Although he has been retired for several years now, Michael Jordan is still widely regarded as the greatest basketball player to ever play the game. His influence was felt not only in the way the game was played, but also in how it was perceived around the world. Ultimately, his excellence at his sport was instrumental in catapulting the popularity of basketball and the National Basketball Association all over the world during the eighties and nineties. Beyond all this, Jordan was also a marketing force and was hands-down the most successfully marketed athlete of his generation and, possibly, all time. In 1999, Jordan was named by ESPN as “the greatest athlete of the 20th century.”