Michael Jordan, who was born in Brooklyn, New York, grew up in a rowdy house in rural North Carolina, surrounded by generations of his family dating back to his great-grandfather. Jordan’s solid home life continued after his immediate family relocated to Wilmington in the late 1960s, with parents James and Deloris setting high academic standards and hard ground rules to keep their five children out of trouble.
James, a maintenance worker at General Electric who later became a supervisor, was the one who introduced Jordan to baseball and built a basketball court in the backyard (and apparently inspired Jordan’s famous tongue wag with his own facial contortions).
Companions, on the other hand, recall Deloris, a bank teller, as his parents’ more powerful presence. Her unwavering determination would subsequently be mirrored in her son’s well-known desire to succeed. If Jordan’s basketball genius was nurtured on the backyard court, it was the presence of its other frequent inhabitant that released the beast of his competitive nature.
Larry Jordan was a year older than Michael, and while Michael was taller, Larry was bigger, stronger, and more athletic than his younger brother. Every day until bedtime, the two went at it on the court, with Deloris stepping in to keep the lads calm when things got too heated.
Jordan has frequently rehashed the urban legend that he was cut from the Laney High School varsity basketball team as a sophomore, motivating him to work harder and improve, although this is not the case.
