Michael Jordan laughed at a fan playing music as he exited the courthouse earlier
Not just music, it’s “I wanna be like Mike” from a Gatorade commercial he did back in the day.
He was really the perfect vessel for the golden age of marketing campaigns.
Legit ads made me cry backing in the day
There was a coke ad
With Beatles Revolution playing that legit made me emotional
I know sound stupid but as a child you don’t understand nuances and capitalism
Edited: it was literally a Nike Ad
Probably Jordan
I don’t know why I thought Coke
Let’s not forget Candle Jenner solving racism with Pepsi
I thank her every day for this
I’d like to buy the world a home…
Edit: don’t feel bad, marketing is all about gathering your attention and nostalgia/love/anger are easy strings to pull.
I love that Mad Men all led to Don having a moment of zen that inspired this ad.
Don going back to McCann and making the best ad of all time after finally battling his demons…yeah I was ugly crying lol
Such a great show
“You reach. I teach.”
Don’t forget the Chevy commercials he did for the local market in Chicago. Still remember the one where he is driving around in a Blazer, talking about its features, and as a person who comes from an automotive family, I was like this mofo knows his shit. Of course this was long before he got into motocross and auto racing.
That same fan hit him with the bulls intro music when he was walking into the courtroom lmao.
Probably an old head Bulls fan who is grateful for something he will likely never experience again lol.
This commercial worked unbelievably well on 8 year old me. I would beg my mom for gatorade every time we went to the store because of this.
I was expecting it to be the best title sequence of all time when I clicked the video, everyone knows what it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1Iy9VSBg5A
God damn the hype levels are off the charts. My best birthday party ever was seeing this in theaters with my friends just losing our minds to the soundtrack
shoutout the glass bottles tho.
you member?
I thought it was going to be the Bulls intro music
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/WPPdorDksWk
Yes! I thought the exact same thing, with the commentary
“Aaaaand now…”
Goosebumps
I love when humans do small stuff to make other humans smile. this should be the only form of “let me get a reaction out of him”
That and the “Anything you can do I can do better” campaign with MJ and Mia Hamm was amazing, too.
these kids today don’t know shit like this. smdh my head
Really reinforces the size of NBA players, seeing MJ walking around with normal-sized regular people lol…
That was my first thought too. Remember, that giant was a shooting guard in the NBA.
Jordan looked small next to Shaq in his prime, now at 60 he makes normal people look tiny. And there are people bigger than Shaq too?! You really dont see it until they walk amongst us mortals
Wemby playing soccer looks like an alien.
Yeah but Wemby looks like an alien even playing NBA basketball.
I love watching him because it just feels like he shouldn’t be able to do any of the things he does.
It’s almost comical how each and every european athlete will know themselves around a soccer ball, regardless of the sport they play.
On that note, it’s even more bizarre to watch a dude as tall as Wemby playing with their feet, instead of their hands. So fucking weird that’s he’s actually decent, it looks so damn awkward 😭
Football is much more common to play with your friends, even the outdoor basket ball courts I remember in my neighbourhood were used to play football.
we used to try to score basket with our feet and even made a game out of it; you let the ball bounce from your hands and then it is like crossing for a header lol
It must be harder with such huge feet
Def no small feat.
His canoe feet stood out even more than his height in that video to me. You’d legitimately need to cannibalize 3 shoes from anyone else on the field to have equivalent material to one of his.
“It looks like he’s an Avatar character”
new kid next to Shaq
Rioux makes regular size basketball players look short. It’s eerie.
Can confirm having been in the same room with Jordan that he is huge in person. As was, unexpectedly, Ahmad Rashad (who never looked that way in-studio as an analyst, but in person definitely gives “ex-NFLer”).
Also, Steve Nash in person comes off as a legitimately tall individual — which I guess shouldn’t have been surprising. But it definitely felt that way to me after so many years of seeing him dwarfed on the court by other stars
Off topic, but when I was a kid watching NBA Inside Stuff Rashad once showed some clips of him casually playing in the NBA. That sounded weird to me that they’d let a random person play, but at that time there was no way to fact check that. But sure enough, they let him suit up for a preseason game in 1990, purely to promote the show.
dude i’ve had that image in my head all these years and never could figure out how he was in a game… now i know, thanks!
