Jumpman - by Johnny Smith (Hardcover)

About the Book

"In 1991, Michael Jordan was on the brink of his first national championship and global superstardom. As he overcame stiff competition from the reigning titans of basketball and solidified his iconic status in the imagination of the American public, every new success created unprecedented commercial possibilities. Yet his life grew increasingly isolating. Every game, every appearance on television, amplified the public clamoring for Jordan to meet an impossible standard. As a national symbol, praised for transcending race, Jordan came to be seen as a bridge between white America and Black America, a unifying force in an age of dissolving social solidarity. It was a burden that was ultimately too much for one person, even one as extraordinary as Michael Jordan. Jumpman is the story of how Michael Jordan became the most famous and celebrated athlete in America. The book chronicles his ascendance as an NBA champion during the 1990-1991 season revealing the social, cultural, and political forces that shaped him and redefined the sport's importance. It explores how the NBA and Nike, publicists and producers, coaches and competitors, reporters and fans molded Jordan into a mythic version of the man from Wilmington, NC. Examining the unreckoned consequences of Jordan's fame and how race shaped the way people interpreted him and his achievements, Jumpman uncovers how Michael Jordan became something he never intended to be: an American hero. The book also reveals the paradox of Jordan with unprecedented acuity. In response to the growing demands on his time and the increasingly intrusive requests from the public and the press, Jordan became disillusioned with the trappings of celebrity, consciously cultivating an aura of secrecy. By design, this also hid the importance of race. Jordan understood that the less the public knew about his politics and his personal life, particularly past battles with racism, the more likable he would appear to people living under the illusion that the nation had solved its racial dilemmas. Blending dramatic accounts of gametime drama with grand depictions of the social forces sweeping America in the early 90s, Jumpman incisively portrays how racial conflict shaped Michael Jordan as he changed basketball history"--

Book Synopsis

How Michael Jordan's path to greatness was shaped by race, politics, and the consequences of fame

To become the most revered basketball player in America, it wasn't enough for Michael Jordan to merely excel on the court. He also had to become something he never intended: a hero.

Reconstructing the defining moment of Jordan's career--winning his first NBA championship during the 1990-1991 season--sports historian Johnny Smith examines Jordan's ubiquitous rise in American culture and the burden he carried as a national symbol of racial progress. Jumpman reveals how Jordan maintained a "mystique" that allowed him to seem more likable to Americans who wanted to believe race no longer mattered. In the process of achieving greatness, he remade himself into a paradox: universally known, yet distant and unknowable.

Blending dramatic game action with grand evocations of the social forces sweeping the early nineties, Jumpman demonstrates how the man and the myth together created the legend we remember today.

Review Quotes

"An impressive job of putting Mr. Jordan into historical context."--The Economist

"Fascinating... Rich."--Wall Street Journal

"Intriguing... a swift, fascinating read." --Chicago Tribune

"Recommended."--Booklist

"A smart appraisal of the superstar's relationship with race. ... It's a fascinating account of how Jordan navigated America's fraught racial politics during his rise to the top."--Publishers Weekly

"The book will appeal to fans of Jordan, the Bulls, and the NBA of the 1980s and 1990s, as the author provides interesting backstories about team, league, and corporate figures who surrounded Jordan, particularly his opportunistic agent David Falk, greedy Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf, and paranoid general manager Jerry Krause."--Kirkus

"Jumpman is a thought-provoking portrait of the 1990s culture that shaped Michael Jordan into one of the most talked-about athletes the world has ever known. Thanks to Smith for shedding new light on the man, the myth, the legend--the GOAT."--Timothy Bella, author of Barkley

"In Jumpman, author Johnny Smith distills the mythology of a sports legend and gives us a story not only about His Airness, but, more broadly, about America." --Gary M. Pomerantz, author of The Last Pass

"Other Michael Jordan books have shown the whats and wheres and whys. Now Jumpman, an essential addition to the canon, explains what it all cost."--Wright Thompson, senior writer, ESPN.com

"Through careful research and rich storytelling, Jumpman does more than just unpack the mystique of Michael Jordan; it paints a lively and unvarnished portrait of the players and personalities who defined that era of professional basketball. By centering questions of race and examining the shifting business of sport, Smith also provides us with a provocative parable about US culture and politics in the late-twentieth century: a time when colorblindness, conservativism, and neoliberal global capitalism came to reshape the American Dream."--Theresa Runstedtler, author of Black Ball

About the Author

Jumpman, and co-author of The Fight of His Life, War Fever, A Season in the Sun, and Blood Brothers. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia.