I can't provide statistical evidence that Beckham is more popular than Jordan.
But you can provide statistical evidence that over 300 million people worldwide watch the world cup and only about 100 million people worldwide watch the superbowl, where about less than 40 million watch the NBA finals.
My point being: Soccer is BY FAR the worlds most popular game, and the sports most recognizable (but far from the best) player is David Beckham. He's more popular than almost any soccer player ever and he was never even a top 5 player.
He may arguably be Soccer's most famous player ever (right up there with Pele in terms of recognition). And if you're one of the most recognizable players in the most popular sport by far worldwide, then what does that tell you?
It tells you that Michael Jordan, and his dominance in an era where basketball was only any good in the USA, could not touch the popularity of David Beckham.
Surely, however, if your family in Japan enjoys basketball (far more families in Japan probably enjoy soccer instead, or they prefer soccer), then they will know and admire Jordan. But the majority of the country will recognize Beckham, whereas the minority of basketball fans will recognize Jordan.
And the Antartica thing was thrown in there as a joke.
Well, let's actually get some stats in here then. You made the claim that soccer is a major sport in Asia whereas basketball is not. First of all, neither is popular in India. What about China though? Well, China has 1.3 billion people, and basketball is the most popular sport there today according to wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_in_China#Football_.28soccer.29
"
Basketball is the most popular sport in China today: some expert estimates that as many as
300 million of China's 1.3 billion population now play basketball."
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And as far as TV coverage in China, note this:
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/2/5/125413/5706
"The NBA is working on deals with six television networks across China to broadcast games: 30 of Yao's NBA games, and more than 150 games total, will be transmitted across China this year.
In his television debut he reached 287 million households, but with the new deals this number is
expected to reach 400 million (almost four times as many television households as in the States)."
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which of course is far more than the 40 million you stated for the NBA finals.
Furthermore, if we look at the total number of participants worldwide, this is what we get for soccer:
http://www.sportmarketingeurope.com/index.php?page=news&newsid=1677
"With 265 million male and female players and a further five million referees, coaches and other officials,
a grand total of 270 million people, or four per cent of the world's population, are involved in football. These are the impressive findings of the Big Count 2006, a
FIFA survey of its member associations (207 at the time)"
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And this is what we get for basketball:
http://www.sportingo.com/basketballs_team_gb_welcome_medal/1001,2096
"In fact, basketball is widely regarded as the fastest growing sport in the modern world, with
400 million participants worldwide."
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So, it's not clear from such stats alone that you can say Beckham would be more well-known than Jordan. Maybe that's true, maybe not.