'National Michael Day' Returned My Heroes To Me

CLEVELAND - Whenever I become a fan of someone or something, that relationship lasts forever and becomes ultra-intense. Michael Jackson and Michael Jordan are both all-time treasures of mine, and after long hiatuses from their brilliant craft, they both returned to me 8 years ago today.

I called it, "National Michael Day."

It was October 30, 2001, just seven weeks after the horrific attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon that both of these legendary men returned to their public. In Jackson's case, he'd gone six years without releasing an album, and 10 years without releasing a complete album of new material. Dangerous, his 1991 opus was the last original work he'd released. 1995's HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I was a double disc set that featured an entire disc of his greatest hits. But on this day in 2001, his 10th solo album, Invincible hit stores. It received many negative reviews from critics, but it was a very good album in my opinion. Of course, many would call me biased, but this may help that perception; I felt that it was a bit uneven and loaded most of its best songs on the first half. I rarely even listened to the second half.

Jackson, at the time 43 crafted more soothing and sonically brilliant ballads on that album than anything he'd done since 1979's Off the Wall. He had an updated sound on the album, and sounded very confident of his still incredible abilities as a world-class musician. The record's lead single, "You Rock My World" had been my favorite track since it hit radio the previous month. To me at that time, it was just refreshing to have the reclusive icon back in the saddle after so many years away.

The same can be said about Jordan.

Basketball hero turned exalted deity, Jordan played the first non-Chicago Bull game of his NBA career on this night. After a masterpiece finish to his career in June 1998, Jordan retired seven months later. A year after that, he became President of Basketball Operations for the lowly and clueless Washington Wizards much to my bewilderment. Beginning in March 2001, tantalizing reports of his possible return to pro hoops began surfacing in the media. They were soon confirmed and on September 10, 2001, MJ made the official announcement of his utterly shocking decision to play for those same horrible Wizards. Needless to say, I was both delighted and disgusted that he'd willfully "taint" his luminous legacy, especially at a very ripe 38 years of age.

Jordan's Wizards opened the season that October 30th night in a matchup with the New York Knicks. Since the game was played a short distance from where the World Trade Center's destroyed remains still smoldered, Jordan visited Ground Zero and paid tribute to the thousands who lost their lives. He soon announced that he planned to donate his entire $1 million salary that he was to receive for playing the 2001-02 season to the WTC charity.

Many don't realize it, but Jordan was born in Brooklyn, NY.

In the game, Michael looked woefully out of sorts. Even though he hadn't played in a very long three and a half years, us fans expected his trademark aerial artistry to rear its beautiful head. It didn't. He scored just 19 points on 7-of-21 shooting, but his floor game was outstanding. He contributed 5 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 steals in 37 exhausting minutes. The talk of the night wound up being his miss of a three-pointer with 18 seconds left that could've led to a win. Instead, the Knicks rode Latrell Sprewell's 28 points to a 93-91 victory.

Even though Michael Jackson didn't returned to his accustomed heights with Invincible, it was still an incredible joy to have the man back on the radio with new material. And even though Michael Jordan was past his sizzling prime of basketball dominance, it was beautiful to watch him perform his occasional magic and have a vintage performance of unstoppable precision. Even when he was less than stellar and his team was suckish, Jordan was a marvel to witness. You could see the raging inferno of intensity and drive in his eyes.

"National Michael Day" may have been an unofficial holiday, but for me that day will forever represent pure genius and another chance to fall in love again.

Twice.