[2] His mother named her son after the Greek mythological character Adonis, a handsome young man who was fabled to be the love interest of the goddess Aphrodite.

[3] She worked as a secretary for an insurance company while her son spent his time playing pick-up street basketball on Brooklyn blacktop courts.

[2] However, Jordan's stay in New York was cut short when his mother suddenly decided to relocate to California in 1987 after a two-week visit to see relatives in the state.

[7] He completed his final high school season averaging 24.3 points and 13.4 assists per game,[3] leading the Cavaliers to a 23–3 record and to the quarterfinals of the City Section tournament[3] while earning back-to-back Valley 4-A All-League First Team recognition.

[11] With Pritchard's graduation, Jordan became the starting point guard for the 1990–91 season, leading the 27–8 Kansas Jayhawks to the Final Four during his sophomore year.

Two years later, senior Jordan and teammate Rex Walters helped lead the Jayhawks to further success when they captured the 1993 Big Eight Regular Season Championship and the second seed in the Midwest Region of the 1993 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament with a 25–6 record.

Though Kansas eventually finished at 29–7 with a loss to North Carolina in the Final Four, the team's outstanding performance that year earned the squad a top ten nationwide ranking during the regular season, including a brief time spent at number one.

Seattle ended up cutting the rookie at the start of the 1993–94 NBA season but Jordan reemerged in the league after being picked up by the Denver Nuggets later in the month on a 10-day contract.

His first stop landed him with the Australian National Basketball League's South East Melbourne Magic, where he led the team to an impressive record in 1994.

[21] Jordan appeared in the 1994 basketball film, Blue Chips as the starting point guard for a college team called Coast.