Rating: 
Summary: global
Review: I have mixed feelings about Michael Jordan. On the one hand, he is a great athlete. I respect his work ethic. He has turned in a number of great performances and is no doubt one of the greatest to have ever played the game of basketball.There is a flipside. Michael Jordan got all kinds of special treatment while he was in the NBA. He was the first player I noticed who was granted all kinds of trips to the charity stripe because of unbelievably, ticky tack calls. He scored at least ten points a game at the free throw line from bogus calls. It was great when there was a picture session for 'greats of the game' with Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jordan. Magic told Larry not to stand too close to Michael or they might call a foul. In front of reporters and television viewers, that was a classic comment by Magic. I believe Mike got 99% of all calls in his favor because he was such a cash cow for the NBA. Dominique Wilkins was robbed of a slam dunk championship when Mike scored a perfect 50 doing the same dunk Dr. J did years before. I doubt Dr. J ever received a perfect 50 for it. Dominique's dunk was much more impressive, and he received a 49.5. Please. Mike got in a fight with Reggie Miller, and only Miller got suspended at first. Only after there was an outcry did Mike get suspended. How are Mike's punches different? Mike elbowed Kevin Johnson to the ground for all to see, and Kevin was called for blocking! I am not too impressed that the bulls beat the lakers in the NBA finals. Magic was double teamed every game every minute he was in. On top of that, James Worthy and Byron Scott were injured. Magic and Larry never won three championships in a row because the competition, teams, and players in the 80s were much better than the nineties. Luc Longley, Will Perdue, Bill Cartwright, or Bill Wennington stopping Kareem? Ha! Sport Magazine recently had a piece on the ten greatest moments and ten greatest players ever in the NBA. Mike was ranked number one all time player. Kudos to Mike for mentioning in 'For the love of the game' that to pick a "greatest ever" is impossible because of all the different eras and evolutions of basketball. The nineties bulls were given three of the ten greatest moments in NBA history. This is just more Mike bias. Give me a break. There are hundreds of classic and amazing moments in NBA history. One of the moments picked was Mike beating the Jazz in the final minutes of his last game. He put his hand on Bryon Russel's backside and shoved him out of the way. Then Mike made the game winnig shot. All eyes were on Mike, but the ref did not make the obvious call. There is also Mike's arrogance. According to him, Wilt Chamberlain was a fluke eventhough Wilt was a great all around player. He made a comment about Magic and Larry reaching a 'certain level of greatness' and that the two were not good on defense. What? Are we talking about the same Larry Bird? Shaquille Oneal is also much better and much improved than Mike gives him credit for. Shaq has turned into a solid defender, passer, and he works hard at both ends of the floor. Mike's corporate poster boy behavior is laughable. He did ads for AT&T and then MCI. The Wayans family is also split between the two companies. Mike talked about the enviroment in Rayovac ads and then pitches hot dogs? Mike is not the only athlete who will pitch anything and everything to make millions. I wonder if Mike has checked into Nike's labor practices. Players like Mike and Charles Barkley soured me on the NBA. Charles played like a thug and got away with it because he was a star. Plus, Charles insisted on wearing number 34 at Philadelphia eventhough it was retired for NBA great Billy Cunningham. The star treatment and inflated egos has grown old, and that has turned a lot of people off to sports. I miss the Lakers and Celtics match ups of the 1980s.
Rating: 
Summary: Michael Jordan And The New Global Capitalism
Review: I think this book is well written for many reasons. It shows all that Nike went through to get their company started. They changed their name from Tiger to Nike, changed their shoe styles, and became popular by signing Jordan to do their ads. The shoes, in fact, became so popular that teenagers in the early 1990's would steal or even kill for them.
Even though Jordan made a lot of money from Nike, he lost all of his privacy and the media turned against him. The book clearly shows the down side of too much publicity.
Rating: 
Summary: Just don't do it!
Review: Imagine a Cornell History Professor tiring of all his earlier works on origins of conflicts and contributing factors in peace settlements that are currently gathering dust in the university library. To get some inspiration for something that might really sell he scans the net for some inspiration. It turns out that two really hot items seem to be Michael Jordan and the discussion about globalization (pornography is too hot an issue for a respected Ivy League professor to write about). Voilá, the probable origins of this attempt to cash out on two terms of hype so shameless it makes Disney marketing scams look like charity collections for the Red Cross. This “short book on large subjects” begins promisingly enough by discussing the subjects of media and corporate control that has exploded in the latter half of the 1900’s. Walter LaFeber declares his intention to use Michael Jordan as a symol for this “new breed” of global capitalism. With the supposed analytical wit of a history professor, this premise seems interesting enough for a critical yet subjective analysis of this phenomenon. You would be fooled into thinking that this book really is about Michael Jordan AND Global Capitalism. Behold, before you lies 120+ pages of unabashed praise of Michael Jordan with no trace of the analysis or juxtaposition promised in the preface. The low point is on page 77 when LaFeber quotes Ebony magazine (...) in an interview with Juanita Jordan about the strife and pressures of being marries to Michael Jordan (what’s next, a historical analysis of the American presidency using such trustworthy sources as National Enquirer?). So tied up and enthralled by the subject is LaFeber, one cannot seize to ponder if LaFeber always approaches his subjects with the same liberation of judgment, let alone critical thinking. If the answer’s yes, we can only pray that LaFeber’s next attempt to reach the bestseller lists won’t be a study of Josef Stalin or some other hideous dictator. In the acknowledgments, LaFeber reveals that this book is a service to a friend who asked for a contribution to a series of biographies to be used in classrooms. This raises some alarming questions; why use a poorly informed history professor to cover the career of a sports personality that any schoolyard kid in the western hemisphere already knows about (short summary of LaFebers “biography”: Jordan hails from the Carolina’s, played basketball like a God and had some minor gambling problems)? Why even include the topic of Global Capitalism when the only purpose it serves is as a backdrop to Jordan’s career?
