Michael Jordan celebrates 51st birthday

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Feb. 17 (UPI) -- Michael Jordan certainly has a lot to celebrate these days…

About week after his wife, Yvette, gave birth to identical twin daughters last Sunday in Florida, the Chicago Bulls great celebrated turning 51 on Monday, Feb 17.

In addition to being happy about the births of Victoria and Ysabel, Jordan should also be feeling good that his Charlotte Bobcats are holding down the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference and have a shot at making the playoffs for the first time since he took over as majority owner in 2010.

Jordan’s name has been in the news a lot lately because Kobe Bryant and LeBron James were both recently asked to name who they would put on their NBA “Mount Rushmore.” Unsurprisingly, both players listed Jordan in their top four.

Bryant named Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Bill Russell, while James went with Jordan, Bird, Johnson and Oscar Robertson.

"I would say Magic, Bird, Michael, and Russell," Bryant said during a news conference before Sunday's All-Star Game. "That's impossible to do four, though, man. Come on. That's crazy. That's tough. Absolutely tough."

Jordan won six NBA championships as a member of the Chicago Bulls while Bryant has won five with the Los Angeles Lakers; James has won two for the Miami Heat.

Either way, James feels that he’ll have a spot on the mountain one day.

"I'm going to be one of the top four that's ever played this game, for sure," James said in an interview with NBA TV. "And if they don't want me to have one of those top four spots, they'd better find another spot on that mountain. Somebody's gotta get bumped, but that's not for me to decide. That's for the architects."

[ESPN]