My apologies for missing the last two weeks. I was in Chicago two weeks ago (without access to a computer which I thought I’d have) and last week I was painting my house so I could move in.
I saw a headline on some yahoo (my preferred search engine at work, for no particular reason) saying that Michael Jordan’s son quit his college basketball team. My first thought was, “I really hope he’s quitting because he wants to focus on school.” I was very pleasantly surprised to find that was the case.
The writer of the article speculates on what made him quit. Was he just sick of basketball? Was it living in his father’s shadow? As noted, Michael Jordan wasn’t simply a great basketball player. He was the best. I’m not a basketball fan, and even I know that Michael Jordan was beyond special—he was elite, in a class by himself.
Any reason is possible. But it may simply be that he has no desire to be a professional athlete. He’s grown up the son of a star, and he just might be sick of the lifestyle. If my brother played college basketball and quit to spend more time studying*, no one would’ve noticed. Then again, he may have decided that he didn’t want to be a basketball player, and wanted to be something else, the same why I decided I didn’t want to be a teacher.
*Whom am I kidding? My brothers may be brilliant nerds, but scholastic achievement was not their forte. Big Brother did get a college degree, I guess.
The reality is, Jeff Jordan will always be Michael Jordan’s son. By choosing an entirely different career than his father, he won’t have to live in his Dad’s shadows, or be lauded and scorned in turns for putting his Dad in his shadows if he’s better.
Whatever Jeff’s reasons were for quitting basketball, I wish him the best. I hope he never regrets his choice (because he shouldn’t). Sports can be a career, but they can also be a hobby. If he loves the game, there’s nothing stopping him from grabbing a ball, and heading to the neighborhood court to play, simply as “Jeff from next door” not “Jeff the basketball star” or “Michael Jordan’s son”. That’s what sports are all about—the joy.
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