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Michael Jackson spent most of his 50 years trying to achieve immortality through his work, and he actually pushed himself so hard preparing for a comeback that he died of cardiac arrest Thursday from overusing a painkiller.
But he died the way he said he wanted in a 2008 Ebony magazine interview, by giving his all to his craft.

We all can learn from MJ’s example.
I recall attending a conference in New Orleans in 2002, and motivational speaker Les Brown and his daughter spoke of how sad it is that graveyards all over the world are filled with unfulfilled potential because people died before using or making the most of their talents.
They died before making that invention, writing that book, composing that song, and contributing so many more gifts that only they were created to do.
So those of us who are still alive and have been putting off our dreams and wasting our talents, should be inspired by Michael Jackson’s desire to put his body and soul into his work.

Of course, it paid off because he is the greatest performer to ever take the stage after revolutionizing music videos and live performances with his gravity-defying dance steps, out-of-this world glitzy attire and his voice of an angel that will continue to live on through his videos, movies and hit songs, such as “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough”, “Rock With You”, “Thriller”, “Billie Jean”, “Remember The Time”, “Black or White” and many, many more songs to sell more than 750 records worldwide and win 13 Grammy Awards.

“Let’s face it. Who wants mortality,” MJ said in the Ebony interview. “Everybody wants immortality. You want what you create to live, be it sculpting, painting, music composition. Michaelangelo said, ‘I know the creator will go, but his work survives’. That is why to escape death I attempt to bind my soul to my work. I give my all to my work because I want it to just live and just give all that I have.”
Listen for yourself to MJ’s Ebony snippet on immortality and hard work.
Well, Michael’s wish came true. He is now immortal.
His musical peers have said there never has been and never will be another Michael Jackson, but it won’t be because of impossibility. It would be because the performer lacks the relentless desire MJ had.
We all were created with great talents to do great things, but we have to work hard to hone our crafts. David defeated Goliath after perfecting his aim with a slingshot while tending to his father’s sheep. Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player ever because of his hard work in the gym after being cut from his high school basketball team. Tiger Woods is the greatest golfer ever because of his relentless putting and swinging on greens and fairways since he could grasp a putter and a driver.
And Michael Jackson is the greatest performer of all time because of his tireless and somewhat extreme efforts since childhood to perfect his dance moves, his voice and his outward appearance.
Let MJ inspire you to use your talents to be the greatest in whatever you were created to do. Be the MJ of teaching, the MJ of fixing cars, the MJ of raising well-groomed children, the MJ of helping the poor or whatever is the area of your gifting.

By Teneshia LaFaye

Buy a limited edition I Was There, King of Pop Commemorative Journal featuring many of these stories to remember the positive side of Michael Jackson’s life. The journal went on sale at the pop icon’s public memorial in L.A., and a limited supply is left over. Don’t let this moment pass you by. Get the journal while supplies last as a keepsake for MJ’s passing with spaces for your personal experience and pictures.

To receive your copy, please send $8 per copy in cash or money order to King of Pop Journal, 3832-10 Baymeadows Rd., Suite 205, Jacksonville, FL 32217 and make sure your name and address is on the envelope.

Or you can buy now for $7.35:

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In spite of winning his fourth NBA title with the Lakers on Sunday, Kobe Bryant still needs two more to equal Michael Jordan’s six with the Chicago Bulls.
But Kobe is just like Mike in buying power. Bryant, Jordan and Formula One driver Kimi Raikkonen are tied for No. 2 behind the world’s No. 1 golfer Tiger Woods on Forbes’ list of the world’s Best Paid Male Athletes. See the list here

Woods, who was on hand in Orlando’s Amway Arena to watch Bryant win his fourth NBA championship, earned $110 million last year. Bryant, Jordan and Raikkonen each made $45 million.

Bryant, who grew up in Philadelphia rooting for Jordan and the Bills, has a chance to match his idol on the court if the Lakers manage to three-peat as they did from 2000-2002.

The Lakers’ championship run also is contigent upon their front office bringing back record-setting coach Phil Jackson, who has six titles with Jordan and four with Kobe, and Bryant’s supporting cast of Derek Fisher, Pau Gasol, Trevor Ariza, Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom.

By Teneshia LaFaye
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What’s wrong with these pictures?

Michael Jordan is holding a golf trophy, and Tiger Woods is bouncing a basketball.
Woods, the No. 1 golfer in the world, has been a Magic season ticketholder for many years. He sat courtside during Orlando’s two home NBA Finals games against the Lakers last week, and he will likely be sitting there Sunday for Game 5. L.A. needs one victory to win its 15th NBA title.
Meanwhile Jordan, who won six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls, paired up with “Sexyback” singer Justin Timberlake to play in the Golf Digest U.S. Open Challenge at Bethpage Black Golf Course in Bethpage, N.Y. Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger shot an 11-under par 81 to win the challenge and to set a record in the two-year event. Before the competition, Woods called Roethlisberger and told the two-time Super Bowl championship quarterback that he wouldn’t break 100 on the course.
Roethlisberger proved Woods wrong, and Jordan and Timberlake also broke 100, finishing five and seven strokes behind Roethlisberger, respectively.
Woods gets his turn on the Bethpage Black course when he begins defense of his 2008 U.S. Open title on Thursday.

