The league has yet to find a replacement for the greatest draw the game has ever had--Michael Jordan, who retired after the 1997-98 season.
And that's with the advantage of nostalgia as an added selling tool, thanks to a matchup invoking memories of the Larry Bird-Magic Johnson battles of the 1980s (the three L.A.-Boston finals of the '80s averaged a 30 share, as did the six Michael Jordan-led Bulls series in the '90s).
Over the last 10 years, in the post-Michael Jordan era, two human sports brands have stood atop all others: Tiger Woods and Lance Armstrong.
Of course Mia Hamm was an endorsement darling during the late nineties and early 2000s, with famous commercials like this all-sports duel with Michael Jordan or this soccer-specific spot.
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That's probably why, in the NBA, the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers teams of the '80s, led by Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, respectively, rate higher than the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls clubs of the 1990s.
Host Andy Samberg, "Veep" star Julia Louis-Dreyfus and comedians Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele all found plenty to work with, poking fun at the billionaire businessman and his comments.
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With 28, 596 points, O'Neal is fifth on the all-time NBA scoring list and is second only to Michael Jordan on the all-time list of NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Awards.
Third, where should endorsement income be invested for off-the-court brands like Michael Jordan?
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Several of Grand Central's businesses will offer special 1913 deals for Friday's birthday celebration, including a 75-cent cocktail at Michael Jordan's The Steak House N.
Ms. BOYKINS: Well, I think the children are only taking the pattern that we gave to them, and they are, as the to--there's Michael Jordan in everything that we handed down to them.
Desserts are scrumptious.l Michael Jordan's Steakhouse NYC -- Grand Central Station, 23 Vanderbilt Ave.
Most conversations on highly-touted basketball flops begin with Sam Bowie, who was famously taken No. 2 overall by the Portland Trail Blazers in 1984--one spot ahead of Michael Jordan.
In the fall of 1993, at the peak of his athletic abilities, three-time NBA finals MVP Michael Jordan quit the Chicago Bulls to join a minor league baseball farm team in Birmingham, Alabama.
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One of those players who paved the way for James to have a worldwide platform to display his skill set is the great Michael Jordan, who turns 50-years-old within the next week.
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In this recent Jordan re-appreciation, sports fans did what sports fans do, which was argue about where Jordan ranks among the all-time best, and in a lot of those conversations Michael Jordan was fixed at No. 1, ahead of legendary names like Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell and Magic and Larry.
What we're watching: Plenty to choose from tonight, with all the usual network shows, plus an NBA doubleheader on TNT and the Michael Jordan Celebrity golf tournament on ESPN-HD.
Kobe Bryant became the youngest player to reach 30, 000 points in an NBA career on Wednesday night, though it took him more games played to reach this feat compared to the other 4 men over the 30, 000 benchmark (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain).
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Only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (six), Michael Jordan (five), Bill Russell (five) and Wilt Chamberlain (four) have as many MVP awards, only Russell won four in a five-year span, and only Abdul-Jabbar went back-to-back twice, like James did with trophies in 2009 and 2010 and now again in 2012 and 2013.
John Stockton, Jason Kidd, Mark Jackson and Steve Nash rank 1-4 on the all-time assist leaders, but none of them are mentioned in the same category as Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlin or Bill Russell as the Greatest Player of All-Time.
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He's repaired thousands of shoulders, elbows, hips and knees of the sporting elite, helping the likes of Derek Jeter, Jack Nicklaus, Michael Jordan, even the San Diego Chicken--people for whom orthopedic success is a matter of career life and death.
It gave us Oprah, Michael Jordan, Nobel Prize winning author Saul Bellow -- and the great University of Chicago.
The 1982 team lost to eventual national champion North Carolina led by Michael Jordan, James Worthy and Sam Perkins 52-50 in the final minute.
As anyone who has paid attention is well aware, he prefers being a more-dominating version of Magic Johnson than he does Michael Jordan in terms of style of play.
On Sunday they barely squeaked past the Charlotte Bobcats, Michael Jordan's sad, wheelless bus with a 4-31 record.
Even the awful Charlotte Bobcats have ranked from the low-to-mid 20s in attendance the past few years with Michael Jordan at the helm.
The laws were meant to apply to commercial uses--that's why General Mills needs permission to put Michael Jordan on Wheaties boxes.
This is the most recent Jordan Brand addition, coming in the wake of Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Kendall Marshall, Jared Sullinger and Jeff Taylor all signing last month.
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Michael Jordan, arguably the greatest basketball player ever, had an on-court double nearly 20 years ago named Johnny Kilroy.
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Charlotte is a half-game behind for the league's worst record, and staying there gives Michael Jordan's team a 25 percent chance of winning the lottery and the right to draft someone like Kentucky's Nerlens Noel.
This Heat wave has even topped Michael Jordan's run with the Bulls in 1996, when Chicago finished with a 72-10 record.
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