Best Michael Jordan

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.

COLLEGE:
Left North Carolina after his junior season after averaging 17.7 ppg for his career.Drafted third overall by the Chicago Bulls (First pick: Houston–Hakeem Olajuwon; second pick: Portland–Sam Bowie).Named NCAA College Player of the Year in 1983 and 1984.Winner of the Dr. James Naismith Award and the John Wooden Award in 1984.Unanimous First Team All-America selection in 1983 and 1984.Member of 1982 NCAA Division I championship team.

Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963) is a retired American professional basketball player and active businessman. His biography on the National Basketball Association (NBA) website states, “By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time.”^[1] Jordan was one of the most effectively marketed athletes of his generation and was instrumental in popularizing the NBA around the world in the 1980s and 1990s.

After a standout career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he led the Tar Heels to a National Championship in 1982, Jordan joined the NBA’s Chicago Bulls in 1984. He quickly emerged as a league star, entertaining crowds with his prolific scoring. His leaping ability, illustrated by performing slam dunks from the free throw line in slam dunk contests, earned him the nicknames “Air Jordan” and “His Airness“. He also gained a reputation for being one of the best defensive players in basketball.^[2] In 1991, he won his first NBA championship with the Bulls, and followed that achievement with titles in 1992 and 1993, securing a “three-peat“. Although Jordan abruptly retired from basketball at the beginning of the 1993–94 NBA season to pursue a career in baseball, he rejoined the Bulls in 1995 and led them to three additional championships (1996, 1997, and 1998) as well as an NBA-record 72 regular-season wins in the 1995–96 season. Jordan retired for a second time in 1999, but returned for two more NBA seasons in 2001 as a member of the Washington Wizards.

Jordan’s individual accolades and accomplishments include five MVP awards, ten All-NBA First Team designations, nine All-Defensive First Team honors, fourteen NBA All-Star Game appearances, three All-Star Game MVP awards, ten scoring titles, three steals titles, six NBA Finals MVP awards, and the 1988 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award. He holds the NBA records for highest career regular-season scoring average (30.12 points per game) and highest career playoff scoring average (33.4 points per game). In 1999, he was named the greatest North American athlete of the 20th century by ESPN, and was second to Babe Ruth on the Associated Press’s list of athletes of the century. He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame on April 6, 2009 and was inducted on September 11, 2009.^[3]

Jordan is also noted for his product endorsements. He fueled the success of Nike’s Air Jordan sneakers, which were introduced in 1985 and remain popular today.^[4] Jordan also starred in the 1996 feature film Space Jam as himself. He is currently a part-owner and Managing Member of Basketball Operations of the Charlotte Bobcats in North Carolina.