The legend began in 1981 with seventeen seconds left on the clock and seventeen feet between Michael and the basket. It was a shot any coach drawing up a play for a talented player for the final shot would die for. He knocked it in and North Carolina had its first National championship.

Even though North Carolina had the best college player in the country in James Worthy and other great stars in Sam Perkins and Matt Doherty, it was the scrawny freshman who had come on the scene that year to become the first Carolina freshman to ever start that took the biggest shot in the program's history. It was Michael Jordan

"Michael Jordan?" he asked. "Jump, jump, jump. Very quick. Very fast. Very, very good. Jump, jump, jump."

Harry Edwards, a sociologist at the University of California, talks about Jordan representing the highest level of human achievement, on the order of Gandhi, Einstein, or Michelangelo. If, he added, he were in charge of introducing an alien being "to the epitome of human potential, creativity, perseverance, and spirit, I would introduce that alien life to Michael Jordan." Doug Collins, once spoke of Jordan belonging to that rarest category of people who are so far above the norm, men like Einstein and Edison, that they were identifiable geniuses. Jordan's talented teammate B.J. Armstrong, frustrated in his early years with the Bulls by his failure to rise to Jordan's level and apparent expectations, had gone to the library and checked out a series of books on geniuses to see if there was anything he might learn about how to deal with Jordan.

Michael Jordan's life from 1980 to 1993 was that of a storybook. The success that he achieved in that short time frame quit possibly is unparallel in American history. But at the same time it seemed possible by a very unique and gifted individual. However, the events that occurred in Michael Jordan's life from 1994-1999, in my and many others opinion, at times do not seem possible and in fact almost immortal. You could almost get a sense watching him over the years that you were not in fact witnessing a real story, but one made of fiction. As if all the major media sources in the world got together and decided to concoct this seemingly unbelievable human that never seems to fail. To put the success that Michael Jordan achieved in the last six years in the proper perspective would significantly increase the length of this paper so I would like to instead let some well known others describe Michael Jordan.

But it was Michael's third year when his remarkable qualities where able to be portrayed through the television. Nike had hired a little known film producer named Spike Lee to direct Michael in commercials. The commercials that they make together were able to show Michael's innate charm and wit, and his obvious confidence. He knew who he was and liked who he was. There was nothing threatening about him. He was judgmental- you had to win his respect, and he was clearly shrewd about how he was used- but there was an innate coolness and elegance about him. If this was not yet expressed in anything he said, it was self evident in the smile, in the deft facial gestures, in the ability to roll his eyebrows at just the right moment. He was good looking, he was likable, he had that luminescent smile, and he was the greatest basketball player in the world. The Nike commercials were so good, that they fed on themselves and inspired other companies such as McDonald's, Coke, Hanes, Gatorade, Wilson, and Ballpark Franks among many others to do comparable commercials. And so it was that a true American icon

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2012
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)