This is more of a freakonomics post, but here goes. Michael Jordan started his career in 1984 and ended it in 2003. Along the way he and the Chicago Bulls won 6 NBA titles. He is widely considered the greatest thing to ever happen to the sport. It is interesting to see how he still has an effect on the game. I was born two years after Jordan's career began and now all of the other people who grew up watching Michael Jordan are at or near my age. Michael Jordan has effected the evolution of basketball because he was so great. People our age are the ones making the ranking system in college basketball look like a joke. Every week a team is getting knocked off and depending on who is having a hot streak the analysts try to say one team or another is comparable to an NBA team. The talent is so widespread, i believe, because all of these players grew up watching Michael Jordan. Not to mention Lebron James the player who may eclipse Jordan one day in terms of ability and stats, and who also wears jordan's number. Thanks to Michael Jordan I think we can look forward to one of the best NCAA tournaments in history.
Tiger Woods career began in 1992, 8 years after Jordans. If things progress the same way they have in the NBA we should start seeing some incredible young golfers enter the PGA within the next 5-6 years or longer given the length of a golfer's career. It could be a lot different for golf though because it is not as popular of spectator sport in America as basketball. One new young golfer already has a lot of hype surrounding him and he is only 17, though someone that age is more common in Golf than basketball it is not insignificant, NY Times Article
Recap Things to look forward to: NCAA tournament, golf...yes golf
Things not to look forward to: the economy
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Do you think that it is possible that the generation that you speak of is simply the sportscenter generation. Meaning that they are simply the first to grow up with the massive media coverage of sports. Michael Jordan was simply the best player in the birth of this age. If the media boom happens in the time of Wilt or Oscar Robinson would you be talking about them the same way. How much is Michael and how much is it that this generation grew up watching ball at all, when the previous generations grew up rarely watching tv coverage if at all.
ReplyDeleteThats a good point that i had not really thought about. It will be interesting to see how long people talk about Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods as the greatest ever to play. That is what would change mass media from the primary reason of this athletic boom to a catalyst. It is hard to speculate now because im sure many people said that about chamberlin and robinson. Media/sportscenter i think probably do have a lot to do with it; whether it would have happened to any generation im not so sure.
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