When Michael Jordan burst onto the basketball scene back in 1984 his jumping ability was something never before seen in the NBA.
The Air Jordan brand synonymous with the ‘Jumpman’ has since become renowned across the world.
But it could’ve turned out very different if he didn’t sign for Nike.
14 years ago Jordan revealed that his favourite shoe was Adidas but that he signed with Nike after they made him a great offer.
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“I was pro-Adidas the whole time. And once I went through the presentation with Nike, they really made a great effort of having my input on the shoe, any shoes that I wanted to wear.”
The shoe’s entire marketing strategy is based on the flying ability of Jordan so when he was asked in an interview at age 47 if he could still dunk it’s not surprising that he got offended.
An old interview recently resurfaced of the legend being asked the question by Jay Leno.
Throughout his illustrious career, Jordan did several interviews with Leno, but it was one seven years after he retired from the NBA when he was 47 years old that sticks out.
Back in 2010, the Tonight Show host asked him the question of whether he was still able to dunk and Jordan fired back saying, “Are you stupid?” As per The Sports Rush.
He’s always taken pride in his ariel ability post-retirement and it’s easy to see why.
At 6’6 and widely considered the greatest to ever play the sport, so for him to be able to dunk way into his 40s isn’t shocking.
Jordan proved this by later lining up against the Charlotte Bobcats at practice a team he had at the time recently purchased, so he could show them the ropes.
Former player Stephen Jackson recalled this moment saying: “He scored a couple of points to the point where he talked so much sh*t that he grabbed the ball and dunked one on the way out.”
The older he gets the harder it’s going to become, but at 60 years old it would be interesting to see if he could still dunk now.
Topics: Michael Jordan, Basketball
Will Evans