A monument stands in front of the United Center, home of the Chicago Bulls National Basketball Association team. A 2,000-pound bronze statue features Michael Jordan in full flight, ready to slam dunk the ball, to the chagrin of cowering defenders. The front panel capsulizes the phenomenal athlete: “The best there ever was. The best there ever will be.” Jordan needs no introduction. He is among the best-known and wealthiest athletes in the history of organized sports. With the possible exceptions of boxer Muhammad Ali and baseball player Babe Ruth, no athlete has made a greater impact on American society. ESPN in 1999 voted Jordan the greatest twentieth-century athlete, and the Associated Press ranked him second, behind Babe Ruth. Jordan has appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated more than 50 times since 1983 and was named the magazine’s “Sportsman of the Year” in 1991. Sports Illustrated contributor Jack McCallum wrote that Jordan “stands alone on the mountaintop, unquestionably the most famous athlete on the planet and one of its most famous citizens of any kind.” He called him a sportsman who “has surpassed every standard by which we gauge the fame of an athlete and, with few exceptions, has handled the adulation with a preternatural grace and ease that have cut across the lines of race, age, and gender. He transcends sports.”