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Michael Jordan Research Paper

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Michael Jeffrey Jordan and Shaquille Rashaun O’neal were two great basketball stars that changed the name of the game forever. Jordan came from a large city in upstate New York where his parents “fared well financially with incomes from their jobs and James’s Air Force pension” (Porter 2). O’neal came from the largest New Jersey city where his mother gave birth to him at the age of eighteen and went on welfare (Nelson 2). Both of these young men left a legacy in the basketball world but from two very different aspects. Michael Jordan stood at a height of six foot six when he was done growing (Strauss 60). This was not always the case though. His freshman year of high school, his closest friend, Harvest Leroy Smith, considered Jordan small, but very swift and the best ninth-grader player His speed compensated for his lack of size (Porter 3). When Jordan was drafted into the NBA no one could have been prepared for his acrobatic skills. He was able to play faster, jump higher, hung longer, and slam dunked better than anyone else during his time (Strauss 60). On the other hand, Shaquille O’neal was known for his size. Ironically, Shaquille Rashaun, means “Little Warrior” in Islam. He however did not live up to his name. …show more content…

Michael Jordan was born in 1963, nine years before the birth of Shaquille O’neal. Jordan started his National Basketball Association career in 1984 when Shaq was just twelve years old. Jordan played for the Chicago Bulls for ten years until he announced his retirement in 1994. He said he had “a lost desire to play the game” (Porter xix). Shortly after he announced he was back, and played the game until his final retirement in 2003 at the age of forty. Shaq was drafted into the National Basketball Association in June of 1992 by the Orlando Magic (Nelson xiii). He played for a handful of teams and after nineteen years of fun he retired in 2011 at the age of

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