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That ferocious competitive drive has propelled Jordan since his boyhood in Wilmington, N.C., where he grew up the fourth of five children in a close-knit middle-class family. Although his parents James and Deloris pushed education, not sports, Michael developed into an athlete for all seasons, successfully competing in baseball, football and basketball. Larry Jordan, one year his elder, would prove a motivating force. Though Michael eventually outpaced and outgrew Larry, who still plays semipro basketball, he credits his elder brother for his aggressive style of play. "When you see me play," he says, "you see Larry play."
By the time Michael entered Laney High School, he was known primarily as a baseball player. But within a year basketball had become his No. 1 priority. Recalls Fred Lynch, Michael's coach at Laney: "Michael is one player who could have been very good and not worked as hard. But he is the hardest- working athlete I have ever been around."
+ It was in high school that Jordan began a lifelong obsession with basketball shoes. "There is something about new basketball sneakers that makes you feel better and play better," he says. Nike, Inc., was smart enough to exploit that passion. The firm had done reasonably well with its running shoes, but his namesake black-and-red Air Jordan sneakers put Nike on the basketball-shoe map in 1985 and sent its revenues into orbit, helping to generate more than $70 million in sales the first year. During the season, Jordan satisfies the dreams of dozens of admiring fans by giving away a pair of his size-13 Nikes, new or used, after nearly every game.
Jordan first became a national sensation on an evening in March 1982 with "the Shot," as appreciative locals still call it. Jordan, then a freshman at the University of North Carolina, nailed a 17-ft. jumper to win the school's first national championship in 25 years. Over the next two seasons, as accolades and awards poured in, Jordan maintained a healthy perspective. Dean Smith, the coach at Chapel Hill, had a lot to do with that. "Coach Smith challenged us on the court," says Jordan, "but also encouraged us in the classroom."
To a basketball player who lives an unreal life as an athletic icon, North Carolina remains much more to Michael Jordan than just his home state or alma mater. In Chicago he is unable to attend his local Methodist church because of the commotion his presence creates. "But in Carolina I feel at ease. My real friends keep me straight -- they don't praise me or ask favors." With characteristic modesty, he adds, "I would probably be unreasonable without my friends and family to keep me in balance."
In 1986 Jordan went through a six-week initiation period to join a national black fraternity, Omega Psi Phi. Omega is the third oldest black fraternity in the country and has 700 chapters nationwide that coordinate social, political and business activities. Among its 80,000 initiates, Omega counts such notables as Jesse Jackson, N.A.A.C.P. director Benjamin Hooks and Philadelphia's Mayor Wilson Goode. "It is another sort of community for me," says Jordan. "It is an organization made up of men who want to give something back to society." An omega tattoo on the left side of Jordan's chest symbolizes his commitment to the fraternity.