Michael Jordan is arguably one of the most recognizable names in sports history. Although everyone recognizes his name, I believe that few truly know the trajectory of his career. Jordan played 15 seasons in the NBA: 1984-1993 with the Bulls, 1995-1998 with the Bulls, and 2001-2003 with the Wizards. So, you might be wondering what happened for those gaps in his career, well it’s pretty complicated. Simply put, he quit once to play in the MLB, then came back, then quit again, bought the Wizards, but then again came back again to play for the wizards!

Michael Jordan’s career, although incredibly hectic, was garnered so much attention that he received the largest deal endorsement deal until that point: $7 million over the course of 5 years (ESPN). As a general overview of how that contract went, Nike made lots of money and the signing also brought tons of attention to MJ (not that his basketball wasn’t already doing that).

As for the civic artifact, I’m sure some of you have seen it before. I’m talking about the time that Michael Jordan says, “The ceiling is the roof”.

Yes. You read that correctly. Michael Jordan, often referred to as the GOAT (greatest of all time), really said that. But what the heck is this man talking about? Whose ceiling is this? Why is it the roof? Doesn’t he know that a ceiling and a roof might as well be the same thing?

In this speech, Michael Jordan is announcing that the Jordan Brand is partnering with the UNC football team. What this means is that the football team is now going to be wearing the infamous Jumpman Logo on their jerseys from now on. MJ came back to UNC to some sort of pep rally to give his little intro to the football coach and to get the school that loves him so much hyped up. So, was he successful?

Bringing in someone like Michael Jordan automatically gets the crowd invested in literally anything he says. He walks into that building and he excites the students immediately. Some people work to make their speeches effective by proving their credibility; however, MJ starts the speech with more credibility than any UNC alumni ever will.

What made this speech so intriguing to me is how awful it was, but also how well it was received. MJ never talked about much during the speech, and only talked for about a minute.

He highlighted that he was happy to be back, paused, and got cheered.

He said that he’s partnering with the football team, paused, and got cheered.

He noted that he loves UNC sports, paused, and got cheered.

He added that he’s proud of he football coach, paused…

and got even more cheers.

To end his “rhetorical masterpiece” he offered his thanks and gave the crowd some truly though provoking words: “The ceiling is the roof”.

Now, I could analyse how that means something really inspiring, but that is obviously not the case. Spectacularly, the crowd and tons of people online ate it up! UNC’s crowd gave him another huge round of applause and the internet went wild explaining how he really made sense. I read through the comments of UNC’s YouTube channel, who published the complete video of Jordan’s speech, and it is FILLED with people praising MJ and his speech. Most of the justification is along the lines of “he’s the GOAT, so what he says goes”.

What does all of this mean for us as people who want to write good speeches? I’m not saying that you have to become the GOAT of basketball so that your speeches are received well, but I am saying that it helps. I’m only half kidding, but it appears as though ethos outweighs every other rhetorical concept in this case. There is hardly an appeal to the crowds emotion, he pauses way too often, and there is absolutely no logic in his closing statement, but it is his reputation (ethos) that picks up his slack.

Looks like we all should train to get into the NBA and then retire as a food critic or journalist so that whatever we say goes…