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Rebound: The Odyssey of Michael Jordan
The best-selling author of Hang Time describes the personal odyssey of Michael Jordan, including his intimate thoughts about his father's murder, his struggle for a success in professional baseball, and his dramatic return to the NBA. 500,000 first printing. Tour.
275 pages, Hardcover
First published February 11, 1995
13 people are currently reading
317 people want to read
About the author
Bob Greene
41 books52 followersRobert Bernard Greene, Jr., who writes as Bob Greene, is a journalist.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
April 14, 2013
I chose this book, because for some time, I have been a fan of Michael Jordan. Although I was not fortunate enough to grow up while he was playing, I have still been captivated by his highlights, and the legacy that he created. This biography by Bob Greene follows Jordan after his father's death, and shows his journey through sports and life.
Obviously, the protagonist of this story is Michael Jordan, but at the same time he is the antagonist. Jordan's biggest enemy in life was himself. With that being said, the conflict in this story is man vs. himself. After the death of his father, Jordan had to dig deep inside to put every accomplishment he had ever made into perspective. Jordan had just won three championships in a row, but the loss of his father made him wonder what was more important in life. The theme of this book, is that people can overcome adversity. Jordan overcame the loss of his father by going on to win three more championships, even after a short stint in baseball.
I would recommend this book to anyone that is a fan of Michael Jordan. Bob Greene does a great job of telling Jordan's highs and lows throughout his career. Whether it was a night where he put up career statistics, or a sleepless night with wondering thoughts, Greene captures it all. This book really gave me a whole new view of Jordan. Most people only know him as the basketball icon, but this book shows him in a whole new light. For the first time people get a chance to see Jordan's emotional side.
Obviously, the protagonist of this story is Michael Jordan, but at the same time he is the antagonist. Jordan's biggest enemy in life was himself. With that being said, the conflict in this story is man vs. himself. After the death of his father, Jordan had to dig deep inside to put every accomplishment he had ever made into perspective. Jordan had just won three championships in a row, but the loss of his father made him wonder what was more important in life. The theme of this book, is that people can overcome adversity. Jordan overcame the loss of his father by going on to win three more championships, even after a short stint in baseball.
I would recommend this book to anyone that is a fan of Michael Jordan. Bob Greene does a great job of telling Jordan's highs and lows throughout his career. Whether it was a night where he put up career statistics, or a sleepless night with wondering thoughts, Greene captures it all. This book really gave me a whole new view of Jordan. Most people only know him as the basketball icon, but this book shows him in a whole new light. For the first time people get a chance to see Jordan's emotional side.
March 13, 2014
If you were the best at what you do, maybe the best there ever was, would you walk away from being a god and choose a different stage where you put your weaknesses on daily display for the world to behold and judge? What crisis in your life would demand such atonement? Once a god becomes a mortal, can godhead ever be reclaimed? Would you prefer to run forever or is it enough to feel the earth beneath your feet? In "Rebound: the Odyssey of Michael Jordan," Bob Greene examines the psychology of Michael Jordan in the wake of the murder of his father as Jordan pursued the father/son baseball dream and then returned to the arena of his glory to see if he still commanded the stuff of legend.
December 10, 2019
Rebound is a great biography of Michael Jordan that talks about his life in deep depth. One of the main periods of time it talked it about was when he retired from the NBA because of his father's murder. With time off, he tried to mourn his father's death and really contemplate what life was really about. The book then goes to his short stint in the MLB and how he realizes that the society's perception of happiness is nothing like his perception of his happiness. After this, he returns to the NBA and feels like his dad would be proud of him because he is doing what he loves and is truly happy.
This book and his life represented a very important theme. This theme was true happiness and how materialistic things can never give you true and everlasting happiness. For example, Jordan had won plenty of awards and rings and was considered the best basketball player in the world, but he didn't feel truly happy, until he did what he felt like was right. He did this by taking a break from basketball and considering what life was really about, mourning his father's death, and trying something new. In conclusion, this book is very well-written and contains lots of inspiration, which is why I highly recommend it.
