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 Michael
Jeffrey Jordan is a retired American professional basketball player
and active businessman. Proclaimed by the National Basketball Association
as the "greatest player of all time", Jordan was one of the
most effectively marketed athletes of his generation, and was instrumental
in popularizing the NBA around the world in the 1980s and 1990s.
After
a stand-out career at the University of North Carolina,Jordan joined
the NBA's Chicago Bulls in 1984. He quickly emerged as one of the stars
of the league, entertaining crowds with his prolific scoring. His leaping
ability, illustrated by performing slam dunks from the free throw line
at Slam Dunk Contests, earned him the nicknames "Air Jordan"
and "His Airness". He also gained a reputation as one of the
best defensive players in basketball. In 1991, he won his first NBA
championship with the Bulls, and followed that achievement with titles
in 1992 and 1993, securing a "three-peat". Though Jordan abruptly
left the NBA in October 1993 to pursue a career in baseball, he rejoined
the Bulls in 1995 and led them to three additional championships as
well as an NBA-record 72 regular-season wins in the 1995–96 season.
Jordan retired for a second time in 1999, but he returned for two more
NBA seasons in 2001 as a member of the Washington Wizards.
 Kobe
Bean Bryant is an American All-Star shooting guard in the National Basketball
Association who plays for the Los Angeles Lakers. Bryant is the only
son of former Philadelphia 76ers player and former Los Angeles Sparks
head coach Joe "Jellybean" Bryant. His parents named him after
the famous beef of Kobe, Japan, which they saw on a restaurant menu.
Bryant
rose to national prominence in 1996 when he became the first guard in
league history to be drafted out of high school, and led a wave of high
school basketball players skipping college for the NBA. Bryant and then-teammate
Shaquille O'Neal led the Lakers to three consecutive NBA championships
from 2000 to 2002. Since O'Neal's departure following the 2004 season,
Bryant has become the cornerstone of the Lakers' franchise, and was
the NBA leading scorer during the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons.In 2003,
Bryant made headlines when he was accused of sexual assault. The charges
were dropped after Bryant's accuser declined to testify, and the two
sides ultimately settled the matter outside of criminal court.
 LeBron
Raymone James is an American professional basketball player who currently
plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association
. Commonly nicknamed "King James" and "The Chosen One",
the Akron, Ohio-born James was highly promoted in the national media
as a future NBA star while still in high school, and was named Ohio's
"Mr. Basketball" three times. At the age of 18, he was selected
with the first overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft by the Cavaliers and
signed an unprecedented US$90 million shoe contract with Nike before
his NBA debut. He has since set numerous youngest player records. In
his first season, he received the NBA Rookie of the Year Award and in
the following three seasons received All-NBA and All-Star honors. He
led the Cavaliers to back-to-back playoff appearances in 2006 and 2007;
the latter year the team advanced to the Conference Finals for the first
time since 1992 and the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history.
James is listed as
a small forward, but can also play point guard and shooting guard. This
versatility has led to his classification as a "point forward."
James was a member of the United States men's national basketball team
that won the bronze medal in the 2004 Olympics in Athens and he finished
second in the league Most Valuable Player balloting in 2006.
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