| 06 September 2011
No one ever said it would be easy for Michael Jordan to walk away from the game of basketball.
Just ask Michael Jordan. No, not that Michael Jordan.
This Michael Jordan.
This Michael Jordan was a four-year starting point guard for the University of Pennsylvania Quakers from 1996-2000 and spent the last ten years playing professionally overseas between Spain, Venezuela, Latvia, France, Belgium, Greece, Israel, Italy and multiple stops in Germany.
It wasn’t that long ago that Jordan was named the 1999-2000 Ivy League Player of the Year and pushed the Quakers to an automatic March Madness berth as a junior and Penn’s leading scorer at 15.3 points per game.
Now 34-years-old and after spending last season playing for two different teams (MBC, LTI Giessen) in Germany’s Beko BBL, Jordan is a man without a team.
“I want to play this year. I truly do and I'm a little worried, but if it doesn't happen then it wasn't meant to be,” Jordan told Beyond the Beat.
“I’m just waiting to see who's going take a chance on an old vet.”
Leave it to Jordan to handle the pressure. He’s been doing so since a kid growing up in Philadelphia. What else do you expect when you go through life with the same name as arguably the all-time best player to ever grace the game of basketball. Talk about having to carry a burden.
The namesake double takes have to get old real quick.
“When I was about 14, I got stopped by the police. They asked me my name and I didn't have ID so I was like Michael, then they asked Michael what? I replied Jordan,” Jordan remembers.
“And they laughed and said, ‘yeah and I'm Larry Bird’. They put me in handcuffs and luckily I was in front of my house and my grandmother was looking out the window and could verify things. It sucked at the time though.”
High school found Jordan in a northwestern suburb of Philly of Jenkintown, where he attended the private Abington Friends High School before going on to star at Penn. And while Michael Jeffrey Jordan busily put his Chicago Bulls legacy behind him and contemplated a comeback with the Washington Wizards, Michael Hakim Jordan graduated from Penn in 2000 with a major in Sociology and a concentration in Deviance and Law.
After going undrafted out of Penn, the 6-foot point guard gained experience in a couple of NBA camps – first with the Philadelphia 76ers in summer league, and later the Boston Celtics before being cut in the preseason prior to the 2000-01 season.
“It was close, but no cigar. I’ve been playing in Europe ever since.”
As Jordan looks back on his time playing overseas fondly, it’s the extensive playing days in Germany where the gritty guard made a name for himself. Not yet part of the Beko BBL, Jordan began his career in Deutschland playing for the Artland Dragons in 2002-03 and pushed the team towards joining the premiere league. After a quick stint in Latvia, Jordan moved back to Germany and helped Koln win a BBL championship in 2006.
“By far that was the best team I've ever played on, because from the top to bottom the only thing anyone cared about was winning. We wanted to get better and just to win games. It didn't matter who scored or whatever. We just wanted to win. The Koln fans were just as amazing as the Artland fans and Koln is my favorite German city.”
Stops in Italy, Belgium, Greece and Israel dotted Jordan’s passport before landing back in the BBL briefly with Bamberg and then returning back to Koln and on to Phoenix. Fast forward to last season where Jordan split time between MBC and finally ending the season in Giessen.
His game has taken him places. It still can.
“I've had the opportunity to play for guys that I played with and played against so that's interesting in itself. I've played for about six or seven different teams in Germany and there is a running joke about me having a jersey from every team before I retire.”
Still, Jordan knows basketball is a business and sometimes his style and outlook on that reality hasn’t always sat well with some teammates in Germany.
Jordan will be the first to admit that – it’s a fire for the game that tends to get lost in translation.
“The only negative thing about Germany would be that people - and I guess that's everywhere - believe more of what they hear and less of what they see. My college coach always told us, ‘Perception is reality’. And I found that to be so true over there. I'm not perfect nor am I an angel by any means. But if wanting to win, wanting guys to compete all the time, and play as a team is considered a ‘head case’, then I guess I'm certified crazy.
“There are a lot of sensitive and insecure guys in this profession. So people take the littlest things personally. I prefer people listen to what I say, not how I say it. Sometimes I scream and yell. I'm aggressive. It’s why I'm an okay player because I'm not the fastest, most athletic, skilled player, but I will put in the work and I play hard. I hate to lose. I don't just want to win - I have to win. I'm competitive. You’re going to have bad performances, but the one thing you can control is your effort and I'll be surprised if you found someone that would tell you that I've never not competed.”
On a Tuesday morning in Philly, Jordan is busy fighting off sleep and swapping emails.
It’s pushing 5:30 on the East Coast.
“I have a 5 month-old daughter who still wakes up every 2-4 hours,” Jordan said, before explaining he’s an old pro at functioning on little sleep.
It dates back to his high school days at Abington Friends High School, when Jordan would wake up at 5:45 in the morning to make it to school, a private institution that allowed his grades and game to flourish. This was before John Hardnett molded Jordan. The "City of Brotherly Love" basketball guru was famous for his workouts, and if you played ball in Philly, your game went through his gym. Hardnett passed away in May, 2010 and Jordan still keeps his memory and those workout sessions close to his heart. As his basketball journey blossomed at Penn - and eventually abroad - Jordan steadily tapped back into those roots this summer playing in the Rankin-Anderson summer league, Pro-Am at King of Prussia and returning to Penn to workout with the team.
It’s where Jordan spends much of his time working out these days waiting on a call from his agent, Refiloe Lethunya of Bluestar Sports Management, whom Jordan played with in Spain and Germany.
“I'm ready to go. My body feels great and my game is looking good. I know I can play and I have no control over if teams want to hire me,” said Jordan.
He doesn’t want to hang it up just yet. But that doesn’t keep him from thinking about it.
“If I didn't play ball what would I be doing? I’d like to coach or be a cop, fireman, or politician. Honestly though, if I had a coaching opportunity came up I would probably would shut it down.”
This Michael Jordan can relate to that Michael Jordan. In fact, just forget the name for a minute and know there is a universal truth in sports: there is never a right time to leave the game behind.
“I want to try and play at the very least one more time,” admitted Jordan.
“If it doesn't happen, then I can still say I lived my dream.”
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