https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/29035071/why-michael-jordan-scoring-prowess-touched
In an effort to decompress from the nonstop coverage of COVID-19, I decided to look at a multimedia piece that I would personally enjoy. One of my favorite hobbies, past times, and overall passions in life is basketball. I picked it up in high school and it has since grown into a full blown love for the game and the history behind it. Being born in 1997, I was not alive to witness Michael Jordan’s historic run throughout the 1990’s with his Chicago Bulls. Thankfully, in a few days there is a documentary series coming out on ESPN titled “The Last Dance” that takes an up close and personal look at the year Jordan led the Bulls to win his 6th and final championship.
Leading up to the release, ESPN has released several promotional articles, videos, and all kinds of post across their social media channels regarding the documentary and Michael Jordan himself. The multimedia package I decided to look at was titled “Why Michael Jordan’s scoring prowess still can’t be touched”. This package is effective because it is accompanied by so many different forms of media. It includes graphics that detail Jordan’s shots on the floor, videos that show how he scored along with animated bar graphs, and most importantly the article itself, which details how Jordan’s game evolved.
There are charts ranging from an old 90’s graphic that NBC pioneered, showing Jordan’s makes and misses from a playoff game against the Washington Bullets. This graphic is accompanied by a modern shot chart that showcases Jordan’s career field goal percentage from certain areas of the floor. These charts help paint a clearer picture of where Jordan was most efficient and the frequency of different types of shots. The use of analytics, which has taken a firm place in today’s game, is also used to further strengthen the data shown by the old graphic from NBC.
The video is easy to understand. It shows Jordan putting on dominating performances and scoring over defenders with ease. By watching, it becomes easy to understand how good he was and how much he was able to score. The highlights serve as a simple ‘eye test’ that shows his impressive ability. There are also animated bar graphs that show how Jordan was able to make more shots at a higher percentage than the rest of his NBA peers.
The article helps because it uses a variety of sources to back up his nostalgic dominance. Data and number crunching were not popular back in the 90’s, and have only become prominent over the past decade. However, this article applies some of these analytics to accurately compare Jordan to his peers at the time. Also, there are quotes from people who worked closely with Jordan, including Chicago Bulls head coach Phil Jackson. He says “The weakest part of Michael’s game on the offensive end was his shooting, so he obviously mastered something that everybody said he couldn’t do when he came out of college. And he did it by shooting, shooting, shooting, shooting consistently” (ESPN).
Overall, the multimedia components were able to grab, and more importantly maintain, my attention because they were easy to understand and they were visually appealing to look at. The shot charts and the field goal percentage bar graphs looked clean and effectively showcased the data. The videos were remastered, and contained several clips rather than one long dragged out footage. The article used paragraphs instead of blocks, and highlighted key points. All of these factors helped make this piece as effective and entertaining as it was.
Cardona's Corner 