Michael Jordan's Best Years Could be His Next 50

By Jeric Griffin
michael jordan next 50 years
Sam Sharpe-USA TODAY Sports

For the past three decades, the sports world has been in awe of Michael Jordan. He hasn’t played a second of professional basketball during the latter of that trio, but he’s making even more money now than he was while becoming the greatest basketball player — and arguably best athlete — of all time. Jordan is also garnering incredible attention these days (he recently graced his 50th SI cover right after his 50th birthday), but it’s possible that his future could redefine the phrase that narrated his career: You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

While many have criticized and even mocked Jordan for his subpar performance as an NBA executive of the Charlotte Bobcats, it’s baffling how everyone seems to have forgotten Jordan’s story before the pair of three-peats. Of course, many members of today’s media are too young to remember Jordan’s greatness, much less his struggle to achieve it during the 1980s, so the fact there are columns being written in 2013 about Jordan’s incompetence make the reminiscence of those same writings 30 years ago seem like the quiet scene of a horror movie right before the scary thing jumps out. The scariest part? That’s exactly what could be just ahead.

Does today’s sports world not remember Jordan’s scorching Hall of Fame speech in 2009? No one can claim they’re too young for that. He tried to remind us that we’ve doubted him before and he had made us greatly regret it, yet we’re reading articles today about Jordan’s lack of drive. Are we really calling him effortless?

When Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, he came back to become a McDonald’s All-American and average a triple double during his senior year. When his named was misspelled on the North Carolina team program, Jordan hit the game-winning shot as a freshman in the national championship game a few months later. When he wasn’t picked No. 1 overall in the 1984 NBA Draft, MJ went on to win more titles (team and individual) and play in more All-Star games than anyone else in his class. When we said His Airness couldn’t win a title, he won three in a row. When we said he couldn’t do anything but score, Jordan won Defensive Player of the Year and then led the league in assists. When we doubted Jordan could come back to the NBA from a subpar baseball career, he completed another three-peat. When we thought he was done, he scored 43 points at age 40, and now we apparently think he won’t accomplish anything else? What’s that phrase? Something about “fool me once…”?

Jordan is just now really getting into the groove of being the majority owner of the Bobcats and the challenges that come with that. It took a few years for Jordan to get it all together with the Chicago Bulls and finally start his magical run of greatness, so now is about the time he should begin his ascent to prominence as an executive. Now that all of this negative feedback is getting to Jordan’s ears, he should start to take it personally just the way he did as a player 30 years ago.

Jordan practices with the Bobcats, so he’s getting better and better at evaluating talent other than his own. He could really put his mind to being an owner any time now, and who knows what will happen then? He could find the “next Jordan” and then build a perennial title contender around that young star. He could win five in a row, then take two years off to coach the Carolina Panthers and then come back to make a stunning trade that sends the Bobcats to another five straight championships. Do you doubt that Jordan can do it? That’s exactly what he wants you to think.

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