Michael Jordan: Still Competitive (On The Golf Course) After NBA Retirement (Part #1)
http://golftribune.com/articles/18/1/Michael-Jordan-Still-Competitive-On-The-Golf-Course-After-NBA-Retirement-Part-1/Page1.html
James Raia
By James Raia
Published on 09/23/2007
Several years after his second NBA retirement, Michael Jordan remains as competitive off the court as he was during his enduring basketball career. But Jordan's office of choice has evolved from hardwood to boardroom and locker room to fairway.
Jordan's career has expanded from NBA player and executive to restaurant owner, entrepreneur, global businessman and golfing philanthropist. His intensity, once channeled toward defeating opponents, is now focused on business success and conquering charitable horizons.
Still, Jordan pursues his businesses and amateur sporting passions with the same focus as he did while accumulating five Most Valuable Player Awards in the National Basketball Association and winning six NBA Championships with the Chicago Bulls.
Jordan's career has expanded from NBA player and executive to restaurant owner, entrepreneur, global businessman and golfing philanthropist. His intensity, once channeled toward defeating opponents, is now focused on business success and conquering charitable horizons.
Still, Jordan pursues his businesses and amateur sporting passions with the same focus as he did while accumulating five Most Valuable Player Awards in the National Basketball Association and winning six NBA Championships with the Chicago Bulls.
(This article originally appeared in the Celebrity Golfers' Tour Guide in 2003.)
Several years after his second NBA retirement, Michael Jordan remains as competitive off the court as he was during his enduring basketball career. But Jordan's office of choice has evolved from hardwood to boardroom and locker room to fairway.
Jordan's career has expanded from NBA player and executive to restaurant owner, entrepreneur, global businessman and golfing philanthropist. His intensity, once channeled toward defeating opponents, is now focused on business success and conquering charitable horizons.
Still, Jordan pursues his businesses and amateur sporting passions with the same focus as he did while accumulating five Most Valuable Player Awards in the National Basketball Association and winning six NBA Championships with the Chicago Bulls.
In fact, what Tiger Woods is to the PGA Tour and youth golf, Jordan has become to celebrity and charity golf.
"I always believe that if you put in the work, the results will come," Jordan has said many times. "I don't do things halfheartedly. Because I know if I do, then I can expect halfhearted results."
Jordan's remarks, often cited among his most famous, speak not only to his career with the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards, but his commitment to his post-basketball career.
For Woods, the marketing of his fame is a constant component of his ongoing career in one arena, the golf course.
But for Jordan, despite his departure from the NBA following the 2002 season, his global success could be more expansive away from the court than it was during the height of his playing career.
As one recent example, the power of Jordan the businessman, the corporate entity, the trusted endorser, was overtly apparent during Super Bowl XXXVII. New commercials for Hanes and Gatorade featuring Jordan debuted during the game's January 26 broadcast on ABC. Both products are included Jordan's endorsement empire that ranges from sunglasses to cologne, sweatsuits to soft drinks, and they were included in the highly coveted airtime that's the most expensive on television.
According to one pre-Super Bowl national survey, Jordan's double appearance in commercials that can cost more than $2 million for 30 seconds, further prove his unmatched global appeal.
Last October, New Knowledge Networks, a consumer research firm in Menlo Park, Calif., in conjunction and the magazine Advertising Age, released the results of a national endorsement popularity survey. More than 26 percent of respondents indicated they are more likely to buy a product endorsed by Jordan than any other athlete. Tiger Woods (19 percent), Lance Armstrong (18 percent), Dale Earnhardt, Jr., (14 percent) and sisters Serena and Venus Williams (14 percent) completed the top-five endorsees.
While Woods and Armstrong, the five-time consecutive Tour de France titlist are the most highly commercially exposed athletes, according to the survey, Jordan remains the most trusted endorsement athlete.
"(Michael) Jordan is not the corporate endorser he was in the '80s and '90s, but he remains an international icon," Abraham Madkour, editor in chief of The Sports Business Daily, said in USA Today last January in the media build-up prior to the Super Bowl. "Since his retirement from the NBA, I suspect he holds the title of 'Endorser Emeritus."
As much as his endorsement value remains impressive, Jordan's direct connection to sport has shifted. It's now golf clubs instant of basketballs. And when he's not playing golf, he's expanding his charitable horizons, many of which have grown exponentially because of golf.
For many years, Jordan and his wife Juanita have supported the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, the UNCF/College Fund, Special Olympics and numerous other groups for children and families.
For 15 years, the Michael Jordan Golf Classic was held in Greenville, N.C. It raised more than $2 million for Ronald McDonald Houses throughout North Carolina. And since 2001, Jordan has hosted the Michael Jordan Celebrity Invitational on Paradise Island in the Bahamas.
The event's third edition was held last Jan. 7-11 at the exclusive One & One Ocean Club. Broadcast for two hours on ABC television, the format included a two-day, 36-hole celebrity amateur that paired one celebrity with three amateurs and a two-day, 36-hole celebrity tournament that matched world-class athletes against celebrity amateurs.
The athletes were a who's who across the spectrum of sport: Wayne Gretzky, Boris Becker, Brandi Chastain, John McEnroe, John Elway, Barry Bonds, Pete Samprass, Charles Barkley, Julius Erving and, of course, Jordan. Celebrity golfers included: Bryant Gumbel, Beverly Johnson, Judd Nelson, Alan Thicke and two-time defending tournament winner Janet Jones.
While the play included good and not-so-good amateur golf, the fined 36-hold competition was declared a tie after three playoffs between the teams of Rollie Fingers and Judd Nelson versus John Schmoltz and Angie Everhart.
"I enjoyed it, other than me not being in it," said Jordan, who mediated the playoff holes and suggested the tie. "It was great golf, great celebrities and volunteers who again greatly supported the tournament."
The invitational tournament was more fun-based than intense competition and it purpose was clear -- the continuation of Jordan's nearly two-decade dedication to charities. While tournament winners could donate their prize money to their charities of choice, several hundred thousand dollars from the tournament also benefitted the Atlantis HIV/AIDS initiative, the James Jordan Foundation and Ronald McDonald Houses of North Carolina.
Still, it was Jordan's joking remark about not being in his own tournament's playoff, that provided a glimpse into his omnipresent competitive nature.
"The first thing you have to understand is that Michael is the fiercest competitor you will ever meet," says Davis Love III, the 1997 PGA Championship titlist who introduced Jordan to golf when both were students at the University of North Carolina. "I don't think I've seen anyone who hates to lose as much as he does."
Several years after his second NBA retirement, Michael Jordan remains as competitive off the court as he was during his enduring basketball career. But Jordan's office of choice has evolved from hardwood to boardroom and locker room to fairway.
Jordan's career has expanded from NBA player and executive to restaurant owner, entrepreneur, global businessman and golfing philanthropist. His intensity, once channeled toward defeating opponents, is now focused on business success and conquering charitable horizons.
Still, Jordan pursues his businesses and amateur sporting passions with the same focus as he did while accumulating five Most Valuable Player Awards in the National Basketball Association and winning six NBA Championships with the Chicago Bulls.
In fact, what Tiger Woods is to the PGA Tour and youth golf, Jordan has become to celebrity and charity golf.
"I always believe that if you put in the work, the results will come," Jordan has said many times. "I don't do things halfheartedly. Because I know if I do, then I can expect halfhearted results."
Jordan's remarks, often cited among his most famous, speak not only to his career with the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards, but his commitment to his post-basketball career.
For Woods, the marketing of his fame is a constant component of his ongoing career in one arena, the golf course.
But for Jordan, despite his departure from the NBA following the 2002 season, his global success could be more expansive away from the court than it was during the height of his playing career.
