|
|---|
Thursday, March 26, 2009
I got this piece of greatness in an email from ESPN’s research department so I wanted to pass it along.
It's coming.
The official announcement of the 2009 Basketball Hall of Fame inductees will come April 6 in Detroit at the NCAA Final Four, with the induction set for the weekend of Sept. 10-12 at the Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass.
In advance of the announcement, here are some graphics and a top 10 for use (graphics are updated to assume Jordan will be among those named):
*How good was Michael Jordan? Not only was he a great player, he was a great winner. Jordan is one of seven players in the history of basketball to win an NCAA title, an NBA title and a gold medal. Jordan will be the sixth of those players in the Hall of Fame.
*Michael Jordan did just about everything that a player could do? He won the NCAA title, won NBA titles, won MVPs, won gold medals, won scoring titles. Here is Michael Jordan by the numbers.
Michael Jordan By the Numbers
Basketball Career
NCAA Titles: 1
Olympic Gold Medals: 2
NBA MVPs: 5
NBA Titles: 6
NBA Finals MVPs: 6<
NBA Scoring Titles: 10<
NBA All-Star Selections: 14
>most all-time
*Michael Jordan was the greatest scorer that the NBA has ever seen. His career scoring average is percentage points ahead of Wilt Chamberlain on the all-time list.
Highest Career PPG
NBA History (min. 400 games)
Michael Jordan 30.1 (actually 30.12)
Wilt Chamberlain 30.1 (actually 30.07)
LeBron James 27.5<
Elgin Baylor 27.4
Allen Iverson 27.1<
>active player
*Perhaps the measure of the greatest players in NBA history is how many MVP awards they have won. Michael Jordan has won five of those awards, putting him in the company of the greatest players the game has ever seen.
Most NBA MVPs
All-time
Michael Jordan's Top 10 On-Court Moments
1) Bulls vs Jazz (1998 NBA Finals - Game 6) - June 14, 1998
In what might have been the last and most dramatic moment of his amazing career, Michael Jordan lifted the Chicago Bulls to their sixth world championship in eight years. Jordan scored 45 points, including the game-winning jump shot with 5.2 seconds remaining, to carry the Bulls past Utah 87-86 to win their third consecutive NBA title. The Bulls captured the best-of-seven finals 4-2, the same margin by which they beat Utah in last year's finals, and Jordan was named the Most Valuable Player of the NBA Finals for the sixth time, all in title runs. "Of all the championships we have won, this was the toughest," Jordan said. Jordan drove for a basket with 37 seconds remaining to pull Chicago within 86-85, then stole the ball from Utah's Karl Malone. Seconds later he faked out Utah's Byron Russell and sinking an open 20-foot jump shot to give the Bulls the lead. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WULyz1-OQc
2) Bulls vs Cavaliers (1989 First Round - Game 5) - May 7, 1989
There were more famous shots, ones that started wars and revolutions. The one Sunday by Michael Jordan merely ended a game. But, oh, what a game! It will linger in the memory longer than the 101-100 final score that sent the Bulls into a best-of-seven second-round playoff series against the Knicks, starting Tuesday in New York. The Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers exchanged leads nine times in the last three minutes of a game that couldn't have been approved by the American Heart Association. It was decided when Jordan hit a pulse-pounding, I-don't-believe-it 15-foot jumper from just outside the foul line at the final buzzer. Jordan's winner, giving him 44 points, came three seconds after Cleveland had gone up by one. "That is probably the biggest shot I've hit in the NBA, mainly because I put my credibility on the line," said Jordan, who had predicted a Bulls advance in four games and then failed on two last-minute chances to do just that Friday night. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuCxuq-yn1w&feature=related
3) North Carolina vs Georgetown (NCAA Title Game) - March 29, 1982
In the NCAA title game against Georgetown, Michael Jordan hits the game-winning shot as a freshman to give UNC the title. He legacy was just beginning. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2Nnc_itdEc
4) Bulls vs Lakers (NBA Finals - Game 2) - June 5, 1991
Who could ever forget Marv Albert's famous call of Michael Jordan driving down the lane, rising up with the ball in his left hand, then switching hands as Albert says, "Oh, a spectacular move by Michael Jordan." It was the 13th consecutive made field goal in the game for MJ.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT1yNyRwd7w&feature=related
5) Bulls vs Blazers (NBA Finals Game 1) - June 3, 1992
In a phenomenal display of grace and accuracy, Michael Jordan deflated the Portland Trail Blazers with a little Air ball at Chicago Stadium. Continually confounding the Blazers in the first half, Jordan scored 35 of his 39 points as the Bulls rolled to a 122-89 victory in Game 1 of the NBA finals. Jordan warmed up with 18 in the first quarter on 7-for-13 shooting, basically keeping the Bulls in it. Then he took the Blazers out of it in the second quarter, playing just the final 6:34 of the period but hitting 7 of 8 shots for 17 more points. Jordan broke a 30-year-old NBA finals record for points in a half held by Elgin Baylor of the Lakers with 33 against the Celtics in 1962. Customarily, Jordan's destructiveness is wrought with swooping hoops in the lane. But this time the Air show featured bombs from Lake Michigan.
