Michael Jordan Trivia: 31 fun facts about the basketball player!

Michael Jordan is an American retired professional basketball player, businessman, and principal owner and chairman of the Charlotte Hornets.

Let’s see some interesting facts about him!

1. Michael Jeffrey Jordan was born February 17, 1963 in Brooklyn, New York.

2. His parents are Deloris (née Peoples), who worked in banking, and James R. Jordan, Sr., an equipment supervisor. His family moved to Wilmington, North Carolina, when he was a toddler.

3. Jordan is the fourth of five children. He has two older brothers, Larry Jordan and James R. Jordan, Jr., one older sister, Deloris, and a younger sister, Roslyn.

4. Jordan’s brother James retired in 2006 as the Command Sergeant Major of the 35th Signal Brigade of the XVIII Airborne Corps in the U.S. Army.

5. Jordan played 15 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards. His biography on the NBA website states: “By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time.”

5. Jordan was one of the most effectively marketed athletes of his generation and was considered instrumental in popularizing the NBA around the world in the 1980s and 1990s.

6. Jordan played three seasons for coach Dean Smith at the University of North Carolina.

7. As a freshman, he was a member of the Tar Heels’ national championship team in 1982. Jordan joined the Bulls in 1984 as the third overall draft pick.

8. He quickly emerged as a league star, entertaining crowds with his prolific scoring. His leaping ability, demonstrated by performing slam dunks from the free throw line in slam dunk contests, earned him the nicknames Air Jordan and His Airness. He also gained a reputation for being one of the best defensive players in basketball.

9. In 1991, he won his first NBA championship with the Bulls, and followed that achievement with titles in 1992 and 1993, securing a “three-peat”. Although Jordan abruptly retired from basketball before the beginning of the 1993–94 NBA season to pursue a new venture in minor league baseball, he returned to the Bulls in March 1995 and led them to three additional championships in 1996, 1997, and 1998, as well as a then-record 72 regular-season wins in the 1995–96 NBA season. Starting with the 1990-91 NBA Season and ending with the 1997-98 NBA season, Jordan won the NBA Finals every year he played a full season.

10. Jordan retired for a second time in January 1999, but returned for two more NBA seasons from 2001 to 2003 as a member of the Wizards.

11. Jordan’s individual accolades and accomplishments include five Most Valuable Player (MVP) Awards, ten All-NBA First Team designations, nine All-Defensive First Team honors, fourteen NBA All-Star Game appearances, three All-Star Game MVP Awards, ten scoring titles, three steals titles, six NBA Finals MVP Awards, and the 1988 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award.

12. Among his numerous accomplishments, Jordan holds the NBA records for highest career regular season scoring average (30.12 points per game) and highest career playoff scoring average (33.45 points per game).

13. In 1999, he was named the greatest North American athlete of the 20th century by ESPN, and was second to Babe Ruth on the Associated Press’s list of athletes of the century. Jordan is a two-time inductee into the Basketball Hall of Fame, having been enshrined in 2009 for his individual career, and again in 2010 as part of the group induction of the 1992 United States men’s Olympic basketball team (“The Dream Team”). He became a member of the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2015.

14. Jordan is also known for his product endorsements. He fueled the success of Nike’s Air Jordan sneakers, which were introduced in 1985 and remain popular today.

15. Jordan also starred in the 1996 feature film Space Jam as himself. In 2006, he became part-owner and head of basketball operations for the then-Charlotte Bobcats, buying a controlling interest in 2010.

16. In 2015, Jordan became the first billionaire NBA player in history as a result of the increase in value of NBA franchises.

17. He is the third-richest African-American, behind Oprah Winfrey and Robert F. Smith.

18. Jordan married Juanita Vanoy in September 1989, and they had two sons, Jeffrey Michael and Marcus James, and a daughter, Jasmine.

19. Jordan and Vanoy filed for divorce on January 4, 2002, citing irreconcilable differences, but reconciled shortly thereafter. They again filed for divorce and were granted a final decree of dissolution of marriage on December 29, 2006, commenting that the decision was made “mutually and amicably”.

20. It is reported that Juanita received a $168 million settlement (equivalent to $200 million in 2016), making it the largest celebrity divorce settlement on public record at the time .

21. In 1991, Jordan purchased a lot in Highland Park, Illinois, to build a 56,000 square foot mansion, which was completed four years later. Jordan listed his Highland Park mansion for sale in 2012.

22. Both of his sons attended Loyola Academy, a private Roman Catholic high school located in Wilmette, Illinois.

23. Jeffrey graduated as a member of the 2007 graduating class and played his first collegiate basketball game on November 11, 2007, for the University of Illinois.

24. After two seasons, Jeffrey left the Illinois basketball team in 2009. He later rejoined the team for a third season,then received a release to transfer to the University of Central Florida, where Marcus was attending.

25. Marcus transferred to Whitney Young High School after his sophomore year at Loyola Academy and graduated in 2009.

26. He began attending UCF in the fall of 2009, and played three seasons of basketball for the school.

27. On July 21, 2006, a judge in Cook County, Illinois, determined that Jordan did not owe his alleged former lover Karla Knafel $5 million in a breach of contract claim.

28. Jordan had allegedly paid Knafel $250,000 to keep their relationship a secret.

29. Knafel claimed Jordan promised her $5 million for remaining silent and agreeing not to file a paternity suit after Knafel learned she was pregnant in 1991. A DNA test showed Jordan was not the father of the child.

29. He proposed to his longtime girlfriend, Cuban-American model Yvette Prieto, on Christmas 2011, and they were married on April 27, 2013, at Bethesda-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church.

30. It was announced on November 30, 2013, that the two were expecting their first child together.

31. On February 11, 2014, Prieto gave birth to identical twin daughters named Victoria and Ysabel.