This book and his life represented a very important theme. This theme was true happiness and how materialistic things can never give you true and everlasting happiness. For example, Jordan had won plenty of awards and rings and was considered the best basketball player in the world, but he didn't feel truly happy, until he did what he felt like was right. He did this by taking a break from basketball and considering what life was really about, mourning his father's death, and trying something new. In conclusion, this book is very well-written and contains lots of inspiration, which is why I highly recommend it.
August 21, 2018
I really enjoyed this book. It takes you into the personal side of a superstar, thru his baseball career and then his return to basketball. It’s always interesting to learn about the person beyond the games and stats. It feels good to know that someone of Jordan’s stature and accomplishments, experiences worry, doubt, and anxiety like the rest of us.
July 4, 2024
Not a new book but fascinating. Covers the time after Michael Jordan’s father was murdered when MJ decided to quit basketball and try to become a baseball player. I lived through all that and his eventual decision to rejoin the Bulls. Factual but with a lot of psychological analysis of the reasons and feelings behind this time in Jordan’s life. Interesting reading.
June 17, 2018
Understand the mind of the GOAT. Bob Greene writes what Jordan is thinking. You will read the story of his life and what was behind the decisions he took.
July 15, 2018
Good book. Very insightful. Greene gets a little too poetic and contemplative with his prose for his own good, but an easy, quick read nonetheless.
February 24, 2025
It's mostly about Jordan's baseball career attempt.
March 1, 2015
When a writer first puts his pen to paper, there are a number of things that are being sought. More than anything else, a writer wrestles with how to take something as complex as reality and reduce it into little, black, written letters printed on paper. The writer wants to do this in such a way that the reader, when it is taken in, will use mental powers of the imagination, filter it, and then represent it within so that the original reality comes back alive. In this book, Bob Greene has done just that. The thing that makes Greene's book most interesting, is that he met Jordan due to circumstances that were not really related to basketball. He himself is not particularly a sports fan. But, what I will put forth is that Bob Greene is an artist, who upon, getting to know Michael Jordan, saw the beautiful artistry within his work. Bob Greene intuited that he was in the midst of something that happens perhaps once every century or so. He wanted to drink in that experience. He says as much in his comparisons of Jordan to Babe Ruth. This is the second that Greene has undertaken with Jordan, the first being “Hang Time.” This book picks up with Jordan considering coming back to basketball after his initial retirement. Jordan was playing baseball, but it looked like there might be a players' strike, and Jordan didn't want to get caught up in a position where he might have been seen as being against the players. There is a scene of Jordan playing basketball against B.J. Armstrong in a business suit, “just trying to see if he still had it.” There were fans along the way in his drive in Chicago, who would see him and encourage him to come back. Like the first book, Greene says that he is much more fascinated with the Jordan behind a closed door, talking about Life, than he is with the basketball player. The personal friendship between the two men is what gives this book its charm and appeal. Greene is a sensitive writer and details this story excellently. There is another book, by another writer, that complements the two by Bob Greene. In Thomas D. Rush's “Reality's Pen: Reflections On Family, History & Culture,” you will find an enticing view of Michael Jordan on page 230 in a piece called “Showing His Ass.” It's a rich story of what Jordan means. The account is special, in part, because Rush shares three common attributes with Jordan, 1) They both are products of North Carolina African-American parents of the same generation, 2) They both grow up in the same generation 3) They both live in Chicago at the time of the story. The Jordan story is just one of the many rich stories within the book, combining with Bob Greene's work to give a very special vision of an extraordinary athlete.
January 6, 2014
Rebound: The Odyssey Of Michael Jordan by Bob Greene, year 1995, pages 275.
Personaly I think this book could be for anybody. There is not just one big main problem in this book but in this it talks about Michael Jordans trials on and off the court throughout his life. The setting is mainly where most of NBA carreer was in Chicago but it takes place in other little spots too. The setting in this book I dont think could be changed or else everything would be different considering it is a true life story about Michael. Michael Jordan is the main character in this book. Many would agree that he is the best basketball player to ever play if not one of the best athletes ever. They express his darkest times and his ways of becoming stronger from those times and working around them(Fathers Murder).