The one that gets me is seeing Steph Curry eye to eye with George kittle. George pancakes linemen for fun, Steph always looks tiny on the court
The comparison of football players to nba players always gets me too. Like, NFL DL/LBs are the biggest people you’ve ever seen in person, and there are people like Steve Adams who have an entire foot on someone like Aaron Donald.
Reminds me of the photo of heavyweight UFC fighter Francis Ngannou and Embiid. Dude is massive when you see him fighting in the octagon, but he’s so small next to Embiid.
pic
I’m 6’2” - which is just a bit shorter than Curry. If you look it up 6’2” is about 97th percentile height for a American male.
I’m 6’3”. In everyday life it’s a fairly rare situation where I’m not the tallest guy in the room. I have one friend who is 6’9”. It is such an odd feeling standing next to him and being utterly dwarfed.
I’m assuming that feeling is only because I’m not used to the experience, but I always wonder if that is how people of average height feel around “normal” tall people.
And you’re still closer to your friend than he is to Wemby, truly insane to think about
One of the funniest things I ever saw was Kareem Abdul Jabber with his bodyguards. They didn’t come up his shoulders. If someone wanted to take a shot, they just had to aim a little higher.
I got a chance to shake hands with MJ when I was about 14 at a Bulls v Knicks game. My brother snagged some tickets off a business colleague and we sat second row, right behind Boomer Esiason and a few seats down from Spike Lee. We had chatted Boomer up and he introduced us to MJ when he came over. Michael’s hand almost came up to my elbow. I mean, he swallowed my hand and nearly my lower arm. It was wild. I even got spike to sign my “Hare Jordan” hat. That was an amazing day.
I met marin cilic, tennis player and former us open champion, who is jordan’s height; it wasn’t that much about how how tall he was, as that number is not that unusual where both of us come from, but the size of his hands lol they were like fucking tennis rackets I am not kidding you lol never saw anything like that
underrated player
especially back home unfortunately. eh, at least he didn’t let it bother him too much, as it appears; almost always smiling, always cheerful.
Basketball is a game played by freaks(I mean this in the Jevon Kearse way)
It’s hard to gauge when there is no reference saw Luca getting out of a restomod trans am that I know how big it is Luca is a unit these guys are giants
Luka dapping up Travis Kelce after a game. Travis looks like a big dude in every other moment of his life: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/sxn59wmbnNc
People forget that they’re in a different tier of human physicality. Every time the NFL/NBA debate comes up, I just pick all of the relatively small NBA players and match them up to various NFL monsters that are the same size. SGA is the same height as Chris Jones. Which inevitably leads to the “yeah but they’d die if they got hit” and I always say you guys know they wear pads, right?
Jordan and I are the same height. It all feels perfectly normal to us right up until we run into other people as tall as us.
When I was in Amsterdam it took a few days to get comfortable. Not use to seeing people eye to eye like that outside of my family.
He looks like a slimmer version of my uncle here. It’s a little disarming.
It’s funny when you see NBA players standing next to NFL players. The dudes are huge.
Being rich would be great. Being this level of famous would really, really suck.
If you ever watched The Last Dance, theres a scene where hes in his hotel room with the camera man, smoking a cigar and just laying on the couch enjoying some peace and quiet. Then, the instant he steps foot outside his doors, its pandemonium. It even gave me anxiety from the comfort of my couch. I cant even fathom what thats like
I think the wildest video I’ve seen of this is the other MJ, in San Francisco in 1984
Actually seems like a pretty miserable existence
Lmao Mike got in that car fast as hell 😂 obviously who wouldn’t though
I think every big musician has had John Lennon’s murder on the back of their mind ever since he was shot in the street
Yea thats a hell no from me too
I would not trade lives with Michael Jackson when he was alive
Other than Jesus, Michael Jackson is probably the most famous person to have ever lived
He was known in every end of the earth
The scene where he opens the hotel room to the cameraman, shirtless with a cigar? Loved that scene too, it stood out to me how surreal it was. It was one of the very very few times we saw MJ alone chilling and not really in PR mode.
