” Whatever you paid to see Michael Jordan it wasn’t enough.You knew that every night out there you were gonna get the greatest concert of your life.”– Michael Wilbon, Sportswriter/analyst, Washington Post/ESPN
(Photo courtesy of B/R)
In honor of Michael Jordan’s birthday last Tuesday the creative minds at Bleacher Report put together a beautiful interactive retrospective chronicling the cultural impact Jordan made both on and off the court.
“MJallDay” spoils readers with an artsy seven part slide show, navigating users down memory lane of the world’s most polarizing athlete, and incorporating addictively entertaining interactive visuals of his many iconic moments– that are made fun to navigate through using mesmerizing photo effects.
So much of the legend of Michael Jordan was not what he accomplished on the court but what he symbolized off the court. I can’t think of another athlete who’s brand has influenced, captivated, symbolized, represented, or defined a culture like Air Jordan.
Part I of this retrospective explores the explosion of Air Jordan, complete with rotating Air Jordan 1’s, an upward ascending Jumpman logo, the contract Jordan signed with nike displayed in the foreground of one slide, while different Jordan shoes reign prominent in the background. But perhaps the best part of this opening section was an animated video giving us the history of the shoe: ( This video will mean everything to sneaker heads)
I would love to go into detail explaining all the individual parts of this seven part slide show but for the sake of readability I will provide only my insight on the journalistic aspect of what makes this piece brilliant.
The way this retrospective was structured made a lot of sense. It transitioned well, and damn was it fun to use.
Excitement similar to christmas morning would be an appropriate way of describing how I felt as each new slide transitioned upward. The feel of the visuals on my laptop almost looked like I was reading a pop-up book only the pictures of MJ dunking were sadly completely two dimensional.
An understatement would be to say that this piece provides more nostalgic imagery in just over 50 slides than any documentary I’ve ever seen about Jordan, and it’s a lot more fun too.
If you love Michael Jordan you will spend a lot of time on each individual slide because a lot of the photos used in this are ones in which we have all seen before only completely revamped with visual effects and artsy edits that deliver big time.
(photo courtesy of B/R)
Nothing was left out in this montage. Users were spoiled with many impactful quotes from the leagues most famous players and coaches intertwined throughout with sequences of Jordan performing high flying dunks, and colorful bio pics of number 23– needing no narrative other than the million generated by the people who read it.
This piece will turn into a project for those who idolize MJ because it has the relate-ability of a Quentin Tarantino film where you have to watch and rematch it five times to fully understand and respect everything.
But the beauty of MJallDay is that readers don’t need to be Jordan fans to appreciate this piece. The interaction it provides with readers is fun enough for anyone to be hooked on it.
Michael Jordan turned 52-years-old on Tuesday. His final NBA game was in April of 2003 wearing a wizards uniform. Bleacher Report created a tribute unlike anything out there, and it should be understood that this feature story is truly timeless. Just like Jordan himself.
-30-
Credit to “The Lab” (The group at B/R responsible for MJallDay)
for more visit: Bleacher Report
nick peppe 