Michael Jordan was born on January 17, 1963 in Brooklyn, New York and was raised in .
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.
