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| (Photo by Bill Smith/Getty Images) |
Recently, ESPN magazine had ran an article criticizing Michael Jordan's performance as teamk owner and president of basketball operations of the Charlotte Bobcats. A few months ago his team had acquired the reputation as being the worst team in NBA history with a winning percentage of just 0.106 percent. As the last minutes of last year's season ticked away for the Bobcats, an unthinkable thing happened. Michael Jordan was booed by fans in his home court.
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(Photo by Brian A. Westerholt/Getty Images)
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Unfortunately, his narcissism and his insistence on infallibility proved to be the worst qualities of a team owner. Michael Jordan's best friend, Charles Barkely, described Jordan as someone who surround's himself with "yes men", who doesn't challenge his philosophies and the way he runs the team. This is specially disastrous in the way the team had performed in the NBA draft in the last few years, with Jordan arbitrarily choosing his rookies based on a few NCAA games he had gone to rather than investing in a detailed and more precise scouting system. Larry Brown, the Bobcat's former head coach, had also criticized Jordan for firing him for challenging his management decisions. Because of draft busts, bad trade decisions, and an overall failure in management, Michael Jordan had driven his team to the ground.
It is quite understandable and perhaps expected for Jordan to develop a narcissism and a sense of infallibility after being showered with praise and glory throughout the course of his career as a dominant basketball player. Unfortunately, when he retired his jersey and became team owner of the Bobcats, he wasn't able to realize that his role and his style of leadership has to change. The qualities that made him such a winner inside the court, that is his competitive nature, his ability to keep his teammates in line and his complete self-confidence, had proved to be qualities that didn't fit in his new role as as manager.
Despite his failures as a team owner, there is in fact a silver lining. After acquiring the worst record in NBA history, Jordan had hinted on admitting his failures as team owner and president. It is rumored that Jordan is stepping down as president of basketball operations and handing the reins to a new breed managers who rely on detailed analysis and metrics to improve a team's efficiency.
In the end, Michael Jordan's legend will never fade away. His personality, his accomplishments, and his legend has always been bigger than man himself that despite whatever happens to his new strategy, his countless fans will always regard him as the best in basketball. But his admission of defeat as a manager and his new awareness of his proper role in the organization makes him an even better leader. In many ways, this is an achievement that is more valuable than six champion rings.
The Jordan story is indeed a shining example of the different manifestations of narcissism in diverse situations. Even before his career began MJ's unshatterable belief in his own demi-god-like awesomeness was a productive narcissism (as described by Maccoby) -- a type of hyper narcissism that made him pro and subsequently the best ball player in NBA history. And as he painfully discovered, the same traits are what made him the worst team manager in NBA history. The photo you chose of Jordan, sitting on the bench, hand on head, is very telling. His body language reveals a sense of utter disbelief, defeat, even shame -- a man once so tall, made so small.
ReplyDeleteHarvey Dent: You either die a hero. Or you live long enough to see yourself become a villain.
The words rings true here. And maybe even in every other story of great men driven to unsurpassed heights by sheer conviction of their own selves, of a narcissism so addictive it drives them mad, to reach an acme only to fall back down, hard, fast and painful. Can it be any other way? Can you think of great men who have not fallen fast? Could the answer lie with great women instead?