MJ 30 for 30
Watched that ESPN 30 for 30 documentary about Jordan's 1st retirement/season playing baseball. Bit of an MJ fluff piece, but makes two arguments in a pretty compelling manner.
1. MJ was not that bad in baseball. Okay, initially he was awful but he (not surprisingly) worked his ass off and improved through the season, capped by hitting .250 in the more competitive fall league that takes place after the season. The games shots (unless selectively edited) show visible improvement is his swing from 'skinny tall guy in a batting cage next to the mini-golf' to a serious looking swing. His one season took place at 32, and he didn't come back for another (according to the show, see below) because of the impending strike. Could jordan have made it in the major leagues? Probably not, but his season doesn't seem like nearly the joke it has been made out to be.
1. MJ was not that bad in baseball. Okay, initially he was awful but he (not surprisingly) worked his ass off and improved through the season, capped by hitting .250 in the more competitive fall league that takes place after the season. The games shots (unless selectively edited) show visible improvement is his swing from 'skinny tall guy in a batting cage next to the mini-golf' to a serious looking swing. His one season took place at 32, and he didn't come back for another (according to the show, see below) because of the impending strike. Could jordan have made it in the major leagues? Probably not, but his season doesn't seem like nearly the joke it has been made out to be.
2. Jordan did not retire because he was unofficially suspended for gambling. I have never believed this, but that may be because I never even heard it until I was like 28. In the show they interview Sam Smith, who wrote the 'jordan is a dick' expose "The Jordan Rules." Seems like if anyone was willing and able to grind an axe on mj, it would be this guy, but he says he doesn't believe it and that there's no way anything could have stayed a secret in the NBA this long, and further that Stern was practically begging MJ to stay. They make a good point as well that a) his dad did die then and b) jordan was getting just a taste of what every celebrity/superstar gets now in terms of scrutiny (The Jordan Rules and people pulling hotel records to determine how late he'd been out gambling during the playoffs).
So anyway, it's worth watching, probably ups my overall opinion of MJ a little and reinforces my belief on the gambling thing. Would like to know how badly outnumbered I am in my wide-eyed belief that MJ really retired.
posted by Pineapple Colonoscopy at
10:35 PM
3 Comments:
yeah, i caught it the other day. def made jordan seem more... earnest than he's usually portrayed as.
on the whole, these 30 for 30 documentaries have been fantastic. the columbia soccer one, the ricky williams one. i've seen less than half of them, but the ones i've caught have all been good.
columbia soccer is the best i've seen. the OJ one is supposed to be good, as is the one about the baltimore colts band. they're all on netflix.
mcsquared
Yup 30 for 30 is about the only reason to watch espn anymore --unless of course you want to watch shit like high school football, the little league world series, or poker.
Just watched the Jordan one and I have to give him major props for wanting to be a major league baseball player. He's cool in my book now and I hope he can make the bobcats good.
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