Michael Jordan will announce his retirement from basketball today at the end of a spectacular career that made him the world's most popular athlete.

Jordan, arguably the best basketball player ever, will give a press conference at the Chicago Bulls's United Center arena this morning.

The American media was reporting yesterday that the Bulls superstar would call it quits after a spectacular, 13-year National Basketball Association (NBA) career. They quoted unidentified NBA officials or sources close to Jordan.

Neither Jordan, who led his team to six NBA titles in eight years, nor the Bulls management were available for comment.

The 35-year-old Jordan will best be remembered for his winning shot five seconds from the buzzer in the sixth and deciding game against the Utah Jazz for the NBA title last June.

"We're going to sorely miss him. There never will be another Michael Jordan," said Magic Johnson yesterday.

It will be Jordan's second retirement announcement in a little over five years.

He first retired in October 1993, shortly after his father was murdered. The basketball star went on to pursue a disappointing baseball career for 18 months before making a triumphant return to the Bulls.

But it seems likely that there will be no way back this time.

The United Center will be a fitting venue for a farewell to a city that reveres him. Outside the arena stands a Jordan statue with the inscription "The best there ever was. The best there ever will be".

On Monday, Chicago Bulls officials said they wanted Jordan to return to help in their quest for a seventh NBA championship title, but said they were prepared to rebuild with two top free agents to lead their roster of younger players.

Jordan's team-mates have noted that the superstar has not been working out as he is known to do, even during the off-season.

Jordan's departure from basketball was also considered possible after Bulls coach Phil Jackson left the franchise last June.

Jordan had insisted at the close of the past season that he would stay on only if Jackson remained as coach.

Besides taking the Bulls to their third consecutive championship last June, Jordan holds a regular-season record of 31.5 points per game and was chosen the league's most valuable player five times.

Jordan, who also won Olympic gold medals with the US national team twice in his career, could have been paid $37 million for the truncated season - 50 games instead of 82 - that is scheduled to begin February 5th following the settlement of a labour dispute between owners and players.

Fortune magazine last year estimated Jordan's career financial contribution to the US economy as $10 billion.