Michael Jordan: "The Ceiling is the Roof"

Michael Jordan addressed fans during Saturday night’s Duke-North Carolina game. He was announcing a partnership between his Jordan brand and the Tar Heels football program. His speech was short and sweet — and perhaps more memorable than he intended it to be — thanks to one incredible turn of phrase.

“The ceiling is the roof,” Jordan told coach Larry Fedora.

The ceiling … is the roof.

Sounds like something Tom Hanks would have muttered to himself during Cast Away while his grip on reality slipped away. It’s dangerous to really examine such a sequence of words but what I think Jordan meant was that the the North Carolina football program will soar as high as it wants to. That, of course, doesn’t sound as cool as “the ceiling is the roof.”

Hell, nothing does.