MARK WILSON/NEWSMAKERS Michael Jordan (with owners of the Washington Wizards) has used his retirement to branch out into management.

From the Sidelines

Jordan: still king of the castle?

But the past months have marked a change for His Airness. Commercials have always affirmed his prominence in our culture, but his omnipresent new Nike ad presents a revised version of MJ—more business and less ball, more Wall Street and less playground.

If you haven't seen the commercial (that is, if you've been in Greenland for the past six months) it goes like this: we hear strains of the Stevie Wonder song "Overjoyed," that pæan to lovers and dreamers, and soon images of Jordan's hand-picked stable of stars start to flash in front of us.

But the last image may be the most surprising. We see a smiling Jordan, not in his uniform but in a natty gray suit and a long overcoat with his diamond stud gleaming, smiling softly as he walks toward us across a surreal green expanse under an impossibly blue sky. As the picture fades out, we are left with Wonder's chorus: "Over time/I've been building my castle of love...And though you don't believe that they do/Dreams do come true...And you too might be overjoyed."

Ostensibly, these lyrics are appropriate. Jordan seems to be appealing directly to the kinds of kids who could most benefit from his example: the kids who need to dream big so they don't get trapped by the sometimes harsh reality that surrounds them. Not only was Jordan a great basketball player, but the final image demonstrates that he has developed into more than just an athlete.

But the emperor has no clothes. From the age of 16, Jordan has been building his "Castle of Love"—first by becoming the best at the game he loved so intensely, and later by retiring to spend more time with his family. So what is the new addition to Jordan's castle? According to the commercial, it is nothing more than an outlet store, built on the broken backs of underpaid laborers, as many Yalies would remind us.

Jordan's new vision of himself as a businessman is admirable, but his insistence that it is a natural progression from his playing career rings false. Does Jordan really believe that selling logoed t-shirts and sneakers to those who idolize him represents the fulfillment of his dreams and the completion of his castle, as the lyrics in his commercial suggest? Does he truly equate his love for business prosperity with that for the game of basketball and for his family? If he does, then maybe he's not as fit to serve as a role model as he was when he lit up every NBA team on the court. Maybe he's not even the role model we always thought he was.

And while he has every right to make more money, to be more successful, does Jordan still need to squeeze every dollar out of his stardom? He is in an ideal position to expand his castle in all the right ways, a position about which most Americans can only dream. He has the opportunity to act as basketball's diplomat, even as America's diplomat. At home and all across the world, Jordan represents the absolute pinnacle of success.

Instead, though, he makes these commercials, he runs his yearly fantasy camp for affluent, balding, out-of-shape fat cats (cost: $30,000), and he has just become president of basketball operations for the Washington Wizards. This is a move ESPN's David Aldridge suggests was at least partially influenced by the imminent purchase of the club by America Online billionaire Ted Leonsis, who has the ability to boost Jordan's brand into a different sphere. Jordan remains as apolitical as ever, famously maintaining that "Republicans buy Nikes too."

Some argue that Jordan has a right to remain private and enigmatic, as he always has. But his star is firmly entrenched, and he only pushes it further. If he had chosen to retire to private life, he might be forgiven. However, since he is expanding his empire, he should also make an effort on the part of those who made him so immensely successful. Jordan ought to lend his face, his time, or his money to some cause in which he believes. If His Airness is trying to build his castle of love, if he's trying to make his life mean even more, to have the worldwide impact about which most of us can only dream, then he is going about it in all the wrong ways.

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