Michael Jordan

Air Jordan has landed on the water. At least that's the rumor bouncing around Severna Park, as people breathlessly gab about the huge brick house - make that compound - that basketball legend Michael Jordan supposedly has bought or is buying on the Severn River. A little boy recently pressed the buzzer at the exclusive gated community seeking an autograph. People talk about "Michael," as if they know the guy. Everyone, it seems, has heard about their most famous new neighbor since game-show host Pat Sajak rolled into town.

Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps and Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan teed off against each other on the golf course at the 12th annual Michael Jordan Celebrity Invitational at Shadow Creek in Las Vegas this weekend. Jordan, a six-time NBA champion and a five-time Most Valuable Player, has spent a lot of time on the golf course since his third -- or was it fourth? -- retirement from the NBA. He shot a 73 in his round against Phelps. But Phelps fired an even-par 72 to beat Jordan by a stroke in their round together, according to Yahoo!

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Driving here from the airport yesterday afternoon, I thought about all of the television trucks, with their miles of black cables, descending on Tim McCarver Stadium and preparing for a national broadcast of a minor-league baseball game: the Memphis Chicks vs. the Birmingham Barons.The major-league players strike was little more than 48 hours old, but television, eager to fill valleys of air time, had found its Mr. Clutch.Michael Jordan spent a career bailing out the Chicago Bulls, and yesterday he was going to bail out network baseball.

'95-96 Bulls unstoppable K.C. Johnson Chicago Tribune The Bulls appeared vulnerable in the fall of 1995. Michael Jordan's return from his first retirement and baseball experiment in the spring had led to uneven moments, including a second-round playoff exit to the Magic. Then the 1995-96 season started. And the Bulls won their first five games, 10 of their first 11, 23 of their first 26 and on and on and on. In fact, after dropping to 23-3, the Bulls reeled off a franchise-record, 18-game win streak to move to 41-3.

Standing at the counter in the convenience store, I noticed a stack of magazines near my elbow. Michael Jordan's picture was on the cover. It appeared to be a special commemorative edition, hailing his great career.As I left, I paused to look at the magazine rack. There was another Jordan cover. I didn't examine it but I assume it raised the question of whether civilization would survive without him.Later that day, I was going through the paper when I saw his picture in the business section, accompanying a story about his plans to join a business that will start family golf centers.

Pro basketball hasn't been the same since he left. It has become the province of erratic and overpaid 19-year-olds, spoiled turnover machines who can't shoot, can't play defense, can't get along with teammates and coaches. Or maybe it just seems that way because he's gone, leaving a gap no one could possibly fill. With a lament like that we could only be talking about Michael Jordan, which may explain why "Michael Jordan to the Max" has been a box-office hit at IMAX theaters around the country.

At night, when he is asleep, Michael Jordan dreams. And th dreams are not always sweet ones. Sometimes they are nightmares.You would think Michael Jordan would have no nightmares in his life. He is the best and the most famous basketball player in the world. And he is rewarded for this with an income that is truly staggering.But some nights he dreams about becoming an alcoholic and losing it all. He dreams that all the wealth, all the fame, all the adoration will be gone.Here is Jordan talking to columnist Bob Greene in Greene's new book, "Hang Time":"What would I do?"

NEW YORK -- Michael Jordan, basketball's pre-eminent player and the world's best-known athlete, will retire from the NBA for the second time in five years, according to three officials in the NBA with knowledge of Jordan's plans. They said last night they expected the Chicago Bulls star to make an announcement tomorrow at a news conference in Chicago.Jordan's retirement also was reported last night by the Associated Press, USA Today and Denver Post.Jordan's future has been the biggest issue in basketball in the wake of the bitter labor dispute that ended last week after an impasse that lasted six months and wiped out the early part of the season.

BEAVERTON, Ore. -- Nike Inc. and basketball star Michael Jordan yesterday announced a new line of basketball shoes and sportswear to be made and sold by Nike under the "Jordan" brand name.The first Jordan products are expected to be on store shelves Nov. 1, in time for the holiday selling season.The line, which will include the current Air Jordan brand, is expected to generate more than $300 million in revenue in fiscal 1998, analysts said.The move allows Nike, the world's largest maker of athletic shoes and sportswear, to gain even more of the basketball-shoe market through another brand, analysts said.

WASHINGTON - The sports mania overtaking the capital is obvious in the MCI Center gift shop, where on a recent evening a woman best known for her friendship with Bill and Hillary Clinton - fundraiser extraordinaire Beth Dozoretz - is championing a different Washington celebrity. "Michael Jordan is the only reason I'm in this place," she says, looking anything but the typical basketball fan in her snug shearling coat with matching purse. The first-time season ticket holder browses the souvenirs with her 7-year-old son, trawling for any- thing with a Wizards logo on it. A ticket to the Wizards and a glimpse of the legendary Jordan.

