A Financial Supernova in Sneakers Jordan Alters Landscape in Sports Marketing

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Byline: Mark Alesia Daily Herald Sports Feature Writer

Basketball isn't enough anymore. Michael Jordan wins all the time. So the game has become something else: Guess the sports supernova's influence on the economy.

"He has challenged writers all across the country for his entire career," Jan Hubbard wrote in his recent book about the Bulls, "Six Times As Sweet."

"How many different ways can you write that a man is great?"

Not enough, apparently.

So economists and business writers are stepping up.

Survey the landscape of their assessments of Jordan, and you find that not everything he touches turns to gold. But his impact is …