nba michael jordan

Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17 , 1963 ) is a former American NBA player, and is considered by many to be the greatest basketball player of all time.
A remarkable force at both ends of the floor, "MJ" ended a career of 15 full seasons with a regular-season scoring average of 30.12 points per game, the highest in NBA history (ahead of Wilt Chamberlain 's 30.06). He won six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls, notched up 10 scoring titles, and was league MVP five times. He was named to the All- Defensive First Team nine times, and led the league in steals three times. Since 1983 , he has appeared on the front cover of Sports Illustrated a record 49 times, and was named the magazine's " Sportsman of the Year " in 1991. In 1999, he was named "the greatest North American athlete of the 20th century" by ESPN , and placed second on the Associated Press list of top athletes of the century. His leaping ability, vividly illustrated by dunking from the foul line and other feats, earned him the nicknames "Air Jordan" and "His Airness."
Early years
Michael was born in Brooklyn , New York to James and Delores Jordan. The family moved to Wilmington, North Carolina when Michael was still a young child. Michael Jordan has two older brothers, one older sister, and one younger sister. He attended Emsley A. Laney High School, where he was a B+ student and a three-sport star in football (he played quarterback ), baseball , and basketball.
Jordan earned a basketball scholarship with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , where he majored in geography . As a freshman, Jordan was an exciting but not dominant player. Nonetheless, he made the winning shot in the 1982 NCAA Basketball Championship game against Georgetown , led by future NBA rival Patrick Ewing . After winning the Naismith College Player of the Year award in 1984 , he left school early to enter the NBA Draft , and was selected by the Chicago Bulls in the first round as the 3rd pick overall, after Houston Rockets center Hakeem Olajuwon and Sam Bowie of the Portland Trail Blazers .
NBA career: Overview
Jordan played 13 seasons for the Bulls , generally as a shooting guard , but his height of 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m), skills, and physical conditioning also made him a versatile threat at point guard and small forward . He won six NBA Championships ( 1991 - 1993 and 1996 - 1998 ) and was league MVP five times ( 1988 , 1991 , 1992 , 1996 and 1998 ). He was also named Rookie of the Year ( 1985 ) and Defensive Player of the Year ( 1988 ), and won the Finals MVP award every year the Bulls reached the Finals. He also earned the elusive MVP triple crown (regular season, finals, all-star game) twice in 1996 and 1998. Only Willis Reed ( 1970 ) and Shaquille O'Neal ( 2000 ) have won all three MVP awards in the same season. In 1997 , he also recorded the only triple-double in an All-Star game.
Jordan's coach for most of his career was Phil Jackson , who said:
"The thing about Michael is he takes nothing for granted. When he first came into the league in 1984, he was primarily a penetrator. His outside shooting wasn't up to professional standards. So he put in his gym time in the off-season, shooting hundreds of shots each day. Eventually, he became a deadly three-point shooter." Early NBA Career
Despite scoring "only" 16 points in his first NBA game, Jordan took the league by storm in his rookie year, scoring 40 or more points seven times en route to a 28.2 PPG season. He also averaged 6.5 rebounds, 5.9 assists, and 2.4 steals per game. He revived interest in a floundering Bulls franchise and received a spot on the All-Star team and the Rookie of the Year award.
In the third game of the 1985-1986 NBA season, Jordan broke a bone in his foot and missed all but 18 regular-season games. Upon his return, Jordan was restricted to a limited number of minutes per game by Coach Stan Albeck and General Manager Jerry Krause . This soured his relationship with Krause for the rest of his career. In spite of his injury, the Bulls still managed to make the playoffs, where they were defeated in three games by the eventual champion Boston Celtics. Although the Bulls were soundly defeated, the series is best remembered for Jordan's 63 points in Game 2, an NBA playoff scoring record for a single game that still stands.
The following season established Jordan as one of the best players in the league. Jordan scored 50 or more points eight times during the regular season, won his first scoring title with a 37.1 PPG average, and became the only player besides Wilt Chamberlain to score 3,000 points in a season. He finished runner-up to Magic Johnson in MVP voting. The playoffs ended as they did the year before, in a 3-game sweep by the Celtics.
