The Jordan Rules 09': Like Father, Like Son.

It's a poorly hidden secret that despite how nicely he was packaged by Madison Ave. to sell sneakers, batteries, and underwear all those years, Michael Jordan is a Grade-A douchebag. Sure, he gave us lots of great on-court memories, but off-court, most of his ex-teammates hated his guts. Between his extreme dickishness, legendary philandering, and outlandish gambling habits, it's truly amazing that Nike and Co. were able to somehow transform Mike into an "awww shucks, guy-next-door" type without the help of CGI effects. In short, if more people had known what Mike was like off-camera, it's not likely many people would have wanted their kids to be "Like Mike" all those years.



After suffering through half a decade of MJ's reign of terror (both as GM and player) with the Wizards, the shine has long since worn off for me. Everytime I watched him dribble the shot clock down to 2 seconds, then launch a fadeaway 18 footer than clanked off the back iron, a little bit of the Jordan Mystique dissipated. The day he got handed his walking papers, and fled the MCI Center in his Benz convertible was one of the happiest days of my adult life. Good riddance.

Interestingly, as is often the case with kids, MJ's offspring have picked up some of his peculiar sense of entitlement, even though they haven't picked up any of his game. Witness this latest example of Extreme Negro Nonsense, from the college ranks.

The University of Central Florida has lost its $3 million exclusive contract with adidas after basketball player Marcus Jordan's insisted on wearing his father, Michael's, Nike Air Jordans for the school's opening basketball game, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

While the rest of the team wore their adidas shoes with black trademark stripes, Marcus Jordan laced up his pair of white Air Jordans Wednesday night, although he did add a pair of black ankle braces with the adidas logo prominent displayed.

Marcus, 18-year-old son of the NBA legend, says UCF had promised when recruiting him to the school that he could wear the famous Jordan brand.

As a result, the Sentinel says, adidas spokeswoman Andrea Corso told the newspaper in an e-mail that the UCF "has chosen not to deliver on their contractual commitment to adidas. As a result we have chosen not to continue our relationship with them moving forward."

UCF Athletics Director Keith Tribble tells the paper, however, that he thought negotiations with the shoe company were still going on.

The paper reports that high-level adidas officials had overturned an agreement that UCF had reached with an adidas regional representatives to allow Jordan to keep his Nikes, despite the exclusive contract.

Funny, but last time I checked my trusty dictionary, there was still no "I" in "team". So what kinda mucky muck is going on here that leaves a kid with such an inflated sense of self worth that he could potential lose a school a $3M contract just on GP.

I know what you're thinking: "well he's probably a good enough player to justify the trouble." Au contraire. Marcus Jordan, much like his older brother Jeffrey (a walk-on at University Of Illinois) isn't a pro prospect, not by a longshot. He might not even be an all-conference type of talent, but rather a role player on a mid-major squad that has no shot at making it to the Big Dance. He's an average college basketball prospect at best. Period.

So, in short, the school is basically pissing away a colossal adidas contract because Lil' MJ wants to wear his Daddy's shoes.

Negro Please.

Question: Given the fact that the school promised Marcus Jordan he could wear his Daddy's shoes when he was recruited, does he have a point, or is he merely being a jackass just cause' he can? Were you a big MJ fan all those years? If so, has your opinion of him changed over time?

Michael Jordan's son keeps his Nikes; UCF loses $3m adidas deal [USAToday]