As one recent example, the power of Jordan the businessman, the corporate entity, the trusted endorser, was overtly apparent during Super Bowl XXXVII. New commercials for Hanes and Gatorade featuring Jordan debuted during the game's January 26 broadcast on ABC. Both products are included Jordan's endorsement empire that ranges from sunglasses to cologne, sweatsuits to soft drinks, and they were included in the highly coveted airtime that's the most expensive on television.
According to one pre-Super Bowl national survey, Jordan's double appearance in commercials that can cost more than $2 million for 30 seconds, further prove his unmatched global appeal.
Last October, New Knowledge Networks, a consumer research firm in Menlo Park, Calif., in conjunction and the magazine Advertising Age, released the results of a national endorsement popularity survey. More than 26 percent of respondents indicated they are more likely to buy a product endorsed by Jordan than any other athlete. Tiger Woods (19 percent), Lance Armstrong (18 percent), Dale Earnhardt, Jr., (14 percent) and sisters Serena and Venus Williams (14 percent) completed the top-five endorsees.
While Woods and Armstrong, the five-time consecutive Tour de France titlist are the most highly commercially exposed athletes, according to the survey, Jordan remains the most trusted endorsement athlete.
"(Michael) Jordan is not the corporate endorser he was in the '80s and '90s, but he remains an international icon," Abraham Madkour, editor in chief of The Sports Business Daily, said in USA Today last January in the media build-up prior to the Super Bowl. "Since his retirement from the NBA, I suspect he holds the title of 'Endorser Emeritus."
As much as his endorsement value remains impressive, Jordan's direct connection to sport has shifted. It's now golf clubs instant of basketballs. And when he's not playing golf, he's expanding his charitable horizons, many of which have grown exponentially because of golf.
For many years, Jordan and his wife Juanita have supported the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, the UNCF/College Fund, Special Olympics and numerous other groups for children and families.
For 15 years, the Michael Jordan Golf Classic was held in Greenville, N.C. It raised more than $2 million for Ronald McDonald Houses throughout North Carolina. And since 2001, Jordan has hosted the Michael Jordan Celebrity Invitational on Paradise Island in the Bahamas.
The event's third edition was held last Jan. 7-11 at the exclusive One & One Ocean Club. Broadcast for two hours on ABC television, the format included a two-day, 36-hole celebrity amateur that paired one celebrity with three amateurs and a two-day, 36-hole celebrity tournament that matched world-class athletes against celebrity amateurs.
The athletes were a who's who across the spectrum of sport: Wayne Gretzky, Boris Becker, Brandi Chastain, John McEnroe, John Elway, Barry Bonds, Pete Samprass, Charles Barkley, Julius Erving and, of course, Jordan. Celebrity golfers included: Bryant Gumbel, Beverly Johnson, Judd Nelson, Alan Thicke and two-time defending tournament winner Janet Jones.
While the play included good and not-so-good amateur golf, the fined 36-hold competition was declared a tie after three playoffs between the teams of Rollie Fingers and Judd Nelson versus John Schmoltz and Angie Everhart.
"I enjoyed it, other than me not being in it," said Jordan, who mediated the playoff holes and suggested the tie. "It was great golf, great celebrities and volunteers who again greatly supported the tournament."
The invitational tournament was more fun-based than intense competition and it purpose was clear -- the continuation of Jordan's nearly two-decade dedication to charities. While tournament winners could donate their prize money to their charities of choice, several hundred thousand dollars from the tournament also benefitted the Atlantis HIV/AIDS initiative, the James Jordan Foundation and Ronald McDonald Houses of North Carolina.
Still, it was Jordan's joking remark about not being in his own tournament's playoff, that provided a glimpse into his omnipresent competitive nature.
"The first thing you have to understand is that Michael is the fiercest competitor you will ever meet," says Davis Love III, the 1997 PGA Championship titlist who introduced Jordan to golf when both were students at the University of North Carolina. "I don't think I've seen anyone who hates to lose as much as he does."