One of the main reasons we love sports is that they’re a very thinly veiled metaphor for war. For the first six million years of human evolution, we adapted to survive in violent conditions. The relative peace and safety we now live in is a very recent development. Suddenly, we’re supposed to sit in a cubicle for fifty hours a week, shake hands and smile politely. We weren’t built for this, so it’s not surprising that so many people spend their week counting down the hours until Sunday, when they can scream viscerally as modern day warriors try to break their opponents’ spirit. Most people do not have an outlet for their aggression and competitive fire in their daily life, and sports provide a tremendous release.
Michael Jordan broke the spirits of his enemies as well as any man who ever lived. He made it his life’s work, and when he could still do it we loved him for it. The people who say that Jordan was idolized for his grace and athleticism miss the main component of his mystique. Carl Lewis also defied gravity. George Gervin also made beautiful poetry with a basketball in his hands. Michael Jordan is placed on a plane above all other athletes because of how brutally he vanquished his competition.
During his Hall of Fame speech, Jordan offered us a glimpse into the psyche of a ruthless competitor. Instead of describing the glory of winning championships and being loved by people around the world, Jordan’s speech consisted almost solely of anecdotes about adversaries he crushed. Its critics found it at best unpleasant, and at worst the ramblings of a bitter sociopath. It was akin to a war hero giving a speech where everyone expected him to lament of the losses of his peers and thank God it had ended, but instead described in vivid detail the people he killed as if he had enjoyed each act of violence. People would shield their children from such brutal words. They would keep their distance from the speaker out of fear and repulsion. They would harbor serious and justified doubts about his ability to function in a regular job in a peacetime society. But goddamn would they want him to fight on their side again if another war broke out.
A man with the resolve and mental toughness of Jordan is capable of being a great hero or a great villain. Jordan is a hero because he used his powers for good. Had he put his determination and killer instinct to work as an assassin or drug kingpin, there’s little doubt he would have excelled and murdered dozens. Fortunately for us, and underworld figures everywhere, he entered an arena where the only casualties were John Starks’s pride and Karl Malone’s championship aspirations.
Though not as vicious as Jordan, all people possess some degree of aggressiveness and violent tendencies. We know it’s wrong, but we cannot help but respect and admire these traits in others. (How many times have you watched Scarface or The Godfather?) While we can dream of a utopian world where these traits did not exist in people, and lament on how peaceful it would be, these traits are hard wired into our genetic code and here to stay. Michael Jordan’s legacy should be that he showed us how to channel these aggressive and violent tendencies into something constructive, using them to improve the world.
