ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the forces that were involved in the myth-making process of the first phase of the Jordan myth, which coincides with the decade of the 1980s, marked in America by Ronald Reagan’s presidency, New Romantic music and fashion, action movies with muscled heroes, crack-cocaine epidemics, the final stage of the Cold War, the rise of All-American, African-American stars (Oprah Winfrey, Bill Cosby, Eddie Murphy, Michael Jackson, and Michael Jordan), and the outbreak of AIDS. The first phase of the Jordan myth spans from 1982 (Jordan’s emergence on the national stage as a player on the University of North Carolina’s (UNC)) Tar Heels basketball team to 1991 when Jordan and the Chicago Bulls won the hero’s and the organization’s first NBA championship title in their histories. During this period, the myth of an All-American hero-warrior was constructed – the hero (Jordan) proved himself to be an extraordinary figure who displayed and embodied the American values promoted in the Reagan era.
