Where were you when Jordan retired (1st time)

[Crystallas]

The whole 9/11 question is so driven into people at this point for all but the youngest alive. For me, a few 'universal' events happened like this in my life. OJ's chase, Challenger explosion, of course, 9/11.... And crazy enough, MJ's first retirement.

People old enough remember where they were, the shock and disbelief. How all the events of the next week just rotated around that one thing. I know we have a lot of members that were too young or not even alive. But for the rest, you know 100% what I'm getting at. You know where you were, what you were doing in a greater detail than most other big news events.

How much do you remember?

 

[Briggs is GOAT]

I was not alive but if I was it would've been a big deal to me for sure.

 

[MDB111™]

Jordan came back from his 2nd retirement on 9/10. When I woke up on 9/11 I turned on the news to hear about that but only saw a hole in some building. I thought it was over seas somwhere. It wasnt until I got in my car and turned on thw radio, mad that no one was talking about Jordan going to the Wizards that I realized a terrorist attack happened to the US.

I was sitting at home watching the Bulls game for his first comeback when Pippen pointed to his shoes I was beside myself. Jordan was my hero as a youngin. The Bulls were sort of limping around getting abused my Orlando and Indiana and the likes. He had the Bulls roaring back to life. It was awesome.

 

[Crystallas]

I was on a school bus, driver had talk radio on every day, and the bus was always loud. That day, the news was broken that Nike confirmed Jordan was retiring from basketball and he was going to make it official in a few hours.

Odd enough, the few days before, most people were brushing off the rumors as stirring shit from tabloid-like sources in the off-season. So even with minds being 1% prepared for it as a reality, it was still such a huge moment of disbelief. We didn't have people repeating "Uhh did they just say Jordan is retiring" or any of those typical types who just have to keep their mouths going at all times. It was dead silent for what seemed to be the longest 5 mile bus ride of my childhood. Even the handful of Jordan haters were quiet and didn't want to celebrate yet.

You had teachers leaving classrooms to watch the news conference. I saw a bit of the WYCC broadcast between classes, yes, even channel 20 PBS had broke the set(back when breaking news meant that the news interrupted what was advertised in the prelude/intro, not today where it just means *headline worthy news* as some buzzword) and went to the press conference for an hour. One of those things where even your typical soap opera stay at home moms didn't care what happened on their favorite show, they were distracted too by the news. Usually they get mad to lose the show.

For many people, this started the routine of watching Sports Center before starting their day due to how early the news event went official. Collectors moving from a post Superman Dies comic hype world into the sport card collecting world, grabbing Jordan cards hardcore. That Star rookie skyrocketted over-night in value. This moment gets glanced over a lot to make room for baseball talk and his return, but the week alone was really packed full of chain reactions. Maybe the most of his whole career, more than the return.

 

[SilenceS]

I remember Shaq going to the Lakers over Jordan retiring the first time.