In this book it talks about the superstar nearly everybody has heard of one time or another. He is know for his role as perhaps the best basketball player to ever play and one of the best athletes this world has ever had. Most people know him for the numbers he put up during his career on the court but do we really know him and what his life is really like. In this book in goes into on and off court coverage of Michael Jordan. It tells about some of his darkest times and hardest times of not making the varsity basketball team to his father death that really shook himself on and off the court. This caused him to retire from the game and persue his dads dream of becoming a major league baseball player. He later returned to the game of basketball. These challenges I read about him personaly showed me how he came back and not only became stronger on the court but as a person. They told ways he overcame his trials.
I liked the book because it told me about the superstar off of the court.The quotes I liked from the book are "The basketball court for me, during a game is the most peaceful place I can imagine." and "I have failed over and over agin in my life...that is why I succeed". I think those two quotes really show the man he was and the motivation he had for himself to help hime be stronger and not afraid of those hard times in his life. The theme for this book I think is when lifes hardest times hit you hard to the ground, get up and be stronger. I think this book could be recommended to anybody. It tells about what people may already know about him but also about the man off of the court. Overall I think his reciliance, hard work, and stength to come back after hard times really made him one of the best if not THE BEST to ever play the game.
Personaly I think this book could be for anybody. There is not just one big main problem in this book but in this it talks about Michael Jordans trials on and off the court throughout his life. The setting is mainly where most of NBA carreer was in Chicago but it takes place in other little spots too. The setting in this book I dont think could be changed or else everything would be different considering it is a true life story about Michael. Michael Jordan is the main character in this book. Many would agree that he is the best basketball player to ever play if not one of the best athletes ever. They express his darkest times and his ways of becoming stronger from those times and working around them(Fathers Murder).
In this book it talks about the superstar nearly everybody has heard of one time or another. He is know for his role as perhaps the best basketball player to ever play and one of the best athletes this world has ever had. Most people know him for the numbers he put up during his career on the court but do we really know him and what his life is really like. In this book in goes into on and off court coverage of Michael Jordan. It tells about some of his darkest times and hardest times of not making the varsity basketball team to his father death that really shook himself on and off the court. This caused him to retire from the game and persue his dads dream of becoming a major league baseball player. He later returned to the game of basketball. These challenges I read about him personaly showed me how he came back and not only became stronger on the court but as a person. They told ways he overcame his trials.
I liked the book because it told me about the superstar off of the court.The quotes I liked from the book are "The basketball court for me, during a game is the most peaceful place I can imagine." and "I have failed over and over agin in my life...that is why I succeed". I think those two quotes really show the man he was and the motivation he had for himself to help hime be stronger and not afraid of those hard times in his life. The theme for this book I think is when lifes hardest times hit you hard to the ground, get up and be stronger. I think this book could be recommended to anybody. It tells about what people may already know about him but also about the man off of the court. Overall I think his reciliance, hard work, and stength to come back after hard times really made him one of the best if not THE BEST to ever play the game.
October 8, 2010
Rebound: The Odyssey of Michael Jordan
This book is about how Michael Jordan switched from Basketball to Baseball when his father was murdered. It was his fathers dream to have Michael to play in the major leagues. The main characters are Michael Jordan, and Author and Narrator Bob Greene. Bob Greene is a really good author and does well when writing about Michael Jordan. This was a really good book to read.
This book was sweet because it was about the best NBA player of all time, Michael Jordan. I liked that it told about how he did in baseball because I never really knew his stats or how well he played baseball. You have to be in an awake mood to read this book or you might fall asleep. There’s no way to make this book better because it’s already good book.
This book taught me that you can switch from one major sport to another and do well at both of them you should. You shouldn’t care what other people think if you like what your doing do it. Just play hard and then they will see that you are actually good at that sport. You can do whatever you want if you put your mind to it.
This book is about how Michael Jordan switched from Basketball to Baseball when his father was murdered. It was his fathers dream to have Michael to play in the major leagues. The main characters are Michael Jordan, and Author and Narrator Bob Greene. Bob Greene is a really good author and does well when writing about Michael Jordan. This was a really good book to read.