I noticed how much his core was insanely muscular even compared to other NBA players.
Thats the one! And yea he definitely needed to bulk up to survive the pistons back then lol
“The game you play for free. They pay you for all the other bullshit”
“I’d play for free, you get paid to deal with all the bullshit”
I think Magic said a big part of the pitch he gave to Bron to come to the Lakers was “LA is the only place that can fit you in it” lmao
Being on the level of even regular NBA fame must suck ass. Every time you go out in public you’ll get people begging, scamming, or yelling at you. Nothing is private.
Being MJ honestly might just not even be worth it. I can’t imagine not rlly being able to interact with regular people at all.
I walked past Luke Kornet at a grocery store about two weeks before this season started. My daughter, who is a huge Spurs fan, was with me but completely failed to notice him. I pointed him out after we walked away, but I’m still unsure how she failed to notice the 7’1” behemoth literally 5 feet away from us in the deli section.
I went to school with Luke growing up and was friends with him, his family even took me to a water park. It’s surreal seeing the dude in the nba being a really solid player, good for him tho
Was he too tall for some of the rides
Luke was told that he couldn’t go on the fastest and most windy slide, The Whoopty, he was devastated, his ridiculous height had never held him back like this before. This drove him to put in the hours of practice to make the NBA, so that he could buy that water park and change the height restriction for that slide.
Klassic Kornet
He actually wasn’t freakishly tall as a kid, like he was usually the tallest guy in the class but nothing freakish like you’d expect from an nba player, he was probably only like 2-3 inches taller than me in 5th/6th grade, I left the school after 6th grade and then he moved out of state but then I guess when he got into high school he had a ginormous growth spurt and grew like a foot and the rest is history. His older brother was like the tallest dude in the school tho and was super tall for his age, his sister who was a year ahead of us was a baller too and she was tall for a woman, she ended up playing at like Oklahoma and UCLA in college
I’ve seen and even talked with a lot of the raptors g league guys. They’re usually very chill, and don’t get swarmed. Also see Jamaal Magloire around town, and he doesn’t get swarmed either. It’s definitely a fame thing at least in Toronto.
I read this entire thing waiting for electrical infetterance and it never came, it’s just an actual real post.
That must have been a difficult 9 seconds for you.
HEB just has really interesting display setups
Tbf, everyone seems huge when you’re a little kid.
She’s 16 and on the varsity basketball team. She’s not that little anymore. 😂😭
If it had been Steph Castle, she would definitely have noticed. She LOVES Castle.
There’s a great piece of media from a couple years ago where Jordan Clarkson does a “man on the street” interview with a local Salt Lake City TV reporter and she doesn’t recognize him. She asks if he’s gone to any Jazz games and he says “yeah, a lot”.
Fans definitely recognize players but most Americans don’t really follow the NBA.
I’ve always been convinced that if, for example, Timothee Chalamet walked by me I wouldn’t even notice. I might do a double take and think “That guy looks like Timothee Chalamet” But I wouldn’t believe that it was actually him cuz it seems so random I would happen upon him on the streets
NBA players though… you see Shaq, for example, there’s no doubt in my mind I could clock him from 2 blocks away. NBA more so than any sport you get the huge guys that constantly have cameras on them just so much easier to notice and stick out in a crowd
You’d probably recognize Arnold Swartzenegger but not Stephon Castle
I saw Isaiah Thomas waiting at baggage claim and was standing right next to him for 15 minutes before I realized. On that same trip, I saw Blake Griffin at Disneyland and there was a crowd around him and he stood out like a sore thumb.
My mom used to work at a grocery store chain back in the 90s and one time Chris Gatling went through her check out line. I guess she had to check ID because he was using a credit card and he asked, “you know who I am?” And she said, “No”
IMO top baseball players except for Ohtani have the best of both worlds. They’re PAID but barely noticed in public.
