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Michael Jordan was probably the most popular person on planet Earth besides Michael Jackson. He was/still is loved

We loved him

Naaaah..... everyone "wanted to be like Mike" just for the hell of it

One of my earliest basketball memories is watching Jordan demolish the Sonics in the finals. So no, I did not love him.

He's the most popular player of all time. There were haters early on who said all he was a ball hog but by the end of his career pretty much only Utah and NYK hated him.

imagine how much the crazies love trump, it was that x 1m. It would be like if Taylor Swift and Beyonce toured together.

Liked & loved until he finally got past Detroit. If you were a general basketball fan, you continued to like/love him. Once he started dominating championships, and you were a fan of a team in his way, you were terrified of him.

Though the "Be like Mike" thing was very real and every kid was trying their best to dunk from the freethrow line, it wasn't the same kind of love that Curry gets today.

For real OP it can not be overstated how loved and popular mike was on a global level. There is a reason he was the guy for Space Jam. For some anecdotal evidence. Both my wife and I had actual MJ shrines in our bedrooms as teens. We are from Vancouver Island in canada. MJ and Steve Nash and then Vince Carter made the popularity of the game explode up here.

We all loved him. Everyone understood that he was the best player in the world. We weren’t mad. We just accepted that we were all fans, no matter where we were from.

Except Pistons fans.

Are you kidding me? He was a global superstar

I hated him as a kid because he was so dominant and I was sick of him winning all the time. But he was probably the most iconic global athlete since Pele, took the NBA to a whole new level

Dude was the most beloved athlete internationally of all time IMO. He transcended basketball and opened the door for modern day athletes in all sports to build their own personal brands. Obviously he got a ton of cushy media coverage and came up in the perfect era (no social media).

Feared.

You didn't like players that weren't on your team.

Dude was huge in the 90’s. He put on the biggest show in the 90’s with the variety of things he would do in games on all ends of the floor. Popular pretty much everywhere. Basketball camps would teach how to shoot fade-aways like him.

I did not live where there were fans that were bitter about him destroying their teams though, so I’m sure he did have some negative reception some places. (Mostly Detroit and Utah)

I was at the point where I was almost bored with how good he was and liked to see him lose. I am guessing like how some people see Lebron now.

Beyond comparable to any other American sports star but maybe Tiger Woods and even then MJ outpaces him quite a bit.

The man was well known to people who had never even heard of the sport.

Everyone wanted a Michael Jordan White Sox jersey.

Sometimes I dream That he is me You've got to see that's how I dream to be I dream I move, I dream I groove Like Mike If I could Be Like Mike Like Mike Oh, if I could Be Like Mike Be Like Mike, Be Like Mike Again I try Just need to fly For just one day if I could Be that way I dream I move I dream I groove Like Mike If I could Be Like Mike I wanna be, I wanna be Like Mike Oh, if I could Be Like Mike

I liked the pistons then. You can probably guess how I felt about Jordan

Everybody I knew growing up loved MJ. It wasn’t just the winning, he had an aura about him that made you want to root for him. His passion for the game was intoxicating. It’s hard to explain If you weren’t there to witness it, but yeah, he was definitely loved by fans.

Absolutely, NBA on NBC and Jordan. What a combo.

Silly question...

Watch "The Last Dance" when he's getting out of his hotel to get on the bus and you'll see what insanely popular means.

As a person that watched Jordan win a National championship in college. As fans we loved and hated Jordan at the same time; because he was better than EVERY player on our hometown teams and he got the best whistle in the history of the NBA when he was already arguably the best offensive and defensive player in the league and the most athletic.

But no matter how you felt about Jordan you appreciated his game, style, talent and skill and RESPECTED and FEARED him as player, competitor and opponent.

I'm a Pistons and Jazz fan -- couldn't stand him. But he is the GOAT and I have a lot more appreciation for what he was these days.

As a fan if the Dream back in the day,evryone tries to be Mike

Think of it this way, Jordan was so popular he retired and got to play in the minor leagues of another professional sport based purely on the fact that he was so beloved.

The moment he showed up in the minor leagues, he was popular with everyone else including the other teams because now their games would have more attendance.

There was some resentment by hardcore baseball fans because he “took a spot” from someone, but he did more for attendance and interest in a minor league team than probably any other minor leaguer ever.

Also, ESPN was hitting its stride in the 80s, we got to see highlights for basically his whole career, which can’t be said for a lot of earlier stars. He became a star at the right moment and had all the talent to back it up.

Not Pistons fans. Everyone else? Yes.

I was born in '81, so I was just old enough to HATE MJ for ending the Pistons' run.
I can tell you it was very lonely hating the Jordan and the Bulls for all of the '90's.

Basketball fans? EVERYBODY loved MJ.

That Buddhist tea-farmer grandma on top of a mountain in Sri Lanka without any contact with the exterior world? Yeah, she wanted to be like Mike too.

At one point, at the same time, both MJ's were the most famous and loved humans on earth.