The debate raging these days between those arguing whether this year's U.S. Olympic men's basketball team could compete with the Dream Team of 20 years ago is not answered simply by a generational divide. I for one, being of sound mind and slightly broken-down body, believe the 2012 version is not being given the respect it deserves before it ever steps on a court in London. I also think the 1992 team was not quite as invincible as they were made out to be because the international game was far from what it is today.

League isn't what it was Ira Winderman Sun Sentinel Duh. Michael Jordan not only would have scored more points because of the limited contact allowed on the perimeter, but also because of the talent drain created by league expansion from his prime Bulls years and the league's move away from thug-like enforcers, the type Pat Riley utilized during his Knicks coaching tenure. About the only change since Jordan's prime years that would create any challenge would be the legalization of zone defense, but that approach is so minimally utilized that it likely would not stand as a factor.

NBA commissioner David Stern expects Michael Jordan to be approved as majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats by the end of next month. Stern released a statement Saturday saying he was "pleased" the former NBA superstar had reached a deal to buy the money-losing team from Bob Johnson. Stern anticipates an expedited approval process by the league's owners. Jordan has declined to comment after striking a deal late Friday. Jordan has been a part-owner of the Bobcats with the final say on basketball decisions.

Kristi Toliver is a quiet, thoughtful soul content to strum her guitar and go to class like any other college senior. Unless you put a basketball into her hands. Then, the Maryland point guard becomes something else entirely - Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant distilled into a 5-foot-7 female form, the kind of kid who knew from birth she would make the biggest shots in the biggest games. "She's just ruthless," says Dena Evans, one of her basketball mentors. "She can take the heart out of a team with one shot."

Bulls@Pacers Noon [WGN] Michael Jordan (left) and Scottie Pippen face off against Reggie Miller and Rik Smits as Chicago takes on Indiana in a possible Eastern Conference finals preview - if this were 1997-98. Instead, watch the bottom two teams in the Central Division fight over draft lottery position. Almost as good, right?

Considering what you have endured, how have you resisted the temptation to become frustrated with what has happened? I don't think about it like that. I don't think about football in a frustrating way at all. I just don't. I won't allow myself to let anything take away from what we've got going on here. Do you believe that contracting tonsillitis was part of a bigger plan? Everything definitely happens for a reason. Obviously, my plan will come somewhere later on down the line. The things that I have gone through and go through now are definitely part of what I have to do to become the quarterback that I want to become.

Michael Jordan's new position is what basketball fans like to call "small forward." That hardly seems fitting for such an extra-large return to the NBA. Yet a few things about Jordan are, indeed, downsized. Since he started working out again with long-time personal trainer Tim Grover in January, the 38-year-old Jordan dropped from 248 pounds and a self-admitted gut to the rippled 215 leaping across a recent Sports Illustrated cover. That photograph of the new Washington Wizard player says plenty about the six days a week that Jordan and Grover worked out between Jan. 2 and mid-June, before a rib injury derailed Jordan's comeback for two months.

On the 6 o'clock news, the sports guy was getting all weepy about Michael Jordan, to the point where you wondered if Jordan was retiring today or had been pushed under a train.After showing the requisite highlight videos of the Chicago Bulls superstar, accompanied by a maudlin, Barbra Streisand-ish musical score, the sports guy intoned somberly: "Michael, we'll never forget you."Forget him? How could we forget him?We'll see him every day for the rest of our lives.We'll see him every time we turn on the TV and he's flacking for Nike, or McDonald's, or Gatorade, or WorldCom.

Michael Phelps is strolling the red carpet with rock stars. He's sitting knee-to-knee with Oprah, signing book deals, making cameos, commanding attention from Access Hollywood, canoodling - as the tabloids say - with young ladies, endorsing products and ringing the New York Stock Exchange opening bell. Earlier this week, he's hunched into Jay Leno's seat of honor, squirming a bit as the host prods him about what a big deal it will be to host Saturday Night Live (which he's doing tonight on NBC)

Yes, Michael Phelps has been called a rock star. But online - at least on Facebook - the Rodgers Forge swimmer is actually much bigger than that. So many comments poured in yesterday, part of his fan profile site temporarily crashed, Facebook officials said. By noon yesterday, the Olympic swimmer had more than 700,000 fans, from high schoolers to parents. That's second only to presidential candidate Barack Obama (1,344,000), and more than Coldplay (501,000) and Michael Jordan (108,000)