So I have watched the clip from class and I have watched all of Michael Jordan's actual speech and I have absolutely no problem with it.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
I can see where some comments may seem a bit snobbish or that he's stuck up, but it doesn't seem like that was his intention. When he first gets on stage he is actually crying after watching the video attributing his career. It looks to me like he is touched and overwhelmed. Jordan even goes on to say that his plans were to simply say "Thank you" as his speech. Therefore he was up there on the spot trying to thank the people he needed to and make a few jokes along the way because we all know that a speech without humor is going to be criticized. I read an article that was written about Jordan after I watched the speech that completely bashes him.
MEAN ARTICLE
One of things that is definitely meant to be a joke is the part where Jordan comments about his high school coach making a mistake by putting Leroy Smith on the basketball team instead of him. Smith was in the audience during the induction and he laughs at this. It was wasn't Jordan being cruel, it was him laughing it off. I think that the clip we watching in class were people who overreacted. There isn't a problem with civility in our athletes today, there is a problem with over-criticism by people whose opinions don't really matter anyways.
I must admit that I have not seen all of Jordan's induction speech. I saw the part where he was crying--after they showed the montage of his play. And I must have seen portions of his speech on a You Tube clip. I am glad you posted the rest of it, and will try to watch it before we talk about the "Jordan effect" in class.
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