I know that he was extremely popular/famous and there was a lot of interest in him, but being a famous player doesn’t have to be the same as being a loved player.

For example, in todays game, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant are both very famous players in the league who get a lot of attention from media and from Basketball fans, but Curry is a player who seems to be almost universally liked, not many fans have negative feelings about him. Durant on the other hand is as media famous as Curry, but he is less loved, a lot of regular fans have negative feelings about him.

So how was it with Jordan? Yes he was extremely famous. But was he liked/loved by many Basketball fans (apart from Bulls Fans of course)? Or was he just respected? Did many even have negative feelings about him?

  • McWhorter44@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Michael Jordan was probably the most popular person on planet Earth besides Michael Jackson. He was/still is loved

    • KristianFBRLive@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      In the U.S. maybe, but worldwide Maradona and David Beckham were bigger in sports. Michael Jackson, Princess Diana, Nelson Mandela and Madonna probably more recognisable in general global culture.

      • Beautiful_Ad55@alien.topOPBEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Maradona though wasn’t exactly what I call a „loved player“. Yes he was loved by the teams he played for, yes he was extremely famous, yes everyone was interested in him, yes everyone loved his style of play. But he wasn’t really loved as a person outside his country and his hardcore fans, he had kind of a crazyness and a theatralic and kind of narcistic „out of touch“ personality that wasn’t exactly liked by many regular soccer fans.

      • Yung_Jose_Space@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        No, even Maradona and Pele were not bigger.

        Everyone just about everywhere knew who MJ was, even if they’d never watched or played a game of basketball.

        • Superb_University117@alien.topBEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          Same with Pele. I knew two things about soccer growing up in the 90s. Some guy got shot in Colombia after losing the world cup and Pele.

          Everyone knew Pele.

        • KristianFBRLive@alien.topBEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          This is just wrong on a global scale, Pele was not a contemporary of MJ but was undoubtedly more famous than any athlete ever to exist pre-social media.

      • GyantSpyder@alien.topBEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Peak Maradonna and Peak Jordan were not really contemporaries as players. Maradonna is 80s Jordan is 90s.