The positive identification immediately created more questions than answers-questions that will occupy local police and FBI investigators for weeks to come. But clearly the most haunting question was whether Jordan was killed because he was the father of America’s most famous athlete, “Your mind can run as rampant as mine,” county coroner Tim Brown told reporters. The possibilities were endless. Was this just another random act of violence? Could the murder somehow have been connected to either the father’s or the son’s wellknown taste for gambling? The FBI was treating the case as a possible kidnapping and homicide because of the distance between where the body and the car were found. “This gives us a reasonable presumption he was taken against his will,” said Thomas Lusby, an FBI agent in North Carolina. However, Lusby conceded that there were virtually no clues or leads. “There aren’t any witnesses coming forth,” he said. “We’ve got to turn over every rock we can.”
Michael Jordan, who had been vacationing in California, flew into Charlotte Friday afternoon on a private jet and went into seclusion with his family. His father had last been seen on July 22 when he attended the funeral of a family friend. On July 26, James Jordan telephoned his office at JVL Enterprises, a clothing factory he ran in Rock Hill, S.C. Then he disappeared. A week later a fisherman found his badly decomposed body snagged on some cypress branches, stripped of identification and jewelry by his assailant and of recognizable features by the relentless Carolina sun. “I couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman,” said Hal Locklear, who discovered the body. “I thought it was a mannequin.”
Though the elder Jordan’s family had not seen or heard from him in three weeks, including his 57th birthday, no one filed a missing-persons report. Relatives said it was not unusual for him to take off for days. One likely reason is that while there has never been a formal separation, sources indicate that Jordan and his wife, Deloris, have lived apart for a couple of years. Still, he and Michael had the closest of relationships. “Everybody called me Michael’s best friend at school,” said Buzz Peterson, his roommate at the University of North Carolina. “Michael’s best friend was James Jordan.”
That didn’t change much after Michael left college. The elder Jordan was a familiar figure in NBA arenas, adoring the celebrity his son has come to disdain. He took letters he promised to deliver to Michael, kissed pretty young women and hugged everyone else. On the Chicago Bulls, he was far more than a tag-along parent, but rather the team’s unofficial father–“Pops"to Michael’s close friends. Michael delighted in turning on his father about how no one else in the family topped six feet. “Mom,” he’d say with his dad in earshot. “How tall was the milkman?” In truth, the two had become something more than father and son. They were running buddies. When Michael took heat in June for a trip to an Atlantic City casino on the eve of a playoff game, Pops piped up that Michael was only keeping him company.
The past year should have been one of unsurpassed joy for Michael Jordan. Last summer he led the Dream Team to glory in Barcelona, then this summer the Bulls to a historic third straight National Basketball Association championship. He has become even more than a superstar, something akin to a superhero. But increasingly he has appeared unhappy and alienated. His reaction to reports of heavy gambling losses seemed defiant. His latest Nike ad, which features Jordan shooting hoops in an empty gym, suggests a heartfelt yearning for a simpler time. And there has been increased speculation about his retiring. Now the murder of his father and best friend threatens to transform Jordan into a tragic hero, plagued by painful questions that he may never be able to answer.
