Assuming that you do not read GQ magazine and might not remember the great Chicago sportswriter John Schulian (of the Daily News and the Sun-Times), I’d like to share some of Schulian’s words from the April GQ, much of which is devoted to “The Greatest Athlete of the Century”: Muhammad Ali.
Schulian, described by the magazine’s editor, Art Cooper, as “the best boxing writer of our time,” writes in a lovely piece that “only four men come close to matching (Ali’s) impact.”
They are Babe Ruth, Joe Louis, Jackie Robinson and local kid Michael Jordan, about whom Schulian writes, scathingly and quite provocatively, “No one ever played basketball better than he does, and he may even have surpassed Ali in terms of worldwide impact. But Jordan uses his clout to peddle sneakers and star in unwatchable movies with Bugs Bunny, leaving the very distinct impression that he has the social consciousness of a baked potato.”
