In the fall of 1993, in his prime and at the summit of the sports world, Michael Jordan walked away from pro basketball.
After leading the Dream Team to an Olympic gold medal in 1992 and taking the Chicago Bulls to their third consecutive NBA championship the following year, Jordan was jolted by the murder of his father.
Was it the brutal loss of such an anchor in his life that caused the world’s most famous athlete to rekindle a childhood ambition by playing baseball? Or some feeling that he had nothing left to prove or conquer in basketball? Or something deeper and perhaps not yet understood?
Academy Award-nominated director Ron Shelton, a former minor leaguer who brought his experiences to life in the classic movie, Bull Durham, revisits Jordan’s short career in the minor leagues and explores the motivations that drove the world’s most competitive athlete to play a new sport in the relative obscurity of Birmingham, Ala., for a young manager named Terry Francona.
Jordan Rides the Bus debuts on ESPN Tuesday the 24th at 8pm ET.