When Bryce Harper was still with the Nats and I spotted him in a very touristy area of DC with his wife. It was pretty crowded and NOBODY noticed him. He was probably the most popular DC pro athlete at the time and he just blended in with the crowd. You really blend in when you’re roughly the same size of the average population. You’re not towering over everyone like NBA players and you’re not BIG like NFL players.
I’ll take the money and accomplishments and deal with the rest
Also yeah NBA players are physically gigantic. Steve Nash I’m like “ok maybe he could pass for a regular guy, non NBA fan grocery shopping no idea who he is” but he’s 6’3”! I know that’s not insane but that’s still taller than most people.
It’s funny that in my head without thinking about it, Steve Nash is like 5’5”
6’3” is like 98th percentile height or something
John Stockton was able to blend in with the Barcelona crowd during the 92’ Olympics. There’s one clip of a woman wearing a Dream Team T-shirt who didn’t even know who he was. The rest of the team would stand out, even if you didn’t know basketball, just due to their size. Their 2 shortest players outside Stockton were MJ and Barkley. They would tower above the crowd.
I think Nash is just generously listed at 6’3. He’s supposed to be a couple inches shorter. I even remember reading that when he got drafted back in 96’
Just being that tall, say over 6’6 gets you so much unwanted attention. My friend is 6’8 and you can’t walk around a store without someone asking 1) how tall he is 2) if he plays basketball
It’s especially shitty at bars where some drunk guy inevitably sizes him up and says “you think you’re tough huh”.
Back when we were monkeys tall people were just as important. They were trusted to keep watch for tigers and shit.
It’s why I take all the “MJ is an asshole” stories with a grain of salt.
I’d be an asshole too if I was hounded everywhere I went.
I mean he was an asshole to his teammates for sure, but I don’t think he’s that “bad” of a guy
And now with how easy is to prop bet is even worse.
Fuck that I’d trade my left nut to be MJ for a week
Especially when you’re 6’6”. Most celebs can go undercover at least, MJ cannot.
I met Warren Sapp about twenty years ago. I was getting dreads done in Florida and the beauty shop was owned by his wife ?or Someone he knew. I didn’t know. He came in and sat next to me. I am an eagles fan anyway so I wasn’t going to bother him but he started chatting with me. We talked Didn’t ask for autograph or anything and went about my way.
MJ himself said so. “Everyone wants to be rich and famous. My advice? Just be rich.”
Even worse, significantly taller than average and that famous. You can’t hide or disguise yourself easily.
I’m only 6’4 and my friends can always very easily spot me in the crowds at music festivals. Sometimes from pretty far away. Imagine being even taller than that and highly recognizable. You can’t even disappear into crowds of THOUSANDS of people.
I saw a video (like 2 years ago maybe) of Mike and his wife walking maybe the equivalent of 2 blocks on a pier towards their boat in Capri or st. Tropez— and he had his security team but literally close to 60 people atleast just walking with them, surrounding them, bleating 🐐🐐
Like he obviously took it in stride, kind of chuckled and just played it cool but the way he’s been fully hermit mode in terms of his public appearances makes so much sense to me. Ironically, the fact that he is so low key also makes people lose it even more when he does resurface. I wonder if the Mike appeal would dim if he became overexposed and saturated but being low key and reclusive has only made people be even more nuts when he’s spotted lol
The scene in Last Dance when he walks out of the hotel room in Paris (I think?) is INSANE. I wouldn’t be able to handle it.
Eh MJ looks like he’s handling it pretty well. He even has theme music for free when he walks out
It’s for this reason that Shohei Ohtani is basically a ghost in the offseason. You have no hope of living a normal life and walking the streets without being accosted.
Yea it must really suck to be Michael Jordan
i was hoping it would be the bulls intro music
That music was played another day when mike was walking into the courthouse
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/s/SFfekXrMqf
‘Not available anymore’ boooo
Got you, dawg
he meant the classic bulls intro not the 25-26 bulls
You’re a hero
You son of a bitch
Someone please do the space jam song next. Not the R. Kelly one, but that would be funny too.
