Usefulness of the tool
Sports century has made a very interesting documentary about Michael Jordan. It tells about Michael Jordan as an iconic figure who dominated NBA in the 80’s and 90’s. During his tenure he bagged 6 championships with his team the Chicago Bulls which was an achievement that no other athlete had attained before. He has been constantly referred to us the greatest American athlete who ever lived in the 20th century. His consistency in the league was unmatched, he played 11 full league championships with full fitness (Rein et al, 173).
His achievements can only be compared to Wilt Chamberlain’s because they are the only players who scored more than 3000 points in a single NBA season.
The media portrayed Michael as a ‘God’ in his game because he did magic in the basketball field. He was revered, feared and admired by many. Michael Jordan arguably enjoyed great success in his game. As a result of his undisputed success, Michael enjoyed great attention from fans from across all walks of life. He not only had male fans, he had female fans, the old and the young fans and they all adored him. He was the most popular black person in the white community. Manufacturing firms exploited his influence on people to market their products.
Everything he touched was huge success in sales and this is shown by the numerous advertisements he featured in. Companies targeted their customers using Jordan images. This added their products life and popularity. Jordan had good personal attributes that made any product he popularized an instant success.
The people associated the Nike shoes that he liked with his natural abilities like the ability to jump higher than normal when playing basketball and this promoted sales and Nike brand name. This is even explained further with his association with Nike. Nike registered instant profits through their label Air Jordan. In fact, Jordan says that he had not preferred to be endorsed by Nike but he really wanted Adidas. He had really grown so much that successful firms were scrambling for his signature.
Whenever Jordan appeared in the media it was like an audition for him. People were just following him everywhere aimlessly. The people did not want to see the media deconstructing him, they defended him at all costs. Any news about Michael Jordan would leave people pegged on the screens to see what he was going through. Jordan had his dark sides too. The media did discover that he was addicted to gambling. In fact, Magic Johnson said that Jordan would play cards every day, sometimes late into the night. He would force Magic to play cards with him even if he was tired.
Jordan did not humble himself when his successes struck, he stuck to what he loved the most; gambling. For example, when his team was invited by President Bush to the white house to congratulate them because of their unprecedented successes, Michael Jordan was notably missing. He was somewhere gambling and did not go to meet George Bush Senior as a team captain (Markovits et al, 89).
As complaints continued to stream about Jordan, he was so much stressed because everywhere the media was buzzed with stories both good and bad about him. He was heavily criticized by the media because of his attitude. He had grown too much for himself. In the pitch he was the coach and he could be seen shouting at the players instead of just playing and let the coach do his job. At some point he attempted to quit playing basket ball only to realize that he was doing disservice to himself. He returned with a bang and won more titles for his team. His second coming was like a rebirth, he was unstoppable until he retired from the pitch due to his age.
Why the tool was Chosen
The video is a great tool for analyzing the life of Michael Jordan both on the pitch and outside the pitch. It brings us closer to him. This reality is brought about as a result of the different scenes which have been photographically captured in real time and they reflect the emotions he was going through at that particular time. The tool serves best to describe Michael’s life even to someone who has never known Michael. This media tool is highly interactive and very educative (.Sachare, Alex, 172-173)
The Chicago Connection
The fact that Michael Jordan comes from Chicago and goes back to play for Chicago bulls is something that has a lot of weight in a sense that Chicago is known for its dull nature and freezing conditions. Michael is a star, he lightens up Chicago. He is a force to reckon with. The Chicago family is reminded that their rooms are no longer dull, but they will constantly be lightened by their prosperous product, Michael Jordan, whom the whole nation is very proud of.
Works Cited
Markovits, Andrei S. and Lars Rensman. Gaming the World: How Sports are Reshaping Global Politics and Culture. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010. Print.
Rein, Irving J; Philip Kotler, Ben Shields The Elusive Fan: Reinventing Sports in a Crowded Marketplace. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 2006. Print.
Sachare, Alex. The Chicago Bulls Encyclopedia. Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1999. Print.