Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 14, 1992 TAG: 9201140043
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
JORDAN TOP MALE ATHLETE
In leading the Chicago Bulls to the NBA championship last season and being chosen league and playoff most valuable player, Michael Jordan had the kind of year about which most athletes can only dream.The recognition he won as arguably the most dominant force in basketball during his seven seasons in the NBA became official with the awards. On Monday, Jordan added another jewel to his crown, being selected as The Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year for 1991.
"My God, athlete of the year," Jordan said when contacted in Deerfield, Ill., where the Bulls practice. "I've had lots of awards, but when it comes from writers and the media, it's special."
He said he was truly stunned.
"I never expected it," he said. "I'm very surprised since I thought all the awards had been handed out. And, I don't take the award lightly.
"I've had lots of honors over the years, and every one is very special to me."
Bulls coach Phil Jackson said those words fit Jordan perfectly.
"There are a lot of things that make Michael very special . . . " Jackson said, adding that he also was happy for the recognition it brings the NBA.
"The AP Athlete of the Year Award comes on the heels of the Sports Illustrated Award, but it has to be an honor he has to be very proud of," Jackson said of Jordan. "For whatever reason, and I don't know what it is, the NBA does not get too many of these kinds of awards."
Jordan is only the second basketball player to win in the 61-year history of the award. Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics was AP Male Athlete of the Year in 1986.
Jordan, 28, who rose to prominence when he made the basket that gave North Carolina the 1982 NCAA title, was an easy winner. He got 46 of 122 first-place votes.
AP-member sportswriters and broadcasters were asked to vote for three athletes, with a first-place vote worth five points, second three and third one. Jordan, the only player ever to win the NBA's top three awards in the same season, compiled 348 points to 134 for long jumper Mike Powell and 80 for six-time Olympic gold medalist and two-time AP Male Athlete of the Year Carl Lewis.
Powell, who broke Bob Beamon's 23-year-old world long jump record by leaping 29 feet, 4 1/2 inches at the World Championships, received 22 first-place votes. Lewis, whose 10-year, 65-meet streak was broken by Powell, offset that in the World Championships at Tokyo last August by beating Leroy Burrell and breaking his world record for the 100-meter dash with a clocking of 9.86 seconds. Lewis got eight first-place votes.
Jordan, a 6-foot-6, 198-pound guard from Wilmington, North Carolina, led the league in scoring for the fifth straight season with a 31.5 average. He also made the All-NBA team for the fifth straight season and its all-defense team for the fourth year in a row.