The face of professional basketball, Michael Jordan, was a self-proclaimed racist as a child. In a new biography about number 23, “Michael Jordan: The Life,” he says he was very upset by racism during his childhood, and in turn, that caused him to hate white people.
Author Ronald Lazenby documented a time that a white classmate called Jordan the n-word. Jordan said, “So I threw a soda at her … I was really rebelling. I considered myself a racist at the time. Basically, I was against all white people.”
In a statement to ESPN, the book’s publishing company that Jordan had not been contacted for the process of writing the book. They said, “Michael Jordan made those statements in a 1992 interview with Playboy magazine, referring to a specific event from his childhood. This is reported in Lazenby’s book, which is a definitive biography of MJ’s life and covers Mr. Jordan’s childhood thoroughly, but Mr. Jordan did not make those statements to Lazenby for this book. As stated very clearly in previous interviews, Mr. Jordan did not participate in ‘Michael Jordan: The Life” by Roland Lazenby.'”
As the Donald Sterling racism story broke, Jordan, now the owner of the Charlotte Bobcats, said in a statement, “As an owner, I’m obviously disgusted that a fellow team owner could hold such sickening and offensive views. There is no room in the NBA , or anywhere else, for the kind of racism and hatred that Mr. Sterling allegedly expressed. I am appalled that this type of ignorance still exists within our country and at the highest levels of our sport. In a league where the majority of players are African-American, we cannot and must not tolerate discrimination at any level.”