Michael Jordan's reluctant step into the Hall of Fame

Why Jordan wasn't thrilled about entering basketball's shrine

It’s no surprise that Michael Jordan is headed for the Basketball Hall of Fame, said Shawn Windsor in the Detroit Free Press. What’s surprising is that the six-time NBA champ and “basketball’s most famous face” would rather not be enshrined there. At least not yet —because the man who is probably the greatest competitor of our time says he still has trouble accepting that his career is over.

That’s a hard concept for the rest of us to accept, too, said Chris Sprow in ESPN. All of Jordan’s championships, MVP awards, scoring titles, gold medals, and All-Star games may be in the past, but the former Chicago Bulls star’s “magnetism and aura never really receded.” Still, we can agree on one thing: Jordan belongs in the Hall of Fame.

And he's certainly being enshrined in a fine year, said Alexander Wolff in Sports Illustrated. Along with MJ, the Hall is enshrining David Robinson and John Stockton—who along with Jordan make up a quarter of the 1992 Dream Team. But if the Honors Committee had opened the door to a few other deserving players—Bernard King, Chris Mullin, the late Dennis Johnson—“this would have been, hands down, the best class ever.”

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