Best Michael Jordan

Jordan first became known as a freshman at the University of North Carolina, when he hit the winning shot with seconds to play in the school’s 63-62 win over Georgetown University to win the 1982 NCAA championship. He was named college player of the year in 1984 after averaging 19.6 points as a junior, then decided to leave school and enter the NBA draft.The Chicago Bulls chose him in the first round of the draft and Jordan joined the team after leading the U. S. Olympic team in scoring en route to a gold medal. He averaged 28.2 points a game and was named rookie of the year.A 6-foot-6, 198-pound guard, Jordan may have been the finest all-around player in history. He’s the only athlete ever to win the most valuable player award and the defensive player of the year award in the same season, 1988, and he was also named the NBA’s MVP in 1991 and 1992.He holds the record for most consecutive seasons leading the league in scoring, 7, from 1986-87 through 1992-93, and he led in steals 3 times, with 259 in 1987-88, 227 in 1989-90, and 221 in 1992-93. He’s the only player ever to lead in scoring and steals in a single season. In 1986-87, Jordan became the first player have to have more than 200 steals and more than 100 blocked shots, and he did it again the following season.

Michael Jordan is the greatest athlete in basketball history. During his brilliant career, Jordan won 6 NBA Championships, earned 5 MVP awards and was selected to 12 All-Star games. Michael’s talent and personality transcended into the very lives of his fans. He single-handedly paved the way for off-the-court athlete-endorsements – a billion dollar industry today! And this is why.

Career highlights and awards

• 6× NBA Champion (1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998)
• 5× NBA MVP (1988, 1991, 1992, 1996, 1998)
• 14× NBA All-Star (1985–1993, 1996–1998, 2002–2003)
• 6× NBA Finals MVP (1991–1993, 1996–1998)
• 1× NBA Defensive Player of the Year (1988)
• 10× All-NBA First Team Selection (1987–1993, 1996–1998)
• 1× All-NBA Second Team Selection (1985)
• 9× NBA All-Defensive First Team Selection (1988–1993, 1996–1998)
• 1985 NBA Rookie of the Year
• 1985 NBA All-Rookie Team
• 3× NBA All-Star Game MVP (1988, 1996, 1998)
• 2× NBA Slam Dunk Contest winner (1987, 1988)
• 2x Gold Medal Winner in the Olympics (1984,1992)
• NBA’s 50th Anniversary All-Time Team
• 1× NCAA Men’s Basketball Champion (1982)
• 1982 ACC Freshman of the Year
• 1× ACC Men’s Basketball Player of the Year (1984)
• 1× USBWA College Player of the Year (1984)
• 1× Naismith College Player of the Year (1984)
• 1× John R. Wooden Award (1984)
• 1× Adolph Rupp Trophy (1984)
• 1991 Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year
• 2000 ESPY Athlete of the Century
• 1990s ESPY Male Athlete Decade Award
• 1990s ESPY Pro Basketballer Decade Award

Jordan retired for a second time in 1999, ending his career on a high note just after the official end of a labor dispute between NBA players and team owners. Many people saw him as the greatest basketball player ever, and his retirement was called the end of an era. In 2000 Jordan became part-owner and president of basketball operations of the Washington Wizards. This made him only the third African American owner in the NBA. He also gained an ownership stake in the Washington Capitals hockey team. Also in 2000, Jordan celebrated the first year of his $1 million grant program to help teachers make a difference in their schools.

In September 2001, after months of rumors, Jordan announced that he was ending his three-year retirement to play for the Wizards at age thirty-eight. At a news conference to discuss his comeback, he said, “Physically, I know I’m not twenty-five years old, but I feel I can play the game of basketball on the highest level.” The Wizards, who had won only nineteen games the season before, improved with the addition of Jordan. After being voted to play in his thirteenth All-Star game (during which he missed a slam dunk), Jordan had the Wizards in the race for the playoffs until suffering a knee injury and missing the last part of the season. He was also distracted in January 2002 when his wife Juanita, whom he married in 1989, filed for divorce. (They have three children.) The next month the divorce was called off. Jordan said he planned to play one more season for the Wizards.

