I enjoyed Doug Robinson's column on David Halberstam's views about Michael Jordan, and I respect his opinion because he certainly knows more about Michael Jordan than the average person. However, there is a comment I would like to make that has, I feel, a relevant point.
During 1997 and '98 my husband and I were in Bangkok, Thailand, serving a humanitarian mission. We were teaching English to teachers in the government schools. We got quite well-acquainted with hundreds of schoolchildren and their teachers. When we went into the classrooms where the barest minimum of English was spoken, we would try to find out what students knew about Utah, and about America. My husband would always ask, "Do you know about our NBA team, the Utah Jazz? A few young men sometimes had heard of the Jazz and Karl Malone . . . but they always knew who Michael Jordan was. "Air JOR-DAN" they would say, and smile and clap their hands."The Bulls" they would say, and smile and clap their hands. We watched the '98 championship games in Bangkok. We watched after the infamous game in the Delta Center when three big Bull basketball stars, including Jordan, lit up cigars in a smoke-free arena and blew smoke in the faces of everyone gathered to hand them the championship. We watched along with millions of adoring young men in every part of the world.
Joy S. Robinson
Salt Lake City