You may have noticed Michael Jordan sticking his tongue out during an explosive drive to the basket for a dunk or you may not have that is fully indifferent as it did happen for two decades in the NBA and on national television.
It is reasonable to understand that Michael Jordan picked up the habit from his dearly-departed father, James who was fond of sticking out his tongue while working on the car engine.
We can all sympathize and empathize with this as we all remember our fathers having some little tweak or nuance about them that endeared them to us and in a symbolic gesture of honoring our dads we copycat the same movement to the best of our ability.
Chicago Bulls
It just so happens that when Michael Jordan and his tongue came calling to town during the NBA season and for goodness sakes the playoffs and subsequently The Finals of the NBA Championships, opposing players and teams knew that a storm was coming.
The Chicago Bulls with Michael Jordan and the rest of the crew stormed through the NBA like hot butter to a knife and could only be stopped when a monumental defensive of effort was put up against them such as the Boston Celtics or the Los Angeles Lakers.
It took that type of tenacity and team effort to go against one of the greatest teams ever in the history of the NBA, the 80’s and 90s Chicago Bulls Dynasty.
Great Dunkers
Even though what made Michael Jordan special was not his spectacular mind blowing dunks and prolific scoring. Many players were wonderful, great dunkers (Dominique Wilkins) and many NBA players could light up the scoreboard better than MJ (Kareem Abdul Jabbar).
What really set Michael Jordan separate and distinct from the rest of the NBA were a few things that later became his personal trademark. One was the wagging tongue. As mentioned earlier the tongue is a habit Jordan picked up from his deceased father James Jordan.
Once that time is displayed you know either one or two things are going to happen that probably the school board is going to change in favor of the bowls and or a thunderous acrobatic Dom is soon to follow.
Two Options
The Michael Jordan tongue wagging never fizzled out and always was just taken with a grain of salt and with a little smartness and for most fans and players alike it became nothing but time to pick up the defense and be extra-careful about playing defense.
If anything Michael Jordan’s tongue could be seen as a early warning sign for a drive to the basket or a thunderous slam dunk and a defense player had once again two options either stand up to this monumental charge or get ready for a fast-break opportunity going the other away.
MJ Dominance
While it is interesting to speak about the Michael Jordan tongue aspect, in the end, it had very little to do with his basketball playing abilities.
When MJ was dominating the courts, and it mattered very little where that court happened to be in the NBA or in the Olympics or anywhere else on planet Earth, it was his passion that really stood out and stuck out.
The assets that this wondrous NBA All-Star exhibited included a tall, lean, very athletic frame complimented by a shooter’s mentality and a showman’s desire to thrill and appease the crowds. After all it only matters if you win in the NBA and it never hurts to please the market as well. That is what the Michael Jordan tongue wagging did for the NBA and the Bulls.