Johnny Smith

"In 1991, Michael Jordan was on the brink of his first national championship and global superstardom. As he overcame stiff competition from the reigning titans of basketball and solidified his iconic status in the imagination of the American public, every new success created unprecedented commercial possibilities. Yet his life grew increasingly isolating. Every game, every appearance on television, amplified the public clamoring for Jordan to meet an impossible standard. As a national symbol, praised for transcending race, Jordan came to be seen as a bridge between white America and Black America, a unifying force in an age of dissolving social solidarity. It was a burden that was ultimately too much for one person, even one as extraordinary as Michael Jordan. Jumpman is the story of how Michael Jordan became the most famous and celebrated athlete in America. The book chronicles his ascendance as an NBA champion during the 1990-1991 season revealing the social, cultural, and political forces that shaped him and redefined the sport's importance. It explores how the NBA and Nike, publicists and producers, coaches and competitors, reporters and fans molded Jordan into a mythic version of the man from Wilmington, NC. Examining the unreckoned consequences of Jordan's fame and how race shaped the way people interpreted him and his achievements, Jumpman uncovers how Michael Jordan became something he never intended to be: an American hero. The book also reveals the paradox of Jordan with unprecedented acuity. In response to the growing demands on his time and the increasingly intrusive requests from the public and the press, Jordan became disillusioned with the trappings of celebrity, consciously cultivating an aura of secrecy. By design, this also hid the importance of race. Jordan understood that the less the public knew about his politics and his personal life, particularly past battles with racism, the more likable he would appear to people living under the illusion that the nation had solved its racial dilemmas. Blending dramatic accounts of gametime drama with grand depictions of the social forces sweeping America in the early 90s, Jumpman incisively portrays how racial conflict shaped Michael Jordan as he changed basketball history"--