My Favourite Sportsman - Мой любимый спортсмен

MICHAEL JORDAN is American professional basketball player. He is often considered the greatest player in the history of the game. He led the National Basketball Association (NBA) Chicago Bulls to five championships.

Jordan was born on the 17th of February, 1963 in Brooklyn, New York. He grew up in Wilmington, N.C., and entered the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1981. As a freshman, he made the winning basket in the 1982 national championship game. Jordan was named College Player of the Year in both his sophomore and junior years. He left North Carolina after his junior year. Two times Jordan led the U.S. basketball team to Olympic gold medals in 1984 in Los Angeles and in 1992 in Barcelona, Spain. 

In 1984 Jordan was drafted by the Chicago Bulls. In his first season as a professional (1984—1985), he led the league in scoring and was named Rookie of the Year. He missed the following season because of an injury. When he returned, he was again a success, scoring 32 points per game. He was only the second player (after Wilt Chamberlain) to score 3,000 points in a single season (1986—1987). Jordan was named the NBA's Most Valuable Player (MVP) four times (1988, 1991, 1992, 1996) and was also named Defensive Player of the Year in 1988.

In October 1993 Jordan retired briefly to pursue a career in professional baseball. But in 1995 he returned to basketball again. In the 1995—1996 season Jordan led the Bulls to a regular season record, the best in the history of the NBA. The following season he won his fifth championship with the Bulls and was named MVP of the NBA Finals.

At 1.98 m, Jordan, a guard, was an exceptionally talented shooter and passer and a tenacious defender. His nickname is «Air Jordan» because of his extraordinary leaping ability and the acrobatic manoeuvres he used to evade defenders as he approached the basket.