In the sports world, many different conspiracies have fans up all night trying to figure out the truth. One of the biggest conspiracies is the first retirement of Micheal Jordan and how his gambling habits might have got him suspended from the NBA.
In 1993, Micheal Jordan led the Chicago Bulls to another NBA championship against the Phoenix Suns and beat them in the series, 4-2. After this finals win, Jordan had led the Bulls to their third championship and had completed the three-peat — the most recent since the Boston Celtics did it in 1959 to 1966. At this time, Jordan is the undisputed best player in the NBA and is the face of the NBA. Three months after Jordan won the NBA championship, he would announce his retirement from the game of basketball and shock the world with his decision. Jordan’s reasoning for his retirement is that he didn’t have the motivation to keep playing and wanted to pursue a normal life away from basketball. He felt that there was no competition in the NBA and had no desire to keep going. Jordan was also grieving his father’s death that only happened a few months before he announced his retirement. I feel that this is the main reason Jordan retired and before his death, Jordan’s dad had never missed one of Jordan’s games. It’s hard to imagine what he must have been going through the past few months.
But fans did not believe that this was the true reason why he retired. Fans believe that the NBA launched an investigation on Jordan for his gambling habits and was eventually suspended and that’s why he retired and went to play baseball for the White Sox. Jordan was quoted saying that he might come back to the league “if David Stern lets me back in the league” and David Stern was commissioner of the NBA at the time. A lot of fans use this to believe that David Stern suspended Jordan for 2 years.
When it comes to if I believe that Jordan got suspended for gambling, I think that he did not and wanted to retire from basketball. My reasoning is because Jordan was a very competitive person and always wanted to be challenged and go against good competition. After winning the championship in 1993, I would think that he thought that it was getting too easy, especially after being the first person to lead a team to a three-peat in decades. My other reasoning is, even though Jordan did have a gambling problem, why would the NBA suspend the face of the NBA and possibly turn away new fans that watch basketball because of Jordan. Not to mention that Jordan played baseball all his life and wanted to be a professional baseball player.
In conclusion, I think Jordan retired by himself and didn’t get suspended by the NBA. Many fans still believe in this conspiracy and will try to prove that he did; however, I will not believe them. Hopefully one day the 100% truth will come out so this debate will finally be put to rest.
Brendon Jackson
Brother Rice High School
DMSF
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