It was played when he was entering the courthouse.
A fan already did that when he was entering the courtroom lol this was the exit music
That song is called Sirius by Alan Parson’s Project
I feel like that might have been way cooler.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNDDDD NOWWWWWWWWWWW
Haha me too! That woulda been a better entrance music here for sure.
In reverse because he’s leaving
The song is Sirius by the Alan Parson’s Project - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkC_oi0ksuw
did anyone else hear that guy say “I don’t have theme music when I walk around. that’s ridiculous.”
Reminds me of something W said, i think when they unveiled his portrait during the Obama years.
“One thing you learn as a former president is there ain’t no band playing whenever you enter a room.”
Trump: Hold my beer
He doesn’t drink, right?
It would be a diet coke.
Neither did Joe Biden. Something they could have bonded over if we lived in normal times.
Now that I went looking for it I did - but BARELY. My phone speakers suck, but how did your ears pick that up?
no clue lmao I still have the iphone 12 pro max
iphone 12 is a great phone. Still have mine and they’ll have to pry it out of my cold dead hands…which will be difficult because it actually FITS into my hand so i get a great grip on it.
whats he doing at the courthouse?
He is part of NASCAR team owners who are suing NASCAR.
See idk any details tbh but it must be messy for NASCAR to be willing to take on the reputational risk from going against arguably the most famous athlete of all time. Even if NASCAR is 100% in the right (which I doubt), public perception won’t be great.
The France family ego(the family that has always owned NASCAR and has a monopoly) knows no bounds.
Basically a mob family. Remember, nascar was literally born out of moonshiners racing their smuggling cars against each other. They all got sick of race promoters stiffing them or being shady so Big Bill France got a bunch of them together and organized nascar as a sanctioning body.
The sport was born out of crime. No shock the owners are unscrupulous
most things are born out of crime lol
Okay Karl Malone you should sit this one out.
The NFL was started by gangsters also. The Rooneys and Maras, still owners of the Steelers and the Giants, were bookies that needed new things for people to bet on after the crackdown on baseball gambling with the Black Sox scandal.
Idk much NBA history, but the Fertitas were a mob family before “going legitimate” in the 70s.
Specifically the Maceo Crime family.
The family that infamously told Al Capone’s men to kick rocks when Capone sent them to Galveston in an attempt to shutdown/take over what the Maceo’s were doing.
Galveston is this weird ass beach town that was started by pirates and run by the mob until they all decided to get into tourism. It’s awesome.
NASCAR is likely up a creek, and they should be.
Formula 1 shares 45% of their revenue, NASCAR shares only 25%. 75% of NASCAR teams lost money last year…
Meanwhile, the France family made $260 million in the past two years. They’re going to lose this lawsuit badly.
The problem is that the lawsuit is about whether or not they are a monopoly. ITs not about the revenue sharing. The case is honestly fascinating
The problem is that the lawsuit is about whether or not they are a monopoly
That’s not true, the judge already ruled that NASCAR was a monopoly in pretrial hearings. The case is about whether or not they used their power (as a monopoly) to prevent competition and limit teams’ earning potential.
Yea i wanted to say harmful monopoly but i couldnt remember the legal term lol
NASCAR antitrust trial
Suing NASCAR because they have a monopoly on stock car racing. There’s a lot to it, but the big things is that you can’t even start a league to compete against NASCAR because they’ve bought up or made exclusive contracts with every stock car track worth a shit in America. The people that own the teams and actually race (i.e. the actual entertainers) don’t make much money and are 100% bound to NASCARs whims.
He saw there there was another type of court he can beat people on
he’s hunting.
Wabbits?
Shh, be vewy, vewy qwiet
hes sueing the family that owns nascar for having a monopoly, basically any team that wants to race for nascar is forced into a shit contract where you basically bleed money and if you don’t take their contract, you’re basically black balled in stock car racing everywhere
This is the level of fame that comes with being the greatest player in history to suit up for the Wiz.
