The Sports Lowdown For All Your News and OpinionsOctober 26th, 1984. A young Michael Jordan makes his debut in the NBA for the Chicago Bulls beginning the journey of one of the greatest sportsman there has ever been.
The Washington Bullets were to be Jordan’s opponents in his first game of his professional career and he didn’t disappoint. He finished the game with seven assists, six rebounds and 16 points. Chicago went on to win the game 109-93.
Orlando Woolridge and Quintin Dailey were part of the Bulls team that day and also scored in the game. However, neither of them passed the ball much and Dailey openly resented Jordan coming for his job.
Even Washington knew who they were playing against. Afterall, Jordan had just come back that Summer from playing in the 1984 Olympic games in Los Angeles. He was one of four players who averaged double-figures across the tournament regarding points with 17.1.
He would finish the 1984-85 season winning the Rookie of the Year award averaging 28.2 points, 5.9 assists, 6.5 rebounds and 2.4 steals. If that wasn’t enough, Jordan would also be selected by fans and be voted in to appear in the 1985 All-Star game at the end of the season.
His debut All-Star game would come with controversy after it was reported that before the game had even started that some experienced players being led by Isiah Thomas, were upset over the amount of attention that Jordan was receiving at the time. As a result of this, this led to what was known as the ‘freeze-out’ where players refused to pass the ball to Jordan through the game.
Despite the ups and downs of his debut season, Michael Jordan would go on to become possibly one of the greatest basketball players, if not the greatest, of all time. With numerous awards to his name, his career highlights include:
- 2x Olympic Gold Medals
- 6x NBA Champion
- 5x NBA Most Valuable Player
- 10x Scoring Champion
- 14x NBA All Star Appearances
- 3x NBA All Star Most Valuable Player
The ‘Air Jordan’ line for Nike would also prove to be extremely successful making him a household name across the globe. 1996 would see Jordan join forces with the Looney Tunes in the movie ‘Space Jam’ which was a commercial success.
