Michael Jordan Essays - McDonalds High School All-Americans

Michael Jordan Michael Jordan was born on January 17, 1963 in Brooklyn, New York and was raised in Wilmington, North Carolina. He has two brothers, is married, and has three kids. He is considered by many to be the greatest basketball player of all time (Kornbluth). My focus will be on his hardships, accomplishments, and people who influenced him. First, I would like to touch on some general information about Michael. He wears number 23 on his jersey because he considered it to be half of his brother's number, 45. He had wanted 45 because it was his brother's number and he deeply admired his brother, but he was on the same team as his brother so he needed to pick a different number. His most well known superstition is that he wears his University of North Carolina basketball shorts under his game shorts. When Michael was a kid, his favorite sport was not basketball. In fact, it was baseball. He was a pitcher on a little league team. He played baseball because he was short (Kornbluth). Later in his life, he would try to leave the NBA and play major league baseball. Michael was not always rich. His parents had to work two and three jobs each to support the family. Before Michael's dad built him a basketball court in his back yard Michael shot, basketballs into a trash can (Kornbluth). Michael was not always good at basketball, either. People told Michael that he was too short to play basketball. Michael now stands six feet six inches tall. He also went to the school gym before school to shoot baskets, stayed after school to shoot baskets, and could be found in the school gym on weekends shooting baskets. He also played his brother, Larry, one-on-one in basketball. His brother was only a year older than Michael was, but he was much better and taller than Michael was. Michael would often times lose and end up getting in a fight with his brother. This caused Michael to be extremely determined to succeed at basketball (Kornbluth). In his sophomore year of high school, he tried out for the Varsity team. He did not make it, so he was placed on the Junior Varsity team. On the J.V. team, he averaged 28 points per game. He thought this would get the attention of the Varsity team coach. It did. However, it was not in the way he hoped it would. The assistant coach for the Varsity team was sick so they needed someone to hand out towels to the players while on a playoff road trip. That is what Michael got to do (Kornbluth). When he finally got on the Varsity team in his junior year, he still worked hard. He practiced with both the Varsity and the Junior Varsity teams and continued to go to the school gym and work on his shooting (Kornbluth). Michael's hard work would attract many scouts from colleges (Kornbluth). He would go to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In college, he was a very good player. In his junior year, the Tar Heels went to the NCAA Championship game where he would hit a clutch game winning buzzer beater to win the NCAA Championship. In 1984, Michael played for the United States Olympic basketball team. Michael was among the best college players in the country and helped the team win the gold medal. Michael was also part of the 1992 United States Olympic basketball team. The team was composed of the best NBA players and was nicknamed "The Dream Team." This Olympic team also won the gold medal (www.unc.edu/~lbrooks2/jordan.html). Michael was drafted after his junior year in college and would be the third pick in the first round of the 1984 NBA Draft. He went to the Chicago Bulls, who at that time were a struggling team. With Michael on their team, they started to win. Michael was the NBA's rookie of the year in 1985. He would also be a NBA all-star in his rookie year and a NBA all-star game starter in 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1996. In 1988 Michael would win the first of four league MVP honors, the others being 1991, 1992, and 1996. He was

Comp Research Paper

Comp Research Paper Comp Research Paper Paige Wilsher Dr. Sally Emmons Comp 1113 19 November, 2013 The Fiery Future â€Å"When it comes to the future, there are three kinds of people: those who let it happen, those who make it happen, and those who wonder what happened.† − John M. Richardson, Jr. This quote is something one can see throughout Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. There are multiple characters that fit these descriptions but three main characters that fit it perfectly. Beatty the fire house captain lets it happen, Montag makes it happen, and Mildred wonders what happened. It is really sad to think that some people just leave their future to chance rather than making a future that is better and leaving a path for future generations. Without a past one cannot hope for a future, the past allows one to learn and grow and make a future that is livable. If one does not learn from the past the same mistakes are likely to be made in the future, leading down a path of possible destruction. The twenty-first century is supposed to be the greatest century ever; however like the novel Fahrenheit 451 people are sacrificing knowledge and intellectual thought for an easier, simpler, thoughtless lifestyle. Alliteracy and Illiteracy is something that is passed down through generations, inevitably sacrificing the knowledge to be able to read for an entire family. Fifty-nine percent of people from a survey done by NDP group in 1991 stated that they read less than ten books the previous year (Weeks 522). America has prided itself on being a literate first world country, whereas, it has been building an environment where reading is not required. With the technology in the world today children and teens spend most of their time playing video games, watching TV, or using social networking sites rather than reading a book. Then the parents allow the children to watch movies or play the video game before bed instead of reading them a story. There was a time when writers were celebrated for their works, but now people chose to celebrate actors, singers, and athletes instead. Acting, singing, and athletics are also very important to society but they are no cause to push out writing and reading. Weeks explains a lecture given by Kylene Beers. This lecture explains the two types of reading, efferent which is purposeful reading, and aesthetic which is for the joy of it. In order to be a good reader Beers believes people have to be able to visualize the text they are reading (Weeks 525). One of the reasons there are books and movies is to allow the audience to escape to a world that is unlike this, travel back in time, and to be the hero of the story. The only difference between movies and books is that books allow the person to feel as if they are one of the characters in the story, and that is something movies are unable to portray. If one spends all of their time skimming through books during school and then never even looking at it outside of school, then they are less likely to read to their children or teach their children how to read, sacrificing that knowledge not only for themselves but for their children. When most people think of an illiterate person they do not believe their illiteracy can cause them to suffer both mentally and physically. One thing nobody can deny is that the number of illiterate citizens in the America is on the rise. Illiterates are often lost in this nation of fast paced economics and rapidly changing technology. Illiterates are unable to do some of what seems to be the most simplistic of tasks to a literate person. For example most illiterates are unable to read newspaper article, words on the TV, voting ballots, menus in a restaurant, or their child’s report card. Those kinds of things can upset the individual emotionally but they do not cause any real suffering. The biggest concern when it comes to illiterates is when they are unable to read prescription instructions or warning labels, this can cause some serious harm to them if they overdose or ingest