Michael “The GOAT” Jordan!!! Everybody who has ever played, watched, or heard of the game of basketball most likely knows of the infamous MJ. His historically career has spoken for itself….
- 6× NBA champion (1991 — 1993, 1996 — 1998)
- 6× NBA Finals MVP (1991 — 1993, 1996 — 1998)
- 5× NBA Most Valuable Player (1988, 1991, 1992, 1996, 1998)
- 14× NBA All-Star (1985 — 1993, 1996 — 1998, 2002, 2003)
- 3× NBA All-Star Game MVP (1988, 1996, 1998)
- 10× All-NBA First Team (1987 — 1993, 1996 — 1998)
- All-NBA Second Team (1985)
- NBA Defensive Player of the Year (1988)
- 9× NBA All-Defensive First Team (1988 — 1993, 1996 — 1998)
- NBA Rookie of the Year (1985)
The impact MJ has left on the game of basketball will forever be embedded in the history of the game. While watching and analyzing the ‘Maybe It’s My Fault” commercial, we can dissect how MJ uses enthymemes in order to convey a message to the basketball world.
MJ first begins by saying “Maybe it’s my fault. Maybe I lead you to believe it was easy, when it wasn’t”. Out the gate we see Jordan taking blame for possibly misleading fans and young basketball players; Alluding to how his dominance of the game may be perceived as effortless. But in contrast to his statement, the commercial displays a weight room and a workout plan. This first example explains to the audience that all his accolades wouldn’t be possible without his insane work ethic.
The second enthymeme MJ used revealed once he said, “Maybe I made you think that every shot I took was a game winner”. This refers to the infamous nature of Jordan to the game of basketball. Many fans, like myself, grew imitating MJ counting down 3 2 1 shoot! In there front yard pretending to hit game winners. But Jordan in this example expresses how many game winners he missed in his career.
Finally we hear MJ say, “Maybe I lead you to believe that basketball was a God given gift and not something I worked for”. Jordan expresses in this statement that the world perceived him as a prodigy, rather than someone who didn’t make varsity right away in high school.
