By the late s, the Chicago Bulls were quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with, and Jordan was an instrumental part of the team's success. Jordan was well known by then for his superior athleticism on the court and for his leadership abilities. The team took their third championship the following year, dominating in the basketball world.
Following a short stint in minor league baseball, in March Jordan returned to the basketball court for the Chicago Bulls. He came back even stronger the following year, averaging Chicago nearly matched the previous year's record with 69 wins in , a season that ended with a game six win over the Utah Jazz in the NBA Finals. The two teams faced each other again for the championship in , with Jordan sinking the winning shot in Game 6 to claim his sixth NBA title.
After his second retirement from basketball in , Jordan joined the Washington Wizards in as a part owner and as president of basketball operations. In the fall of , Jordan relinquished these roles to return to the court once more.
He played for the Wizards for two seasons before retiring for good in During the summer of , Jordan made his first appearance at the Olympic Games as a member of the U. Olympic basketball team. The team won the gold at the games that year, which were held in Los Angeles. Jordan later helped the American team bring home the gold medal at the Olympic Games, held in Barcelona, Spain.
Over the 19 years since beginning his professional basketball career, Jordan retired from the sport three times. He first retired in and again in , then finally hung up his jersey for good in In a move that shocked many, after the end of the basketball season, Jordan announced his retirement from basketball to pursue baseball.
For one year, in , Jordan played for a minor league team, the Birmingham Barons, as an outfielder. This decision came shortly following the murder of Jordan's father, who always wanted him to play baseball. He had last played baseball as a high school senior, in During his short career in baseball, which many fans considered a whim, Jordan had a rather dismal.
However many of the people who worked with him at the time said he was an extremely dedicated player with potential. Ability, aptitude, work ethic. He was always so respectful of what we were doing and considerate of his teammates. He had a career high 69 points against the Cleveland Cavaliers in and scored at least 60 points in an NBA game five times.
He scored at least 50 points with the Bulls 33 other times. He is the Bulls franchise career leader in seasons played, games played, points, scoring average at He then led the Bulls to a record in the season and the first of three more championships from after the three from His weirdest experience was when he retired to join the MLB, where he signed with the Chicago White Sox which is probably why he played so badly, but I'll leave my Sox-bashing for a baseball article.
When he came back, he was just as good as ever, and he showed it to the world in his fifth game back from retirement. Jordan took complete control of the game, scoring 55 points. However, the biggest moment of the game had nothing to do with his scoring, but his passing. As the game was winding down, Jordan shocked the world yet again. With the game on the line and the ball in his hands, Jordan found an open Bill Wennington and got the assist on the game-winning shot.
Said Wennington after the game, "Michael Jordan is probably the only player in the world who can score 55 points and his biggest play of the game is a pass. You can never predict what he's going to do. For Michael Jordan, the All-Star weekend was the perfect way to show that, despite being well past the decade mark in NBA experience, he can still play with all the young guys and show them how basketball is played.
But the best part of the week for Jordan financially was the release of his signature shoe, the Air Jordan 3. I had to steal the name from Gatorade for this moment because no other words immortalize this moment like no other. Jordan hit a record six three-point shots in the first half of Game One of the NBA finals and, as if to let the crowd know that he knows what he's doing, gave a shrug towards the crowd.
Some may have called it a cocky move, but most call it another chapter in the outstanding career of the greatest player of all time. Although Jordan won six NBA Championships in his career, his first is just as special as any of them because of the way that he reacted. Jordan was completely aware of the greatness he achieved, and he showed it as he let out all of the emotion that he had, crying like a baby holding onto the trophy.
Through all of the happiness and champagne, Jordan's tears were the main story from a championship season. The city of Cleveland has been host to many great moments, although most of them have come courtesy of other teams. Without a doubt, the best moment Cleveland has seen was Michael Jordan's game-winning shot, which was deemed "The Shot. Even though the Bulls began getting Jordan some offensive and defensive help in young talent like Horace Grant and Scottie Pippen, the Pistons were still the better team.
Jordan averaged 32 points in the series and the Bulls pushed the Pistons to seven games, but still fell short. The big question among the media was whether or not Jordan would ever get past the Pistons, or if his legacy would always be that of a great player without the leadership and championship pedigree necessary to win a title. In Jordan won his third MVP, after Magic Johnson won the previous two, and the Bulls won a franchise-record 61 games, good enough for first place in the Eastern Conference.
They handily took care of the Knicks and 76ers in the first two rounds, which set up another matchup between them and the Pistons. The win closed a somewhat long circle for Jordan as Pistons star point guard Isaiah Thomas led the Eastern Conference veterans in freezing the then-rookie out in the All-Star game. Isaiah was not pleased with the superstar as he led the Pistons to walk out of their Game 4 loss without shaking the hands of the Bulls players.
They had lost only one game so far in the playoffs and had just come off sweeping their longtime rival Pistons. That momentum would not end with the Pistons as the Bulls completed their most successful season in franchise history with a sweep of the Lakers on the way to winning their first-ever NBA Championship. This victory was also a personal one for Jordan as Magic Johnson and he had traded MVP awards back and forth for the last five years while Jordan, and many others in and around the league, believed he was the best player in the league each year.
Once the Bulls had gotten the Pistons monkey off their backs they were unstoppable for the next two years. They won 67 and 57 games respectively in the next two years and dominated playoff play towards their next two trips to the NBA Finals. The ultra-competitive Jordan, always looking for a new grudge to hold, was not pleased with the comparison to Drexler, and torched the Blazers. He scored 35 points in the first half of Game 1, hitting 6 three-pointers, on the way to a rout of the Blazers.
The Blazers hung tough with the Bulls, winning Game 2 and Game 4, but were overmatched in the series. Jordan won Finals MVP averaging 36 points for the series. The Suns had the best record in the NBA in and the Bulls were coming off a pedestrian win season and fatigue of the past five seasons had begun to show during the regular season.
The Bulls, however, showed their Finals experience, beating the Suns in Game 1 and 2. The Suns won Game 3 but were never truly in the series and the Bulls capped off their three-peat in six games. Shortly after their poor showing, the Olympic Committee ruled that allowing only amateur players play for the US, while the rest of the world was allowed to field teams with professional players, was unfair.
Every team they played and beat badly, asked the Dream Team players for pictures and autographs after each game. They wanted to meet the Dream Team. After the Olympics, Michael Jordan was at the top of the world. He had reached a level very few professional athletes had, winning two straight championships — a third would come the following year — and two Olympic gold medals he won one in as an amateur. He was also named Finals MVP in each, averaging over 30 points in every series.
This would all change in the blink of an eye. Shortly after the Bulls captured their third straight championship, Michael Jordan received news that would shift the direction of his career.
Ever the competitor, Jordan announced in early that he was going to try his hand at baseball, the game he and his father both grew up loving. He signed with the Chicago White Sox organization and began training with their minor league organization in March of During his time away from the game of basketball, the Bulls achieved moderate success, winning 55 games in the season and eventually losing to the New York Knicks in the second round of the playoffs.
The next year the Bulls were a. Jordan returned with twenty games remaining in the season. He would show flashes of greatness, most notably dropping 55 points on the Knicks in the fifth game of the season, but the new Jordan showed some rust from his time away.
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