Michael Jordan: "I'm looking forward to new challenges" (BBC News 24)

The National Basketball Association superstar ended his fabled career after having led the Chicago Bulls to six NBA titles in the past eight years, including the past three in a row.

Mr Clinton said: "In my life, I don't know that I ever saw another athlete with such a remarkable set of qualities of mind, body and spirit - not only somebody who had a body that would do things no one else's would do, but who always expected to do whatever it was he tried to do."

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"It's appropriate that the sports fans around America take a day or two to 'ooh' and 'aah' and hold their breath again, and be glad again."

In addition to making a fortune on the court - his paycheck for last season was $33m - Jordan became a twinkling, one-man commercial marketing machine for products ranging from sneakers to batteries.

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Fortune Magazine once estimated his marketing prowess added $10bn to the world economy.

At an emotional news conference, Jordan said: "I thought about saying just two words - 'I'm gone' - but I thought I owed my fans and certainly the media a lot more than that.

"I played it the best I could play it. I tried to be the best basketball player I could be. I've had a great time."

Jordan, who was accompanied by wife Juanita and Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf, said he was looking forward to becoming a parent.

"My life will take a change," he said. "Mentally, I'm exhausted - I don't feel I have a challenge. Physically, I feel great.

"This is the perfect time for me to walk away from the game. I'm at peace with that."

The announcement marks the second time Jordan has decided to quit the NBA. In 1993 he walked out on basketball and took up baseball - only to return to the sport when the move failed to work out.

'The NBA will survive'

Tributes to the world's wealthiest sportsman have poured in - many from his closest rivals.

Jordan in a familiar pose

Los Angeles Lakers centre Shaquille O'Neal said: "I will tell my grandchildren I got to play against him_I'm going to miss seeing his aerial, acrobatic moves."

"He's leaving on his own terms," said Detroit's Grant Hill, adding: "We're going to miss him. But the NBA is going to be all right.

"The league will survive without a dominant Michael Jordan-type player."

"He prepares as well as anybody but from all I hear, he's been playing golf and going to the Bahamas," team-mate Steve Kerr said recently.

"Unless he's working out in a hidden gym somewhere down there, I don't think he's really preparing to play."

Would he or wouldn't he?

There had been considerable speculation about the 35-year-old's future ever since he hit the final, thrilling shot in Game Six of the NBA Finals in Utah at the end of the last season.

That won the Bulls their sixth championship of the decade before a six-month dispute between players and officials delayed the start of this season.