![]() Josh Rosenfeld became the NBA's first director of international public relations in 1990, and the fax was an effective way to manage the time differences among all his contacts. It was also a perfect tool for the league's burgeoning global aspirations. "The fax carried us for a long time," said Brian McIntyre, former director of the NBA's communications department. The voracious appetite for statistics and information made faxes a natural fit for the sports world, and they became the preferred method for internal and external communication. While the ability to transmit images and words through communication lines dates back to the middle of the 19th century, it was the combination of industry standards and desktop machines in the 1980s that made faxing prevalent. So Jordan grabbed a piece of paper and wrote the two words that captured everything he wanted to say: "I'm back." "He didn't like the feel of them," Falk said. Falk wrote a couple versions of a news release and gave them to Jordan for his consideration. Rumors had been swirling about Jordan ending his 17-month retirement since he had begun practicing with the Chicago Bulls earlier in the month. The fastest possible way to widely disseminate information was to send a fax. They didn't have full access to the World Wide Web until May 1995. AOL had just reached the 1.5 million subscriber mark in December 1994, and even those users were restricted to AOL's online domain. ![]() The most popular way to access the Internet at the time was installing America Online software via floppy disk, then using a dial-up modem. The closest thing to social media was three-way calling. That meant even those who had fax machines were unlikely to have access to them on a Saturday, which was when March 18 fell in 1995. The term "dot-com" wasn't widely known yet. "It was a sign of the times," Jordan's agent, David Falk, recalled.Įmail was still an auxiliary, almost luxurious means of communication, something available in the office at best. When Michael Jordan announced his return to basketball 25 years ago today, he did so in a manner that was very much 25 years ago. This story was originally published Mafor the 20th anniversary of Michael Jordan's 1995 comeback to the Chicago Bulls. ![]() Michael Jordan's famous 'I'm back' fax, 25 years later You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browser ![]()
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