Ariel CEO John Rogers Beats Legend Michael Jordan

This clip from the Wall Street Journal is awesome to watch.  It took place at a Michael Jordan camp in 2003, where, I gather, CEOs get to go one-on-one with the basketball legend.  Enter:  John Rogers, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Ariel Investments.  

John Rogers

What made Jordan great was the fact that his competitiveness hardly took a day off.  He had a love for the game that was sublime, for both the joy and the seriousness with which he played it.  Rogers came in, perhaps with nothing more than the thrill of facing up to a legend.  But he had his game face on, and he took it to Jordan, in ways a CEO must when business is on the table.  Fun is always there, but it's woven along with threads of competitiveness to create what is very much human fabric.  Success is knowing that those threads are intricately woven together.  

In the Mutual Fund Executive who Beat Michael Jordan, Chris Ballard recounts the one-on-one between Rogers and Jordan:

The game begins, fittingly, with Jordan still ribbing a previous victim. "Don't be mad at me, I'm just too good," he booms. "What, you think I had this camp just so you all could beat me?" Taking the ball first, Rogers drives right and lofts in a runner. Then he goes left to hit a leaner. The crowd of 150 or so -- campers but also coaches like John Thompson and Mike Krzyzewski -- begins to murmur. Predictably, Jordan evens it, and the end appears imminent until... Michael misses a jumper. Then he clangs another! 

So Rogers again hurtles left and, nearing the hoop, jumps off both feet. Jordan, clearly into it now, times his leap to swallow up the shot. Only Rogers, in a move he's practiced a thousand times but that still appears impossibly awkward, leans away from MJ as if eluding the curl of a crashing wave. He spins the ball up, up, up and over Jordan's fingertips, off the glass and in. On the video the first thing you hear is Jordan ("Oh, no!"), followed by comedian and camper Damon Wayans, who jumps at the chance to mock MJ. (Lest you think Jordan had lost his edge, he immediately brought Wayans onto the court and ­humiliated him 3-0.) 

Naturally, Jordan demanded a rematch with Rogers, right? Actually, he didn't. ­Instead he hugged Rogers -- the two go back a ways from Jordan's days in Chicago -- and said, not so huggably, "Next time we're on the court together, I'll show you what it's like to play in the NBA." But that has yet to happen. Rogers ­hasn't been back to Flight School, and MJ stopped playing campers a few years ago. As for Rogers, he had DVDs made from the tape and dispensed them to friends and employees, because, well, wouldn't you?

Clearly Rogers can ball.