By Teneshia LaFaye
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Sports “experts” are quick to say that Kobe Bryant can’t be as great as Michael Jordan after failing to make the game-winning shot and turning the ball over at the end of the Lakers’ Game 3 NBA Finals loss to Orlando on Tuesday.
The “experts” say that Jordan would have made one of those two 3-point attempts that Bryant made in the closing seconds, and Jordan certainly wouldn’t have turned the ball over.
But these so-called “experts” forget that Jordan actually turned the ball over and passed up the game-winning shot in the final minute of Game 1 of the Chicago Bull’s 94-91 loss to Orlando in the second round of the 1994-95 playoffs, which happens to be the last time the Magic made it to the NBA Finals before this year’s appearance against Bryant and the Lakers.
In that particular ’95 Bulls-Magic playoff matchup, Chicago was leading 91-90 in the final 40 seconds. Jordan brought the ball up the court and Orlando’s Nick Anderson ran up behind him and tapped the ball out of Jordan’s hand. Penny Hardaway quickly gathered the ball and dribbled across the court to the Magic’s basket and dished to Horace Grant, who slammed the ball to put the Orlando up 92-91. The Bulls got the ball back and Jordan passed up a 3-point attempt and instead overthrew Scottie Pippen on the baseline. So the Magic won the game and went on to win the series in six games, but eventually got swept by the Houston Rockets in the NBA Finals.

See for yourself:

At least Bryant didn’t pass up taking the game-winning shot in Tuesday’s loss to the Magic. He made two 3-point attempts in the closing seconds and just couldn’t get the shots to fall.
During the postgame conference, Bryant blamed himself for the Lakers’ loss because he said he’s “used to coming through in those situations.”
But Bryant shouldn’t hang his head because even Jordan didn’t always come through, and Kobe still has a chance to pull out the NBA Finals best-of-seven series because the Lakers lead the Magic 3-1 and need just one more win for their 15th NBA title after regrouping Thursday for a 99-91 OT victory in Orlando.

By Teneshia LaFaye
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Former Lakers general manager Jerry West injected himself into the debate of who is better: current NBA MVP LeBron James or last year’s MVP Kobe Bryant.
And West surprisingly switched sides and went with James, the former No. 1 overall pick out of a Cleveland high school. West brought Bryant to Los Angeles in 1996 after trading Vlade Divac to Charlotte for the Philadelphia high school standout.
West is credited for assembling the Lakers’ four NBA championship teams in the 1980s and the franchise’s three consecutive NBA champions from 2000-2002. The 70-year-old former All-NBA guard and former Lakers coach said that James can be “the greatest player ever to play the game”, even greater than Michael Jordan.
“LeBron James will do the same type of things because he’s getting better,” said West, now GM of the Memphis Grizzles. “He’s a much more effective shooter. When he’s making his shots from the outside, you can’t play him. He’s just too big, too strong, too quick. And he has incredible body control.”
But whoa, whoa, whoa.
Better than Jordan, who has won six NBA championships? And Bryant, who has three league championship rings?
Now, LeBron is a better team player than Kobe, and the 24-year-old Cleveland forward has better career averages in points, rebounds, assists and steals, but King James can’t be crowned until he’s won a NBA championship like the 30-year-old Bryant, who won three NBA titles a couple months before his 24th birthday.
First, LeBron has to lead the Cavs past Orlando in the Eastern Conference Finals that begins tonight. The Magic won the regular season series 2-1 and “beat the hell” out of Cleveland, according to James’ teammate Zydrunas Ilgauskas, in Orlando’s 116-87 home romp for the Cavs’ worst loss this season. But Cleveland, which posted the NBA’s best record this season, swept its first two playoff opponents to bring an 8-0 postseason record into the conference finals against Orlando, and James deserves most of the credit. He is averaging a playoff-best 32.9 points, 9.8 rebounds and 6.8 assists.
Bryant has averaged 28.4 points, five rebounds and 4.5 assists in 13 playoff games, including a 40-point effort Tuesday to help the Lakers to a 105-103 come-from-behind victory against Denver to open the Western Conference Finals.
Kobe and LeBron can settle the debate on the court if they deliver a Lakers-Cavs NBA Finals.
And if it comes down to the game-winning shot, who would West rather have the ball?
“If I had to have somebody make a last-second shot, it would be Kobe Bryant,” West said. “But…….. I do think LeBron has surpassed Kobe as a player.”
James has to get the Cavs past the Magic for a chance to close the case.

By Teneshia LaFaye
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