Sep
28
9-28-1991: Michael Jordan Hosts Saturday Night Live
Sixteen years ago on this day, a fundamentally-sound team of white players was integrated with the first black Harlem Globetrotter, Schmitt’s Gay Beer was introduced to the world, and the Super Fans met one of their biggest idols, besides Ditka of course.
Some three months after winning his first of what would eventually be six NBA championships, Michael Jordan hosted Saturday Night Live. Just as Jordan was in his prime after the Bulls defeated the Los Angeles Lakers in five games in the 1991 NBA Finals, so was SNL.
Featuring a talented mix of veterans Phil Hartman, Dana Carvey, Victoria Jackson, Al Franken and Kevin Nealon and rowdy newcomers Chris Farley, Adam Sandler and Michael Myers, SNL was relevant in the early nineties, unlike its sorry existence nowadays.
Jordan’s performance on SNL was nothing spectacular like Peyton Manning’s recent showing on the show but was certainly nothing to be embarrassed about. Jordan showed his awe-shucks charm in a classic skit detailing the story of the first African American Harlem Globetrotter. Paralleling The Jackie Robinson Story, Jordan struggled to find acceptance on a Globetrotter team full of white guys like Nealon, Carvey and Myers, who all specialized in the set bounce pass, two-handed chest pass and low scoring victories.
Just as Jordan would prove in real life to be ahead of his time in the NBA, his character in the skit was ahead of the Globetrotters. The skit featured memorable scenes of Jordan’s character dunking at will as the scoreboard exploded in favor of the Globetrotters and his white teammates displayed their anger in the background and in the locker room.
Eventually, the pressure and lack of acceptance from his teammates got to Jordan’s character, culminating in a scene in which he is consoled by his sister, played by Ellen Cleghorne, and Phil Hartman, the Globetrotters owner who appears out of nowhere in a robe in Jordan’s apartment and is hilariously sleeping with Cleghorne’s character.
At this point in his career, Jordan was a household name and superstar; however, he was close but not yet the transcendent figure that he is today. Jordan’s appearance on SNL was one of the last glimpses of Jordan on the verge of becoming a cultural icon as opposed to just being the best player in the NBA.
With that said, Cleveland Cavaliers star Lebron James will host the season-opener of SNL this weekend. While James has been compared to Jordan ever since he was a once-in-a-lifetime high school basketball player, this appearance is eerily parallel to Jordan’s career.
Unfortunately for James, he is some three-plus months removed from an ugly and embarrassing series loss to the San Antonio Spurs in the brutal 2007 NBA Finals. As if it wasn’t apparent enough in that series that James is nowhere near the competitor or player as Jordan on the court, his performance on SNL will ultimately reveal that he’s nowhere near the cultural icon as the greatest player in the history of the game and that he never will be, despite all the hype.
by Chris Maynard, chris@hoops4thesoul.com
Share and Enjoy
These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
Related Posts
Comments