Well Michael Jackson suited up for the Wiz as the Scarecrow
Classic MJ
Gotta give it to Mike. Yes he’s old, but he isn’t really aging if that makes sense.
It’s crazy how much he is starting to look like his dad.
Black don’t crack.
My GOAT behind Jamaal Tinsley.
Another day, another slap in the face of Jeff Foster
I think we all still wanna be like Mike lol
Man it’s so weird just seeing people follow him with cameras and microphones in his face. I feel for celebrities that can’t be in public without this shit and it’s 10x worse now that all 300 million of us can video each other at any moment
There’s a difference between being in public generally and being in public while leaving a courtroom in which you are part of a suit against NASCAR. It’s not like he has paparazzi in his face 24⁄7
No, but some mega-stars do.
There’s no paparazzi at private golf clubs.
Sometimes I dream, that he is me!
Michael Jordan is majestic
He then proceeded to walk across the street to the park, got a triple double and went home.
it was a good day
God, even on this silly phone camera video, you see this man has a special aura.
They played the Bulls starting lineup music when he was walking into court the other day and that was legendary
Every nascar fan should be thanking this dude.
Yall gotta give some context when you’re talking about people going into and out of court!
He’s suing nascar cause something
The France family owns NASCAR, most of the NASCAR tracks, and only allows cars made of NASCAR parts to participate in NASCAR, meaning there is no path for teams to realistically create an alternative league.
Teams only get a small cut of the revenue to the point they are basically guaranteed to make losses. But if they complain, they allegedly get retaliations in the form of unannounced inspections and other types of harassment that in the worst case can include race bans
Michael Jordan bought a team a few years back and is now suing the France family for illegal monopolistic practices
More than 20 years retired yet his impact is unforgettable and transcends generations. The true definition of GOAT.
I was hoping it was the Bulls 90’s intro song…”From NORTH…CAROLINA!!!…”
That happened last week as he arrived
What’s he in court for
He’s suing NASCAR on the grounds of antitrust and anticompetitive practices.
NASCAR is owned by a family, not the teams. The France family controls everything about stock car racing in the US. NASCAR owns most of the tracks, all the merchandise rights, acts as the designer and primary supplier cars and the supply chain for the parts, sets the media payouts, and does everything they can to minimize payouts to the teams.
The teams have guaranteed payouts if they’re members to a charter agreement. The teams like MJ’s had to buy charters that guarantee them race entries and payouts for participating. The thing is that charters are NOT permanent.
At the last renewal of the charter agreement, NASCAR essentially gave the teams a take it or leave it deal. As in take our shitty deal or we’ll take your charters away. Only MJ’s 23XI and one other team are taking a stand.
Thank you for the great breakdown!
Something else I wanted to add was that MJ’s team has spent about $46M buying the charters, so for them to be so easily lost is pretty crazy.
This lawsuit is likely to have massive repercussions for NASCAR, so it should be pretty interesting.
just looking at this guy walk around in public.
He may have been the greatest athlete ever in sports history. Not just NBA
This is funny as shit
The one where they play the Bulls intro music (Alan Parsons Project) when he arrived to the courthouse was awesome. This is great, too.
MJ Forever.
It’s crazy that it’s been +22 years since he’s retired for good and to this day wherever he goes, he is still the center of the universe. Just like the rest of us, the other #23 wanna be will never know what that feels like. He’s just not MJ’s equal. LBJ can play another 22 years and still won’t come close.
I hate using the word aura but Mike is the only one I know that has it pouring out of him.
They should have played the bulls music
They did that when he entered the courthouse. Not joking, they actually did.
The true 🐐
The GOAT. There will never be another. Incomparable. Aura before aura was even possible.
He didn’t laugh at the fan he laughed at the scenario that he created with the music.
Who was hoping for his Chicago Bulls entrance song?
Any man who must say I AM THE KING is no true King
“Please take us to dinner Please take us to dinner Please take us to dinner Please take us to dinner”
Jordan’s Chicago Bulls Pregame Introduction would work as well lol.
🐐🐐🐐🐐 meeh
Man, why isn’t his getaway vehicle a NASCAR car?