Jordan at Hall: Tears, cheers

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- When the bright lights go on, Michael Jordan still knows how to wow a crowd.

He did so Friday night at his Basketball Hall of Fame induction. Following a retrospective video of his career, Jordan cried before starting his 22-minute speech. But he rebounded, making the crowd laugh and applaud repeatedly.

And then Jordan closed the speech with a flourish, a “you-can't-be-serious” moment that was signature MJ.

“One day you might look up and see me playing the game at 50,” Jordan said.

The crowd tittered.

“Oh, don't laugh,” Jordan said. “Because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.”

Jordan, 46, likes to keep people guessing about his future. And we all know that he has had such a hard time giving up basketball that he has already “un-retired” two other times.

But I think I speak for the majority of America when I say: It's fine to fantasize, Michael. Just don't do it.

Jordan used his speech primarily to talk about motivation, about how his own family stoked his inner fire early and how occasional slights – real or imagined – kept fueling it later in life.

He talked about the Wilmington high school coach who cut him from the varsity squad in favor of a taller player when Jordan was in 10th grade (Jordan said the story was not a myth). He talked about his otherwise beloved college coach Dean Smith not allowing him on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1981 with North Carolina's four other starters because Jordan was a freshman.

“That burned me up,” Jordan said.

He talked about the older NBA stars who supposedly wouldn't throw him the ball in his first NBA All-Star game because of jealousy. He talked about how Bryon Russell told him while Jordan was retired in the mid-1990s that he would love to shut Jordan down.

“I think he had his chance,” Jordan said, smiling as the audience recalled Jordan's shot over Utah's Russell to clinch MJ's sixth and last NBA championship in 1998 with the Chicago Bulls.

It was classic Jordan – eloquent, honest, occasionally arrogant.

Jordan also told everyone why David Thompson – the former N.C. State star and current Charlotte resident – was his presenter Friday.

In 1974, Jordan was 11 when Thompson won the national championship at N.C. State.

“I was an anti-Carolina guy,” Jordan said. “I hated UNC. But I was in love with David Thompson.”

So Jordan reached out to his childhood idol to have fellow Hall of Famer Thompson share the stage with him. When Thompson was asked to be Jordan's presenter, Jordan said on the live ESPN telecast: “I know I shocked the s--- out of him.”

Many of those closest to Jordan were there, including Jordan's mother Deloris, several of his brothers and sisters, all three of his children and his girlfriend.

Smith, North Carolina coach Roy Williams, Bobcats coach Larry Brown and Appalachian State coach Buzz Peterson, Jordan's college roommate, were among those with UNC connections in the crowd at Springfield Symphony Hall.

One man was obviously missing. Jordan had said in his news conference earlier Friday that he wished his father, James Jordan, could have come to the induction. The elder Jordan – whom Michael often called his best friend – was robbed and murdered in North Carolina in 1993.

“He taught me well,” Jordan said. “If he was here today, he'd be living it up with all these flashes and cameras. I think he'd be very proud of what I've done over my career.”

Jordan, who now runs the Charlotte Bobcats' basketball operation, told one story about when he had scored the Chicago Bulls' final 20 points to win a game. He then had a conversation with Tex Winter.

Winter was the legendary Bulls' assistant coach famous for his role in implementing the triangle offense. He preferred a more balanced attack.

“There's No ‘I' in ‘Team,'” Winter said.

Jordan looked Winter in the eye.

“No there isn't,” Jordan said. “But there's an ‘I' in ‘Win.'”

Sometimes, Jordan knew, he had to score to win. He did so at an amazing rate, averaging an NBA-record 30.1 points per game in the regular season and 33.4 in the playoffs.

Jordan gave you both the sizzle and the steak, producing dazzling efforts every night, year after year.

And while Kobe Bryant and LeBron James now reign as the NBA's superstar duo, Jordan was right Friday when he said to quit looking for the next MJ. Why? Because, as Jordan proclaimed in his news conference : “There's not going to be another Michael Jordan.”

Jordan was his own man on the court – both an egocentric trash-talker and a team-first devotee.

“You guys are constantly trying to find that next Michael Jordan,” Jordan said. “First of all, you didn't find me. I just happened to come along and next thing you know, here I am.”

Jordan's presence in this Hall of Fame class made the induction bigger in all respects. He was inducted in a starry class of five that also included former players John Stockton and David Robinson and current coaches Jerry Sloan (Utah Jazz) and C. Vivian Stringer (Rutgers).

But the symbolism of Friday's Hall of Fame induction made Jordan very uncomfortable. He doesn't like to face his own mortality. Or to see the older Hall of Famers who now have trouble walking. Or to understand that the greatest passion of his life – playing basketball – is gone.

All that makes it more understandable that he would throw the comeback card out there at the end, just to keep people guessing a little.

“Never say never,” Jordan said, smiling.

Jordan closed his speech with a love letter to the sport.

“The game of basketball has been everything to me,” Jordan said. “My refuge. My place I've always gone when I've needed to find comfort and peace. It's given me my most intense pain and my most intense feelings of joy and satisfaction.”

It felt like a game day, really. The speech was signature Jordan: some verbal jabs, some laughter and a whole lot of magnetism.

Just like when he was on the court, it was impossible to take your eyes off him.

Scott Fowler: 704-358-5140; sfowler@charlotteobserver.com; twitter.com/scott_fowler

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