Before even getting into the National Basketball Association, the NBA, there is a draft pick. All the coaches and presidents of the 32 teams in the league get together and choose players to play for them during the season. The first round of the draft pick 28 players can be chosen and there are 2 other rounds where 30 players in each round can be chosen. This shows how difficult it is to get into the NBA since about 200 players sign up for the draft. The players who sign up for the draft have been to one of the colleges in the National College American Assosiation (The NCAA) for 4 years. Some players attempt getting into the league before finishing the 4 years, and some even jump straight from highschool to the NBA. This is an exception. Only 3 players have done this recently. These have been Shawn Kemp, Coby Briant and Kevin Garnett. The league consist now of 32 teams. Recently there have been two expansion teams from Canada, called the Toronto Raptors and Vancouver Grizzlies. This expansion is special since it has been an all American league.

In the NBA you have the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference. These two conferences compete with eachother throughout the regular season. The eight best teams from each conference compete in the post season. Then the best team from each conference compete for the championship.

The conferences are divided into two sub-divisions. In the Eastern Conference you have the Atlantic Division and Central Division. In the Western Conference you have the Pacicfic Division and the Mid West Division. Lately the best teams in the Eastern Conference are New York Knicks, Philidelpia 6-ers, Indiana Pacers and the Miami Heat. From the Western Conference you got the Los Angeles Lakers, the Seatlle Supersonics, San Antonio Spurs, who won the Championship last season, the Portland Trailblazers and the Utah Jazz. During the regular season there are 82 games and the best eight teams are chosen from the percentage of games won. In post season to get top the final you have to play three rounds. The first round consist of 5 games.The first to win three goes to the next round. In the NBA we call this the best of five. The next round consist of 7 games and the first to four goes to the conference final. We call this the best of seven. In the conference final it is also the best of seven. The winner of the Eastern and Weastern conference final clash against each other in the season's climax. The team who wins this best of seven can call themselves World Champions.

In February of every season the best players in the league get together in the All Star Weekend. Here we have a Slam Dunk competition, 3-points shootout and a East versus West game. The classic showdowns have been Dominique Wilkens versus Michael Jordan in the Slam Dunk Competition. Larry Bird and Marc Price in the Three Points Shootout and Wilt Chimberlain, Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley and Carl Malone in the All Star Game.

I am Michael Jordan. I was born the 17th of february in 1963 in Brooklyn New York City. When I was young I didn't play basketball, I played baseball. I grew up in Wilmington and started perfectioning my allround skills and I went to college in North Carolina. My career kicked off from this point. As a freshman I scored the winning basket to win the national championship. I was named college player of the year in both my sophomore and junior years. Before entering the draft I play with the National Team and led them to victory. I entered the draft in 1984 and got selected third overall in the The NBA by the Chicage Bulls behind Hakeem Olajuwon and Sam Bowy. In my rookie year I averaged twenty eight points and played all 82 games. The regular season consist of 82 games besides postseason games. I was also awarded Rookie of the year, which is the nomination for the best first year player in the NBA. In my second season I broke my foot in the third game of the season which led to missing 64 games. This was the only major injury in my career. The only time I didn't score double digit figures is when I came back from my injury. That game I scored 8 points. My highest scoring game was when I scored 63 points in a double overtime loss to the Boston Celtics, this was my play off high. My highest game total in a regular season game was 69 points against the Cavs. One of my favourie All Star Weekends was my showdown in the Slam Dunk Competition against Dominique Wilkens. We were neck to neck in points. The Dunk that won me the competition was running up from one end of the field and jumping from the free throw line, which is about 5/6 meters from the basket, with my eagle widespread jam with my tongue out of my mouth. The crowd went wild and I got the maximum points, which won me the competition. In 1993 the playoff finals was against the Phoenix Suns. In this playoff final I averaged 41 points per game getting revenche against Charley Barkley who won the Most Valuable Player Award in the regular season. This helped us to our third straight championship with the Chicago Bulls.

Throughout my career I have won the NBA Rookie of the year in my rookie season, I was named most valuable player in two All Star Games in 10 appearances. I hold the NBA Playoffs Record for highest career scoring average which is 34 points per game. I got the NBA Finals Most valuable Player 6 times. We won The NBA Championships 6 times in my playing days. I won the League Scoring Title 10 times, which is the nomination for scoring the most points in a season. At the end of each season an all NBA first team is made. This is a selection of the coaches for the best players throughout the season. I have made 9 first team appearances. I have won the NBA Most Valuable Player 5 times, which is the highest honour for a player at the end of the season. I ended my career at 29.000 points which is third in NBA history behind Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul Jabbar. My yearly sellary including endorsements, investments and NBA sallary add up to approximately 60 million dollars a year, which is a 120 million gulders. This makes me the best paid sportsman of all time.

My father had a tragic death in 1993. In 1993 I also retired from basketball because there wasn’t a challange for me anymore, which led me to the decision to play baseball. For one season I played with the Chicago White Sox but wasn’t very succesfull. The Chicago Bulls retired my number 23 and unveiled a statue for me outside te arena. Support from family and friends led me to the decision to start playing ball again in 1995. My first game back was versus the Indiana Pacers. At first I played with number 45 instead of my trademark 23. Halfway through thew season I unretired my number 23 and this inspired me even more to get a few more championship rings. In the last 3 seasons I won 2 more championships. I retired in 1998 for good. I stopped now because I wanted to leave at the peak of my game.

Besides playing basketball and baseball I featured in a movie called Space Jam which was half cartoon half reality. I have done many advertisements for Nike which is my number one sponsor. I have my own brand called “Air Jordan”. I also have my own cologne, sportswear book and a few TV shows. I also do a lot for charity together with other NBA players. The most important one for us was the “Stay in school” charity.

Now I am into coaching which is why I bought the Washington Wizzards. I am headcoach and have the highest shareholding in the team, I am co-owner of the team and make all important decisions besides the president of the team. This is because I don’t fully own the team but more than half. I als bought the ladies team of the Washington Wizzards. The Washington Wizzards is in the Atlantic Division, Eastern Conference.