The Jordan Rules
Jordan dunking in a slam dunk contest. In his fourth season, Jordan averaged 35 PPG, 5.5 RPG, and 5.9 APG, won his first MVP award and the Defensive Player of the Year award (garnering 259 steals and 131 blocks, unusually high for a guard), was named MVP of the All-Star Game, and won his second consecutive Slam Dunk contest with a dunk from the free throw line. Jordan's Bulls got out of the first round for the first time, beating the Cleveland Cavaliers in five games (with Jordan averaging 45.2 PPG during the series) before losing in five games to the eventual Eastern Conference Champion Detroit Pistons.
In 1988-89, Jordan averaged 32.5 PPG, 8 RPG, and 8 APG and finishing second in the MVP voting. He established himself as one of the NBA's great clutch performers with a last-second dagger over Craig Ehlo in Game 5 in the first round of the playoffs. The Bulls, fueled by the emergence of Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant as starters, defeated the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference semi-finals and lost to the Pistons in the Conference Finals.
The Pistons, with their punishing, physical play, established a plan for playing against Jordan, dubbed "The Jordan Rules": double- and triple-teaming the guard every time he touched the ball, hammering him while he drove to the basket, and forcing him to rely on his inexperienced teammates.
Coach Phil Jackson took over the team in the 1989-90 season, in which Jordan averaged 33.6 points, 6.9 rebounds, 6.3 assists, and finishing third place in the MVP voting. The Bulls lost to the Pistons in seven games in the conference finals.
The First 3-Peat
In the 1990-91 season, Michael Jordan, motivated by the narrow defeat to the Pistons a year earlier, finally bought into Jackson and assistant coach Tex Winter 's triangle offense after years of resistance. That year, he won his second MVP award, posting a 31.5/6.0/5.5 season, and the Bulls finished in first place for the first time in 16 years. With Scottie Pippen developing into an All-Star, the Bulls proved too strong for their Eastern Conference competition. After sweeping the New York Knicks and beating the Philadelphia 76ers in five games, the Bulls finally conquered their longtime roadblock, the Pistons, in the Eastern Conference Finals. With Jordan fully commiting to the Triangle Offense and placing trust in his teammates, the Bulls played as a team. Unaccustomed to a Bulls squad that didn't depend on Jordan exclusively, the Pistons tried to break Chicago's resolve and coerce the team into reverting to their old style. However, by staying tough and sticking to their gameplan, Chicago would subvert the Jordan Rules and finally learn how to win as a team. Chicago ultimately dominated the series, sweeping Detroit in four games. The final game of the series is most famous for the Pistons walking off the court during the final seconds of the game without even shaking the hands of the Chicago players (an act of poor sportsmanship that was not soon forgotten: a feud between Jordan and Pistons star Isiah Thomas reportedly continues even to this day). The Bulls went on to defeat Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals. Jordan unanimously won his first NBA Finals MVP award, and famously wept while holding his first NBA Finals trophy.
MJ & the Bulls win the 1991 Championship. Jordan and the Bulls continued their dominance in the 1991-1992 season, finishing with a 67-15 record. Jordan won his second consecutive MVP award with a 30.1/6.4/6.1 season. After winning a physical 7-game series over the burgeoning New York Knicks in the 2nd round and finishing off the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Conference Finals with yet another last-second shot, the Bulls faced off against Clyde Drexler and the Portland Trail Blazers in the Finals. The media, hoping to recreate a Magic-Bird type rivalry in Jordan-Drexler, compared the two throughout the pre-Finals hype. Perhaps motivated by what he felt was a comparison to an inferior player, Jordan responded by draining six 3-pointers and scoring 35 points in the first half of Game 1. The Bulls would go on to win the game, and then wrapped up the series in six games. For his dominating performance, Jordan was named Finals MVP for the second year in a row.
In 1992-93, despite a 32.6/6.7/5.5 campaign, Jordan's streak of consecutive MVP seasons ended, as he lost the award to his friend Charles Barkley . Fittingly, though, Jordan and the Bulls would end up meeting Barkley and his Phoenix Suns in the 1993 NBA Finals, and Michael's perceived MVP slighting only fueled his competitive fire. The Bulls would capture their 3rd consecutive NBA championship on a game-winning shot by John Paxson and a last-second block by Horace Grant , but Jordan was once again Chicago's catalyst. He averaged a Finals-record 41.0 PPG during the six-game series, and in the process became the first player in NBA history to win 3 straight Finals MVPs. With the Finals triumph, Jordan capped off what may have been the most spectacular seven-year run by an athlete ever, but there were signs that Jordan was tiring of his massive celebrity and all of the non-basketball hassles in his life.