A hack journalist pens another attack on a legend

I haven't checked but I would bet that a number of bloggers and sports fans are upset by this Charles P. Pierce attack piece on Michael Jordan posted at Slate. Here is Pierce:

Michael Jordan was a great player. He also was a great salesman. And that was all he ever was, and that seems to be all that he ever will be. There's nothing wrong with that. He made some great plays and some pretty good commercials. Has anyone so completely dominated his sport and left so small a mark upon it? From the very beginning of his professional career, and long before he'd won anything at all, Michael Jordan and his handlers worked so diligently at developing the brand that it ultimately became impossible to remember where the logo left off and the person began. He talked like a man raised by focus groups. He created a person without edges, smooth and sleek and without any places for anyone to get a grip on him. He was roundly, perfectly manufactured, and he was cosseted, always, by his creators and his caretakers, against the nicks and dings that happen to any other public person. He held himself aloof from the emerging hip-hop culture that became—for good and ill—the predominant culture of the NBA. Remember, he once warned us, Republicans buy shoes, too. He always sold himself to people older than he was.

All I can do is respond in the same kind of lame, immature, insult orientated, hackneyed style: Charlie Pierce is a talentless hack jealous that an athlete doesn't live up to his ridiculous standards.

It is rare to see such a stupid an pointless article in Slate not connected to George W. Bush. What a waste of pixels! What is Jordan's crime? Making money and not being more socially conscious. Pierce is completely caught up in the anti-corporate zeitgeist. He acts as if Jordan has a responsibility to be something other than an athlete or ex-athlete. Pahleeze. Pierce misses the entire point of a phenomenon like Jordan, or Tiger Woods for that matter. I watched the NBA because of Michael Jordan and so did millions of other people. BTW, I don't watch it anymore. Same goes for Tiger and golf. Call me a bandwagon fan or whatever, but these men attracted me to the game; they made the game more compelling by their dominance and athleticism. To say Jordan left no impact on the game is asinine. The number of young men and women who watched and decided to play the game at a higher level because of his career is probably beyond counting. Many of the thugs and punks who play the game now don't deserve to carry his gym bag.

Charlie Pierce may think he is some sort of clever iconoclast, but he is really just an arrogant prick.