By JAMES RAIA
www.ByJamesRaia.com

Several years after his NBA retirement, Michael Jordan remains as competitive off the court as he was during his enduring basketball career. But Jordan's office of choice has evolved from hardwood to boardroom and locker room to fairway.

Jordan's career has expanded from NBA player and executive to restaurant owner, entrepreneur, global businessman and golfing philanthropist. His intensity, once channeled toward defeating opponents, is now focused on business success and conquering charitable horizons.

Still, Jordan pursues his businesses and amateur sporting passions with the same focus as he did while accumulating five Most Valuable Player Awards in the National Basketball Association and winning six NBA Championships with the Chicago Bulls.

In fact, what Tiger Woods is to the PGA Tour and youth golf, Jordan has become to celebrity and charity golf.

"I always believe that if you put in the work, the results will come," Jordan has said many times. "I don't do things halfheartedly. Because I know if I do, then I can expect halfhearted results."

Jordan's remarks, often cited among his most famous, speak not only to his career with the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards, but his commitment to his post-basketball career.

For Woods, the marketing of his fame is a constant component of his ongoing career in one arena, the golf course.

But for Jordan, despite his departure from the NBA following the 2002 season, his global success could be more expansive away from the court than it was during the height of his playing career.

As one recent example, the power of Jordan the businessman, the corporate entity, the trusted endorser, was overtly apparent during Super Bowl XXXVII. New commercials for Hanes and Gatorade featuring Jordan debuted during the game's broadcast on ABC. Both products are included in Jordan's endorsement empire that ranges from sunglasses to cologne, sweatsuits to soft drinks. And they were included in the highly coveted airtime that's the most expensive on television.

According to one pre-Super Bowl national survey, Jordan's double appearance in commercials that can cost more than $2 million for 30 seconds, further prove his unmatched global appeal.

New Knowledge Networks, a consumer research firm in Menlo Park, Calif., in conjunction and the magazine Advertising Age, released the results of a national endorsement popularity survey. More than 26 percent of respondents indicated they are more likely to buy a product endorsed by Jordan than any other athlete. Tiger Woods (19 percent), Lance Armstrong (18 percent), Dale Earnhardt, Jr., (14 percent) and sisters Serena and Venus Williams (14 percent) completed the top-five endorsees.

While Woods and Armstrong, the now-retired, seven-time consecutive Tour de France titlist are the most highly commercially exposed athletes, according to the survey, Jordan remains the most trusted endorsement athlete.

"(Michael) Jordan is not the corporate endorser he was in the '80s and '90s, but he remains an international icon," Abraham Madkour, editor in chief of The Sports Business Daily, said in USA Today last January in the media build-up prior to the Super Bowl. "Since his retirement from the NBA, I suspect he holds the title of 'Endorser Emeritus."

As much as his endorsement value remains impressive, Jordan's direct connection to sport has shifted. It's now golf clubs instant of basketballs. And when he's not playing golf, he's expanding his charitable horizons, many of which have grown exponentially because of golf.

For many years, Jordan and his wife Juanita have supported the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, the UNCF/College Fund, Special Olympics and numerous other groups for children and families.

For 15 years, the Michael Jordan Golf Classic was held in Greenville, N.C. It raised more than $2 million for Ronald McDonald Houses throughout North Carolina. And since 2001, Jordan has hosted the Michael Jordan Celebrity Invitational on Paradise Island in the Bahamas.

The participating athletes are a who's who across the spectrum of sport: Wayne Gretzky, Boris Becker, Brandi Chastain, John McEnroe, John Elway, Barry Bonds, Pete Samprass, Charles Barkley, Julius Erving and, of course, Jordan.

The invitational tournament is more fun-based than intense competition and it purpose was clear -- the continuation of Jordan's nearly two-decade dedication to charities. While tournament winners could donate their prize money to their charities of choice, several hundred thousand dollars from the tournament also benefitted the Atlantis HIV/AIDS initiative, the James Jordan Foundation and Ronald McDonald Houses of North Carolina.

"The first thing you have to understand is that Michael is the fiercest competitor you will ever meet," says Davis Love III, the 1997 PGA Championship titlist who introduced Jordan to golf when both were students at the University of North Carolina. "I don't think I've seen anyone who hates to lose as much as he does."

Without the NBA or professional baseball (Jordan briefly played the Chicago White Sox organization in the mid 1990s) it's golf that now envelopes Jordan's passion to win. And while not on the level of Woods or the rest of the PGA Tour, Jordan's interest in golf is no different that his quest to win NBA titles.

Now in his mid-40s, Jordan first learned to play golf as a college junior. Love and Jordan's roommate at North Carolina were friends, and when Jordan was introduced to Love and first play the game, he was enthralled.

Several years ago, when he began to increase his appearances on the former Celebrity Golf Association, the tour's official guide profiled Jordan. In the article by Mark Vancil, Jordan's passion for golf was detailed with some astounding statistics.

The former NBA star is reportedly a member of an estimated dozen private clubs and owns more than 40 sets of clubs. He had a 3,500-square foot putting green in his back yard and he has state-of-the-art golf computer equipment in his basement. And while his business schedule doesn't always allow regular year-round play, Jordan has been known to complete 36 holes daily.

"I did get the bug, like anyone who had never played the game," Jordan recalled in the profile. "I had a lot to learn. But I got good help with my swing right from the beginning so I was able to develop my game fairly quickly even though I didn't have much experience."

Although the rumors have waned in recent years, when Jordan first retired from the NBA, there was plenty of discussion he longed to play on the Champions Tour. Under the Tour's new guidelines, Jordan would be eligible to compete in the circuit for players age 45 and older in 2008.

And while unlikely, Jordan's golf game has been both praised and criticized by professionals. He has a powerful tee shot, an accurate short game and a fluid swing. But because of his strength, size (Jordan is 6-foot-6) and large hands, Jordan tends to overswing and he closes his club face on approach shots. As a result, he often hooks shots. Jordan also knows that unlike the NBA, aggression on a golf course can be detrimental.

"I'm a feel player, so I have a naturally good short," he said. "But the aggression you need on a basketball court doesn't translate to golf. When I stood at the free-throw line, I didn't think about mechanics. But on the golf course, I thinking about what not to do. If you've go those negative thoughts in your head, you'll probably hit a bad shot."

Again, Considering his competitive nature, Jordan would have preferred to win his own tournament rather than witness its playoff, and he'll likely have plenty of chances to win considering the tournament's success.

But fact is, Jordan did win. His penchant for success, on and off the court, has given him NBA titles and now more than a 20-year platform for his charitable championships.

"I don't care what it is, golf, basketball or pool," Jordan has often said. "If the person standing between success and failure is me, then I'll take myself every time."

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