The last chapter of the book is entitled “the greatest endorser of the twentieth century” and you would be forgiven as a reader in your confusion about whether this refers to Jordan and his commercial tie-in’s or whether it refers to Walter LaFeber and his blatant attempt to sell Michael Jordan and Global Capitalism as if they were God-given gifts for us mortals to worship. If I were the dean of Cornell University, I would seriously review my list of staff and make sure that other faculty members were barred from using Cornell’s name for fanzine-like projects. Utterly dreadful…
Rating:
Summary: There Is More To Michael Jordan Then Playing Basketball...
Review: In Michael Jordan And The New Global Capitalism, Walter LaFaber uses his ability to research and write about something to express to the readers how important advertising is to any corporation or business. For the Nike Corporation, they partnered up with Michael Jordan and worked out a plan to advertise him and their products through worldwide telecommunications. When Michael Jordan won (which was something he did a lot), the Nike Corporation won too, because everyone wanted to be "like Mike," and the only way to be "like Mike" was to buy his footwear and apparel or other Nike footwear and apparel. This book is a good awakening to anyone interested in how our economy works for big businesses, and its also a good book for anyone interested in basketball and or Michael Jordan. This is a definite must read all in all, because even if you end up not liking this book, you will be better off having read it.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Enough
Review: Lafeber really shows you how putting time and effort into something can really take you far in life. I found the book to be very fascinating because it gives all the history of how basketball got started and how MJ and Nike became such powerful household names. This book is a really good read for any MJ fan who wants to learn the whole history behind him. It shows you what global advertising can do to a persons popularity. The bottom line this book is filled with tons of very interesting facts and just tells a good story, so go pick it up as soon as you can.
Rating:
Summary: Good Enough
Review: Lafeber really shows you how putting time and effort into something can really take you far in life. I found the book to be very fascinating because it gives all the history of how basketball got started and how MJ and Nike became such powerful household names. This book is a really good read for any MJ fan who wants to learn the whole history behind him. It shows you what global advertising can do to a persons popularity. The bottom line this book is filled with tons of very interesting facts and just tells a good story, so go pick it up as soon as you can.
Rating:
Summary: Nike and Michael Conquer the World
Review: Noted foreign policy (global?) historian Walter LaFeber has written an extremely readable short book. The narrative flows without getting stuck in academic jargon. However, his premise that the twenty-first century will be dominated by multi-national corporations is not new. The twist is that Michael Jordan is our new Santa Claus; instead of delivering presents to "good children" throughout the world, he leaves them with symbols of products (not the presents themselves)and spreads name-brand recognition in the far corners of the earth. (In one remote region of China, the Chicago Bulls are referred to as "Red Oxen.") But haven't we heard this argument before with Ronald McDonald? He is better known in the world than the Pope. And as for Santa Claus, he can thank Coca-Cola for making him cherry red and white (the same as their soft drink label) for who he is today. I would recommend this book to people that don't yet know that basketball commissioner David Stern packaged the NBA like Disney: "they have theme parks, and we have theme parks. Only we call them arenas. They have characters: Mickey and Goofy. Our characters are named Magic and Michael." But Walter LaFeber, who is known for his exhaustive research skills, relies too heavily on pop culture to discuss the impact of a pop figure. His endnotes are dominated by magazine and newspaper articles (Newsweek, Sports Illustrated) without delving more deeply into how a black man in America became "a god" that transcends cultural boundaries. "Michael Jordan and the New Global Capitalism" is a good beginners book on the long arm of U.S. corporations but do not stop there. James Twitchell's superb "Adcult USA: The Triumph of Advertising in American Culture" provides the reader with much more indepth analysis on how Nike and others came to dominate our world.
Rating:
Summary: Michael Jordan And The New Global Capitalism
Review: Sure, this book is about the rise of transnational corporations and the influence cultural icons such as Michael Jordan have on it. However, LaFeber never gets into WHY this is the case. He throws around the same three points throughout the 164 pages of text, leaving the reader wondering how he could possibly write so much when he realistically has nothing to say. It is more filled with statistics and dates regarding Michael Jordan, the Bulls, and Nike, than what the title implies. The book is a good read for fans of MJ and Nike, but if you're looking for a sociological perspective on globalization, look elsewhere.
Rating: 
Summary: Keep looking
Review: Sure, this book is about the rise of transnational corporations and the influence cultural icons such as Michael Jordan have on it. However, LaFeber never gets into WHY this is the case. He throws around the same three points throughout the 164 pages of text, leaving the reader wondering how he could possibly write so much when he realistically has nothing to say. It is more filled with statistics and dates regarding Michael Jordan, the Bulls, and Nike, than what the title implies. The book is a good read for fans of MJ and Nike, but if you're looking for a sociological perspective on globalization, look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Liberal Junk
Review: The spread of Michael Jordan and capitalism is a good thing. IN a nutshell, Jordan and Nike are symbolic of middle class economic success. This is the direction we want things to go. If there is any chance for a world free of anarchy we need countrys with strong middle classes. Strong middle classes usually leads towards democracy. Unfortunately many countries are going in the opposite direction. They are chosing anarchy, or fundamentalism. It seems the author of this book, as he usually does, has misinterpreted history. As usual he finds fault with anything good America does. The author has a problem with the spread of American values, American capitalism, and American Democracy. I would hate to see the world the author would like to live in. However, we can see glances of it now: look at the problems in Africa, or the Middle East. I will take middle class capitalism and democracy over fundamentalism any day. If you want to read some revisionist junk economics...read this book.
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