He wrote the book on Michael Jordan’s cultural influence

Adam Bradley was with his daughters at Legoland this summer when he noticed a familiar image on the shoes, clothing and even tattoos of many people across age, race and gender lines: Nike's Jumpman logo, the silhouetted representation of NBA Hall of Famer Michael Jordan leaping through the air, legs splayed wide, a basketball in one hand extended upward.

Bradley, a UCLA professor of English and African American studies, had just completed work on a coffee table book called "Air Jordan," which explores the superstar's life, legacy and cultural influence. Jordan is still thought by many to be the greatest basketball player of all time, but his athletic exploits alone don't explain his continued status as a cultural icon. That consumers still gravitate toward a decades-old logo inspired by an athlete who played his last professional game 23 years ago, Bradley says, demonstrates Jordan's unique and enduring impact.

"The defining difference of Michael Jordan is that he's one of the last remaining figures of the monoculture," Bradley said. At the time of his 1990s athletic apex, before the internet and social media splintered global attention, Jordan achieved a level of worldwide fame that now seems almost unattainable. "He emerged at a time in which it was unheard of for a Black American public figure to be the face of major advertising campaigns. He presented himself unabashedly, without compromise, as who he was - yet he was also universal."

In addition to photographs of Jordan throughout his life and career, "Air Jordan" features insights from designers, teammates and friends, and images of previously unseen objects from Jordan's personal archives. "It's not a book about basketball," Bradley said. "It's almost like a shadow biography of Michael Jordan, told through these images and the words that I was able to write addressing those images."

Read the full story at the UCLA Humanities website.