“Maybe this guy is God disguised as Michael Jordan” (Michael Jordan). Michael Jordan is clearly the best basketball player to ever step foot on a basketball court, as Larry Bird joked. He wasn't the perfect basketball player, but he was good enough to outperform the rest of the league as a whole. Due to his superior abilities and incomprehensible work ethic, he can be considered an outlier. There is no other player who has achieved as much as Jordan and will likely never see anything like it again. Michael Jordan was born on February 17, 1963 to father James and mother Delores Jordan (King, Jason). Although the Jordans placed much importance on academics rather than athletics, they encouraged Michael to practice hard, set ambitious but realistic goals, and keep his grades high after learning that he had athletic ability. Michael preferred baseball and football to basketball, but once he got to high school he decided to play professional basketball (Michael Jordan). As a 5'9" high school sophomore in Wilmington, North Carolina, he tried out for his school's basketball team but wasn't good enough, nor tall enough, to make it. Then he trained all through year and returned as a 6'3” junior to try out. With his skills improved and after graduating from high school, he accepted a basketball scholarship at the University of North Carolina, is became the second player of Tarheel to start in every game as a freshman and was named Atlantic Coast Conference Rookie of the Year (1982) At the end of his freshman year, he made the game-winning shot against Georgetown University for the Sporting News lo named college player of the year in 1983 and 1984. Left North Caro... middle of paper... son). is the best player of basketball in the history of the sport, making it an outlier. If he were just an average kid from North Carolina with no athletic ability, he wouldn't have received as much attention as he did. It would have been “Michael Jordan from the block down the street,” not “Michael Jordan: Hall of Famer.” Works CitedKing, Jason. "Jordan, Michael (1963—)." St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Ed. Sara Pendergast and Tom Pendergast. vol. 2. Detroit: St. James Press, 2000. 570-572. Student resources in context. Network. May 26, 2014. “Michael Jordan.” Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Student Resources in Context. Network. May 26, 2014. “Michael Jordan.” UXL Biographies. Detroit: U*X*L, 2011. Student Resources in Context. Network. May 26 2014.