Michael Jordon: The King of Hoops

By Arnie Katz

Michael Jordon has retired from the sport he ruled, but he leaves behind an unparalleled record of achievement. Since MJ is still near the top of his game, fans can only speculate what he might have done with another season or two, but his stats leave little room for improvement.

His marvelous career is the story of how desire, commitment and determination can turn a man into the yardstick against which all future players will be measured.

Though he had trouble making his high school team, Jordan’s drive carried him to stardom as a North Carolina freshman in 1982. He hit the buzzer-beater against Georgetown that won the NCAA national championship for his school.

Named College Player of the Year as a junior, MJ won the first of his two Olympic Gold Medals the same year in Los Angeles. That was also the year he became the third overall draft choice.

Third? Yes, it’s true. The Bulls got the greatest player in basketball history after teams ahead of them grabbed Hakeem Olajuwon and Sam Bowie. Olajuwon is understandable, but today’s fans may well wonder how anyone could’ve picked Bowie ahead of him, too. The closest thing to an explanation for this bizarre mistake is that Jordan was only a junior, and in addition, played within North Carolina coach Dean Smith’s tightly controlled, team-oriented system.

It didn’t take Jordan long to prove that, unleashed in the NBA, he had the skill to rewrite the record book. The league chose him as Rookie of the Year in 1985, and there was no stopping him after that.

The numbers don’t tell the whole story, of course, but they speak volumes. Over his 14 stellar years in the National Basketball Association, Jordan averaged 31.5 points per game and scored 29,277 points.

Unlike such scoring machines as Dominique Wilkins and George Gervin, No. 23 is a complete player. He’s proficient in every phase of the game, not just pounding the ball through the hoop.

He has accomplished the remarkable feat of notching over 5,000 Rebounds (5,836) and Assists (5,012). He hit from inside and outside and – are you listening Shaq? – canned 6,798 Free Throws in 8,115, a sparkling 83.8% percentage!

Jordan, named to the NBA’s all-defensive team eight times, excelled at both ends of the court. He accumulated 2,306 Steals during his 14 years with the Chicago Bulls.

The five-time (1988, 1991, 1992, 1996 and 1998) Most Valuable Player led the NBA in scoring 10 times. He made the all-star first team nine times and took home the coveted Defensive Player of the Year award in 1988.

Some players look for the ball at crunch time, while others treat it like a ticking bomb when the game is on the line. Jordan has always wanted to take the last-second shot, and his record in post-season play testifies to his excellence under pressure. He holds the play-off scoring record with 33.6 points per game.

Finally, there’s the statistic that sums up all the others: Jordan led his team to six NBA Championships. His two runs of three consecutive titles, broken up only by his year in baseball, are a monument to his competitive fire. Now his jersey will hang in the rafters again, but roundball fans will never forget the heroics when he wore it with such pride and grace on the court.

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Arnie Katz is Editor-in-Chief of the Collecting Channel at http://www.collectingchannel.com.

The preceding material was written by Arnie Katz. These are the opinions of the author, not the opinions of eBay, and therefore eBay does not validate the accuracy of or endorse these opinions.