This book was sweet because it was about the best NBA player of all time, Michael Jordan. I liked that it told about how he did in baseball because I never really knew his stats or how well he played baseball. You have to be in an awake mood to read this book or you might fall asleep. There’s no way to make this book better because it’s already good book.
This book taught me that you can switch from one major sport to another and do well at both of them you should. You shouldn’t care what other people think if you like what your doing do it. Just play hard and then they will see that you are actually good at that sport. You can do whatever you want if you put your mind to it.
February 22, 2016
This is a book about Jordan's life that everyone can get involved in and can relate to the struggles that he is going through in life. This book really hits home for because it talks about Jordan and the death of this father and how he was emotionally impacted from a loved on passing away. This reminds me of my grandpa and me because what Jordan had everyone has a loved one that they never want to lose and that for me was my grandpa. Jordan life after the passing was just terrible and and he didn't know what to do to fix it and always thought it was his fault for not spending enough time with his father but just couldn't find a way that helped him. This is something that everyone in the world goes through and this book is just amazing because how they show that the life that Michael had after his father was gone was just heart touching.
January 24, 2016
Rebound is a much more than a sports book. Thus is a story that leads you on a path with one of the greatest sports icons that while grieving the loss of his father tries to fill that void by fulfilling a childhood dream. While he almost does it and falls short many times, he also never gives up and ultimately finds his way back to where he wants to be. Michael Jordan is portrayed as the example of how not to ever give up, and to always move forward. Bob Greene has constructed a book that lets you see and feel everything that is going on in the life of Michael during his short life a baseball player with crystal clarity. Highly recommended.
February 14, 2012
The book i'm reading is the rebound. The book is amazing so far i'm in 83 pages in the book. The book is about Michael Jordan growing up with no father and how he has to grow up with no dad and be one of the best basketball starts/ athletes. Michael Jordan dad. Michael dad was killed and thrown in a swamp in south Carolina in 1993. Michael was hard growing up getting bullied by friends and because of his skin color. (black). Michael also played baseball in 1993 when his dad died that was a hard time for us.
Currently reading
November 6, 2009I have just started reading this book and so far it's going splendid. It is interesting to see that Michael Jordan is a lot different then just the guy on the court. This book shows what Michael was going through with fame and during his period of being retired. Rebound is a book for everyone, from fans to the parents of the fans. I recommend this book to everyone, you will enjoy seeing that not all athletes are what they are seen to be.
November 29, 2016
A mini-biography about Jordan's years between his retirement from basketball the first time and the filming of Space Jam. This includes the entire baseball episode, which was very interesting. The author did have a relationship with Jordan, so there is a bit of personal introspection, but not enough in my opinion.
June 17, 2021
I enjoyed this book however it was the same in terms of MJ's years of basketball into baseball and back into basketball that Sam Smith wrote about in his book. Overall, good book. I believe Sam Smith had better insight as he probably had closer sources as well as being close to MJ. any basketball fan would like this book.
July 10, 2012
Better than most Jordan books, probably because it's about him, but not by him. Still, off the basketball court he is, at best, intensely boring; at worst, painfully annoying. We get it, you're competitive.
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October 1, 2008Best book ever
March 11, 2013
Really did not entertain me...if you expect a book about michaels sports life do not even begin to read unless you want to fall asleep....certified sleep aid guaranteed
Currently reading
February 10, 2014I read to page three. It talked about Michael Jordan's reaction to seeing himself on the tv after he retired.
January 29, 2015
The book was very interesting as you learn a lot about MJ and his life. Why he retired to go play basketball, and why he came back. I really loved it because he is one of my favorite players.
January 19, 2017
Very good book which looks beyond Jordan's athletic abilities and into the odd life he has because of his celebrity. Non-athletic interested persons will enjoy this book!
August 4, 2025
While this was an interesting read (focusing on Jordan's retirement years in baseball and return to basketball), was not as good as "Hang Time" that Greene wrote prior.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews