His name is Michael A. Jordan. The father. Michael. A. Jordan.
The internet found out this week and has not recovered.
The "B." stands for Bakari — Swahili for "noble promise" — and it exists for exactly one reason: to distinguish him from his dad. Not a stage name. Not branding. His mother, after 89 hours of labor, told her husband she didn't care what they called him. Dad named him Michael. The "B." was the compromise.
There's actually a two-layer confusion most people don't know about. For years, fans assumed Jordan was named after basketball's Michael Jordan. He wasn't. His father named him after himself — Michael A. Jordan — with no basketball connection at all. Growing up in Newark, playing high school basketball, the teasing was relentless. "I got teased so much to the point where I almost changed my name," he told CBS Mornings. Instead, he leaned into it. "I wanted to be great at something," he said, “just to feel like I had my own identity.”
The name caused problems beyond the schoolyard. He once tried to order a pizza and couldn't convince the place who he was. He drove down, slammed his ID on the counter, and walked out with two free pizzas.
He's already said he's breaking the cycle with his own kids. "I am breaking that circle right there," he told Ellen DeGeneres in 2021. “He's gotta walk in his own shoes.”
Michael A. Jordan — who goes by Tony — grew up in South Central Los Angeles, one of six children raised by a single mother. He joined the Marines in 1974 and got involved in the Pan-African movement. He worked nights as a JFK Airport supervisor, started a catering business, and was always at the dining room table reading. "My dad was very adamant about educating himself and giving us a sense of identity," Jordan said.
At Sunday's Oscars, Jordan thanked him from the stage: "My dad came in from Ghana." Michael A. flew in from West Africa to watch his son become the sixth Black man to win Best Actor — joining Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker, and Will Smith.
There's one more footnote. When Jordan joined All My Children in 2003, he was replacing a then-unknown actor in the same role. That actor was Chadwick Boseman. Two future Black Panther co-stars. Same soap opera character. Neither one was famous yet.
His mother started it all — a doctor's receptionist once suggested she get the 11-year-old into modeling. "I was just thinking about college tuition," Donna said. "Little did I know it was going to be job after job after job." She has lupus. He made a cupcake with her to raise money for lupus research. He bought his parents a house in Sherman Oaks in 2015. The whole family walked the Oscars red carpet Sunday night.
Michael A. Jordan flew in from Ghana. His son won. Noble promise delivered.
