Michael Jordan is a name that needs no introduction, but this was not the case in his initial years in the NBA. Although some NBA experts knew of Mike from his college days itself, his popularity in the basketball community took some time to grow. In fact, stand-up comedian, Neal Brennan, recollected a time Jordan had to introduce himself after being mistaken for one of his Chicago Bulls teammates by a fan.
“I saw a white girl mistake Michael Jordan for Orlando Woolridge… A girl said, ‘hey, are you Orlando Woolridge?’” the 50-year-old comedian stated on Dan Soder’s podcast. This discussion emerged from Neal’s mentioning of the time he had great hook-ups for access to events because of his siblings. And this instance of mistaken identity was during a visit to the Chicago stadium through one of his siblings.
Dan wanted to know how old Neal was during that time. The 50-year-old could not recollect his age from back then. So he signified how old the instance was from the fact that someone could confuse Michael Jordan with someone else.
Mike and Woolridge’s common time on the Bulls was from 1984 to 1986. So the instance must be from this time period only. And though Mike was a well-known name to the members of the NBA community, he was not as popular as Larry Bird or Magic Johnson back then. However, with time, he surpassed both the legends in terms of popularity.
Michael Jordan’s rise to fame
Mike earned a name for himself in the entire NBA community soon after his debut. He was named Rookie of the Year in 1985. He even featured on the Sports Illustrated’s cover page of a 1984 issue. “A STAR IS BORN,” read the cover page. But it still took some time for him to transform into the brand that he became in the 90s.
The year 1988 marked a major milestone in this direction. Before this, Larry and Magic were still the most popular names. However, Mike won his second dunk contest this year, defeating Dominique Wilkins. The same year, he won NBA MVP for the first time in his career. He beat both Larry and Magic, who had been winning the title since MJ’s debut. While Larry had already won 3 NBA MVPs, Magic, too, had one to his name. Notably, Jordan’s first All-Star MVP also came in 1988.
And as the 90s began, so did the one-sided-domination era of Michael Jordan. His popularity was such that in 1996, research commissioned by Warner Brothers revealed MJ to be among the three most popular persons on the planet, including Princess Diana and the Pope. This level of reach in the 90s era can be attributed to his success in the game. From two three-peat victories in the 90s to 6x NBA Finals MVP and a 6-0 NBA Finals record, Mike claimed almost everything to his name.
