Too Short for the Team
Michael Jordan was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1963 and grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina, playing basketball, baseball and football.
In his second year of high school, he tried out for the school's top basketball team. At 1.80 metres, he was judged too short and did not make it. Determined to prove himself, he became the star of the school's second team, scoring around 40 points in some games. The next summer he grew about 10 centimetres and trained hard. Once he made the top team, he averaged more than 25 points a game. He also picked the number that would become famous: 23.
At the University of North Carolina, he studied geography, partly because he was interested in becoming a weather forecaster. As a first-year player in 1982, he made the winning shot in the national championship game against Georgetown. He later called that shot the turning point of his career.
Air Jordan Takes Off
The Chicago Bulls picked Jordan third in the 1984 NBA draft. Portland took Sam Bowie ahead of him, a choice ESPN later named the worst draft pick in North American professional sports history.
Jordan was an instant star. He was named Rookie of the Year, the award for the best rookie in the league, and fans voted him into the All-Star Game in his very first season. His leaping ability, including a slam dunk from the free-throw line, earned him the nicknames Air Jordan and His Airness.
In 1985, during an exhibition game in Italy, he dunked so hard that he shattered the glass backboard. The shoes he wore that day later sold at auction for 615,000 dollars, a record for a pair of sneakers.
Nike had created his own shoe, the Air Jordan, in 1984. It grew so popular that Nike later spun it off into its own division, the Jordan Brand. In 1986, he scored 63 points in a single playoff game, breaking the record at the time.
Six Rings in Eight Years
Winning it all took a new approach. Coach Phil Jackson brought in the triangle offense, which asked Jordan to take fewer shots so his teammates could get more involved. Jordan was reluctant at first, but it worked.
The Bulls won the championship in 1991, 1992 and 1993, a three-peat. After the first title, Jordan cried while holding the trophy.
Then, in October 1993, he shocked the sports world by retiring, saying he had lost his desire to play. He signed to play minor league baseball in the Chicago White Sox system, chasing a dream his late father had for him.
In March 1995, he returned with a two-word press release: I'm back. The next season, the Bulls won 72 of their 82 regular season games, then the best record in NBA history, and went on to win three more titles in 1996, 1997 and 1998. In the 1997 Finals, he scored 38 points while sick, in what became known as The Flu Game.
The Last Shot
The 1998 Finals ended with one of the most famous finishes in basketball. In Game 6 against the Utah Jazz, with the Bulls behind, Jordan scored, then stole the ball from Karl Malone. With 5.2 seconds left, he hit the jump shot that gave Chicago its sixth championship.
He was named Finals MVP for a record sixth time. The 1998 Finals still holds the highest TV rating of any NBA Finals, and Game 6 remains the highest-rated game in NBA history.
He retired again, then came back for two final seasons with the Washington Wizards. In his last game, in April 2003, the crowd in Philadelphia chanted We want Mike until he went back onto the court, and he left to a three-minute standing ovation.
His record speaks for itself: six championships, six Finals MVP awards, five regular season MVP awards and 10 scoring titles. Many consider him the greatest basketball player of all time. He even starred alongside Bugs Bunny in the 1996 film Space Jam.
