Michael Jordan, a basketball player in whom commentators have discerned aristocratic qualities and supernatural powers, has retired from the game that made him one of the worlds' best known and best paid sportsmen.
Last week's announcement was premature by most people's measurement - Jordan is 30 and at the height of his playing and earning power - but it was not, by his own account, taken hastily, or rashly. "This is, " he said, with a rare stumble, " the perfect timing for me to walk away."
After three championships with the Chicago Bulls, a second gold medal with the US team at the 1992 Olympics, Jordan felt his motivation slipping away. "I'm at the pinnacle, " he told a thronged press conference. "I just feel I don't have anything else to prove."
But this explanation may appear too simple to satisfy the skeptics, who have recently discovered that Jordan does not lead an untroubled private life. First came the allegations that he gambled - in a country where gambling is mostly illegal - and that his gambling was out of control. Then his father was shot dead on July 23.
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邁克爾.喬丹，一位被評論家們譽爲有着貴族氣質和超凡才華的籃球運動員，已經從籃壇隱退，而正是籃球這項運動。使其成爲世界上最爲著名和報酬最爲豐厚的運動員之一。
依照大多數人的衡量標準，上週的宣佈顯得爲時過早，因爲喬丹剛年屆30，正處在其運動生涯和賺錢本領之顛峯。但按他自己的說法，他作出這一決定，既非一時衝動，亦非出於魯莽。"這於我而言--"他說道，帶着一種罕見的吞吞吐吐，"不啻是淡出體壇的絕佳時機。"
在隨芝加哥公牛隊贏取了三次冠軍，並隨美國隊在1992年奧運會上再奪金牌之後，喬丹覺得他的行爲動機正在悄然消逝。"我已攀至我事業的頂峯"，他在一個人滿爲患的記者招待會上告訴大家，"我真的'覺得我已經沒有什麼別的東西好去證明的了。"
但此番解釋對於那些持懷疑態度的人來說顯得過於簡單，無法令人置信。這些懷疑論調者最近發現，喬丹並非過着一種風平浪靜的個人生活。首先傳出的是他進行賭博的傳言--在一個賭博很大程度上爲非法的國家裏，並且，他的賭博已到了無法收拾的地步。其次是他的父親於7月23日被人槍殺身亡。
