The end of MJ’s Bulls run, a decade later
Ten years ago today, I stepped off a red-eye flight from Los Angeles, met up at O’Hare airport with The Washington Post’s Michael Wilbon and caught the train downtown, then fought a Chicago wind so fierce we had to walk backward to hail a cab for our trip to the United Center to see the official farewell to the Michael Jordan era.
It wasn’t the end of Jordan’s career, as it turned out. There was that two-year comeback with the Washington Wizards. But Jan. 13, 1999, was the final moment of the basketball player as icon, a business perfected by Jordan in a way that never will be seen again.
There were more than 800 reporters in the United Center that day. I was part of a two-man team from the Los Angeles Times. Can you imagine more than 800 reporters from around the country converging to cover a retirement news conference today, with a bank of 25 cameras focused on one individual and a fleet of satellite trucks parked outside to beam his words to the world?
espn.com
1/13/09
Magnolia Tribune