In 1993, after a tough playoff series with the New York Knicks, the Bulls met the Phoenix Suns for the NBA championship. When it was over, Jordan was again playoff MVP, and Chicago had won a third straight title. That summer Jordan’s father, James, was murdered by two men during a robbery attempt. Jordan was grief stricken, and his father’s death, combined with media reports about his gambling, led him to announce his retirement from professional basketball in October. Jordan had won three straight NBA titles, three regular season MVP awards, three playoff MVP titles, seven consecutive scoring titles, and he was a member of the All-Star team every year that he was in the league. In just nine seasons he had become the Bulls all-time leading scorer.

In 1994–95 Jordan played for the Birmingham Barons, a minor league baseball team in the Chicago White Sox system. Although the seventeen-month experiment showed that he was not a major league baseball player, the experience and time away from basketball provided a much-needed rest and opportunity to regain his love of basketball.

Michael Jordan Fast Facts:

• Was cut from his high-school varsity basketball team.
• Claimed his signature tongue-wagging habit came from watching his dad stick his tongue out while working on the family car.
• Scored an NBA-record 63 points in a playoff game in 1986, prompting Larry Bird to call him: “God disguised as Michael Jordan.”
• Hosted Saturday Night Live in 1991.
• Appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated a record 49 times.
• Named MVP of the NBA five times.
• Is a ten-time NBA scoring leader.
• Won Olympic gold medals in 1984 and 1992.
• Named Athlete of the Century by ESPN in 1999.

Jordan’s personal style was equally authentic and unique as his basketball skills. Nike signed him to a major shoe deal because of his anticipated appeal, but he surpassed even the loftiest of expectations. One version of the sneakers he wore in his first preseason was an unseen before blend of his team’s red and black colors that the NBA initially considered in violation of the “uniformity of uniform rule.” Subject to fines if he continued to wear them, he occasionally did and the demand for that version and others in the Air Jordan line was unprecedented.

He also had a clause in his contract that allowed him, unlike most other NBA players, to play basketball anytime in the off-season — known as the “love-of-the-game clause.”

The Houston Rockets selected 7-0 center Hakeem Olajuwon form the University of Houston with the No.1 pick, which most expected. The Portland Trail Blazers, however, with the No. 2 pick chose 7-1 center Sam Bowie from Kentucky, which was not as anticipated. Bowie had suffered several injuries while in college but the Blazers bypassed Jordan because just the year before the team selected another exciting shooting guard in Clyde Drexler. Although Drexler went onto to be a star, Bowie was an injury prone player with a journeyman pro career

However, Jordan, coming off a gold medal performance at the 1984 Olympics prospered in the pro game with a fabulous first season, earning the NBA Rookie of the Year Award. He averaged 28.2 ppg, (third behind Bernard King and Bird) 6.5 rpg and 5.9 apg. He also was selected to the All-NBA Second Team. Perhaps more important, the Bulls improved to win 11 more games than in the season prior to his arrival and made it to the playoffs. Jordan averaged 29.3 ppg in the first round series, but the Bulls lost in four games to the Milwaukee Bucks.

In his first season, he did not have outstanding shooting range and was thought to roam to often on defense resulting from playing trapping defenses in college according to his first NBA coach, Kevin Loughery. Yet, his medium game — eight to 15-feet from the basket was impressive as evidenced by his .515 field-goal shooting percentage and his steals tended to compensate for his less than stellar straight-up defense. Improvement in both areas would come and he would ultimately be regarded as threat from anywhere on the floor and one of the best ever one-on-one defenders.

James Jordan was a mechanic and Deloris Jordan was a bank teller. Soon after Michael’s birth, James and Deloris felt that the streets of Brooklyn were unsafe to raise a family, so they moved the family to Wilmington, North Carolina.

Won NBA Rookie of the Year Award and earned All-Rookie First Team and All-NBA Second Team honors.Led team that had finished 27-55 the previous season to a 38-44 record and a playoff berth for the first time since 1981.Voted a starter in the 1985 All-Star Game.Scored seven points in 22 minutes in that contest.Set a club single-game rookie record by pouring in 49 points against the Detroit Pistons on 2/12/85.Finished the season with a scoring average of 28.2 ppg (third in the league behind the New York Knicks’ Bernard King and the Boston Celtics’ Larry Bird) and set Chicago single-season records for points (2,313), field goals (837), free throws (630), free-throw attempts (746), and steals (196).After finishing fourth in the Central Division, the Bulls faced the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the playoffs and fell in four games, although Jordan averaged 29.3 ppg in the series.