NBA – Ex of Jordan, the anti-MJ rule imposed by Juanita Vanoy on her sons: “I forbade them…
Before finding love with Yvette Prieto, Michael Jordan was married to Juanita Vanoy for 17 years. A marriage which gave rise to the birth of three children, including two boys whom the mother tried to keep away from their father’s shadow.
He who always dreamed of having many children can now be satisfied with his descendants. Father of three girls and two boys, Michael Jordan has not seen any of them follow in his footsteps on the court.
However, Jeffrey and Marcus took their chance and kept this dream alive for many years, even playing side by side in the ranks of the University of Central Florida:
THE SON(S) OF AN OMEGA MAN
MARCUS AND JEFFREY
LAST NAME: JORDANpic.twitter.com/4L5VvI66fv— Quentin Love (@QuentinLove12) September 6, 2019
The ban on Juanita Vanoy for the careers of her two sons
If they had anyone to look up to given their father’s pedigree, Jeffrey and Marcus Jordan never displayed a sufficient level to claim to join the NBA.
Their parents nevertheless always encouraged them to continue on this path… but under certain conditions. In an interview for Crain’s Chicago Business, their mother, Juanita Vanoy, reveals the rule she established from the start of their careers:
When my sons played basketball in middle school and high school, their coaches always wanted them to wear number 23 because that’s the number their dad wore.
But for me, it was important that they learned not to try to be their father at all costs. They needed to understand that they had to develop their strengths, work hard and overcome obstacles in their own way.
So, I forbade them to wear the number 23 and both of them very quickly understood and assimilated it.
When they happened to come in with that number on their jerseys, I would immediately tell them, “You shouldn’t wear that number because it’s your dad’s, and you need to assert yourself as athletes with your own identity and your own number.
Jeffrey and Marcus only wore their numbers 13 and 5 until the university circuit, before abandoning basketball to subsequently join the Jordan Brand organization chart.
Not sure therefore that the desire for dissociation from MJ advocated by their parent was respected until the end.
For Juanita Vanoy, it was simply not possible to imagine Jeffrey and Marcus Jordan also wearing the number 23 on the court. Those they recovered, however, did not remain engraved in posterity.
