael Jordan. I was watching TV the other night while Meg was grading some papers and I couldn't stand watching the Rockies implode on themselves so I started going through my regular channels. 16-ESPN, 20-TBS, 23-National Geographic, 30-Discovery, 51-TNT, 64-Animal Planet, nothing. So phase II- 17-ESPN2, and then it happened 18-ESPN Classic! (Sadly, I just listed all those channels by heart, I shouldn't know all that, I need to save room for medical information.) The year was 1995 and the Bulls were playing the Magic. I watched the game, it was amazing, basketball in all it's purity, it takes me back. Unfortunately, the Bulls lost the game and the series to the Magic that night, but he was back and everyone knew that soon they would suffer unders the unstoppable perfection of MJ.

If you could get a Ph.D. in basketballology I would do and write my thesis on "The Aesthetics and Superlative Nature of Michael Jordan's Mad Game". It's hard to pick which stats should be mentioned but here a few from Wikipedia:

* 14 time All-Star
* Olympic Gold Medalist—1984, 1992
* Five time MVP—1988, 1991, 1992, 1996, 1998
* Rookie of the Year—1984
* Defensive Player of the Year—1988
* 11 times All-NBA—10 times first team
* 9 time All-Defensive First Team
* Lead the Bulls to 6 NBA Finals Championships (2 3peats)
* Most scoring titles—10
* Most NBA Finals MVP awards—6
* Highest career scoring average—30.12
* Highest career scoring average playoffs—33.45
* Most consecutive games scoring in double figures—866
* Highest single series scoring average NBA Finals—41.0 (1993)

So this is my tribute. Mike, if you ever read this blog, high five man for being the best who will ever live. All this to say, I wanna be like Mike.