When you think of some of the greatest athletes to ever play in their sport, you think of Michael Jordan, Muhammed Ali, and Jackie Robinson. This is not simply because of their accomplishments in their fields, it is because of the impact they have left and how they were able to affect American Lives in many different ways, whether it was the way in which Michael Jordan was able to capitalize on his game and grow a brand that is still relevant today or how Muhammed Ali refused to participate in the Vietnam War. These athletes were able to impact American Lives through the impact they had on globalization and the Civil Rights Movement. Michael Jordan has become synonymous with basketball and will continue to be relevant in basketball due to his …show more content…
However soon the lows of Michael Jordan’s career were starting to unravel as Jordan’s infamous gambling problem was starting to get traction as he was spending time with a drug dealer named James Bouler who had given him a check for 57,000 to “buy a golf driving range” (LaFeber 93). However soon it would come out that this check was for losses during high-stakes poker matches. Soon Jordan retired due to the tragic loss of his Father which deeply affected him and started to play baseball in order to fulfill one of his father’s dreams however this did not last very long as Jordan still had the urge to come as he still thought he had more in the tank which he did as the Jordan effect was starting to come into play once more. As in the 1995-96 season, the television “ratings had started to skyrocket by 21% from the year before” (LaFeber 131). This only helped to solidify how important an athlete Jordan truly …show more content…
This didn’t aid to his popularity amongst mainstream media and most white people though as they had viewed it as a controversial move as at the time many people did not truly understand what it meant as it was a big topic of the Civil Rights Movement as Malcolm X was a very big part of this movement as he was a very mainstream Sunni Muslim and it took quite some time for it to be accepted by a mass majority of people. Not to mention Ali had stated that he was not going to the Vietnam War which caused another major rift between him and the mass media and he had reinforced his thoughts by stating that he should not have to participate in a war that he did not believe which was backed up by the Islamic teachings this was however not supported by the government and he was soon sent to be in jail and he was stripped of his title and was banned for 3 years and many stated that Ali was taking it too far and was being rebuffed by the