The most reconizable athlete in the world, he's not only the top player of his era, but is the best player ever to wear the uniform of an NBA team. A legend on the court is, Jordan added to this mystique with a tottaly unexpected retirement just before the 1993-94 season. after a year spent playing minor league baseball, he authored yet another amazing chapter to his story by returning to the Chicago Bulls late in 1994-95 campaign with his basketball skills intact. In 1995-96 he won a record 8 scoring title and led the Bulls to their 4th NBA championship of the 1990s, and in 1996-97 he raised those numbers to 9 scoring championships and 5 NBA crowns in the decade. A summary of Jordan's basketball career inevitabley fails to do it justice.
The 6-6 Brooklyn native attended high school in Wilmington, North Carolina, where he was cut from the basketball team as a sophomore. He spent his college career at North Carolina, playing for an NCAA championship team as a fresman and hitting the game-winning shot in the title game. He was named college player of the year by the Sporting News in both 1983 and 1984 and won the Naismith and Wooden Awards in 1984. After his junior year he was chosen with the 3rd overall pick in the 1984 NBA Draft by the Chicago Bulls. Jordan burst into the big time with a fabulous first season, earning the NBA Rookie of the Year award in 1984-85 after averaging 28.2 points per game. An injured foot sidelined him for 64 games in his 2nd campaign, but he came back late in the year to score an NBA playoff-record 63 points in a 1st round game against the Boston Celtics. Starting with the 1986-87 season he began a career-long onslaught on the NBA record book. That year saw him averaging 37.1 points in the 1st of 7 consecutive seasons in wich he led the league in scoring and topped 30 points per contest. By the time he announced his retirement in 1993, he had earned 3 league MVP awards and NBA Defensive player of the year selection, a pair of NBA slam-dunk championship titles, 7 berths on the all NBA First Team and 6 selections to the NBA all-Defensive First Team. He also led the league in steals 3 times. A 9-time All Star Game selection, he earned the game's MVP award in 1988 after a 40 points performance. More than just a scoring machine, Jordan also showed that he was a leader and a winner by guiding Chicago to a trio of NBA championships. As a rookie he joined a Bulls team that had won only 28 ames the previous season. By 1991 the club had topped 60 wins during the regular season while marching to the 1st of 3 consecutive titles. If anything, Jordan was even more spectacular in postseason play. Prior to his retirement he had averaged below 30 points per game in the postseason only once (29.3 in his rookie year). In the 1985-86 postseason he poured in an astounding 43.7 points per contest. He left basketball temporarly in 1993 as a 3 time Finals MVP, and he owned a career playoff average of 34.7 points per game, the best in NBA history. He also had 2 olympic gold medals to show for his participation on Team USA in 1984 and 1992. Jordan shocked the NBA by announcing his retirement prior to the 1993-94 season. He spent the year playing minor league baseball for the Class AA Birmingham Barons of the Chicago White Sox organization, for whom he was a competent if unspectacular performer. But Jordan's hopes of reaching the Major leagues seemed dim, and with Major league baseball embroiled in a labor dipute as the 1995 season neared, he focused his competitive fire back on the NBA. Late in the 1994-95 season he came out of retirement and attempted to carry the Bulls to another title. Jordan averaged 26.9 points in 17 regular season games, then poured in 31.5 points per contest in the playoffs. 1997-98 NOTES : Jordan enjoyed yet another magical season, sweeping the 3 MVP honors and finishing it off by hitting the game winning basket to wrap up the Bulls' 6th championship of the 1990s. Jordan's jumper with 5.2 seconds left in game 6 gave Chicago an 87-86 victory and a 4-2 win over the Utah Jazz in the championship series. 28.7 points per game to capture his 10th scoring title, building upon his NBA record. On Decemeber 30th at Minnesota he scored in double figures for the 788th consecutive game, breaking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's record of 787 in a row. At season's end his regular-season streak stood at 840 games the last he did not score in double figures was on March 22, 1986 at Cleveland, when he had 8 points. Jordan also moved past Elvin Hayes and Moses Malone to move into 3rd place on the NBA's All Time scoring list behind only Abdul-Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlain, finishing the season with 29277 points. Jordan posted season-highs of 49 points on November 21 at the Los Angeles Clippers, 17 rebounds on November 5 against Orlando, 9 assists on January 3 at Detroit and 5 steals on four occasions he |