6) Bulls vs Celtics (First Round - Game 2) - April 20, 1986
Michael Jordan was able to play in only 18 regular-season games in his second year in the NBA, after breaking a small bone in his foot in Chicago's third game of the year. Although he was encouraged to sit out the end of the season in order to make sure he was fully healed for the next, he insisted on coming back late in the season and led the Bulls to the 1986 NBA Playoffs. It was in Game 2 of Chicago's first round matchup against the eventual NBA champion Boston Celtics that Jordan showed just how thoroughly he had recovered. In the hallowed halls of the Boston Garden, he set a playoff record by scoring an amazing 63 points against what many considered to be one of the greatest NBA teams ever. The Celtics won the game, 135-131 in double-overtime, and went on to sweep the Bulls, but Jordan's playoff record still stands.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69vkEcc-zfc
7) Bulls vs Jazz (NBA Finals - Game 5) - June 11, 1997
Bitten hard by the flu bug, Michael Jordan was so ill some speculated that he wouldn't be able to play in Game 5 against the Jazz in Utah with the series tied at 2-2. Jordan fought the Jazz, dehydration and exhaustion (he could barely walk to the bench during timeouts) -- and won. Jordan turned in another masterful performance with 38 points and seven rebounds, sending the series back to Chicago with the Bulls up 3-2 in the series. Two days later, the Bulls won their fifth title in six years. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4BswHnf0xM
8) Bulls vs Knicks (First Round - Game 3) - April 30, 1991
Michael Jordan's exclamation point on the opening round series win over the Knicks is a spin around Charles Oakley, followed by a facial on Patrick Ewing. The Bulls would go onto win the NBA title. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HDdT1oBcXA
9) Michael Jordan vs Dominique Wilkins - 1988 Slam Dunk Contest
Michael Jordan was vying with Dominique Wilkins in the final dunkoff, and all was going well until the latter's closing maneuver. Wilkins did everything but shave and brush his teeth in midflight on his third and last jump, but a panel of five judges awarded him only 45 points, well shy of the perfect 50. He was stuck at 145, and it was all up to Michael. Way up. The man logs more air hours than Geraldo Rivera, the difference being that Jordan produces more than an empty vault before signing off. Anyway, Jordan, sicko golfer that he is, made excellent use of a Mulligan off a previous miss and lined up at the opposite end of the floor, one foot on the court, one foot in the organ loft. When he landed, four dribbles and one ZIP code later, Jordan had authored an acrobatic slam to rousing reviews. The audience loved it, as did the jury, all men of vision. "My Julius Erving," said Jordan, whose 50 points brought him 147, victory and $12,500 he dearly needs to eat three squares a day. "The one I didn't make before that? That was my three-putt."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBmrGe4zGdY&feature=related
10) Bulls vs Cavaliers (Conf. Finals - Game 4) - May 17, 1993
The situation was so eerily similar, Michael Jordan couldn't help thinking back to 1989. "You dream about a challenge like this. I had very similar thoughts, positive thoughts," Jordan said Monday night after he sank yet another once-in-a-lifetime shot at the buzzer to beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 103-101, sending the Chicago Bulls to their fifth straight Eastern Conference finals. Monday night, the score was tied at 101 when Jordan went one-on-one with Gerald Wilkins, the man Cleveland had acquired expressly for this purpose. As Jordan worked on the right wing with less than 10 seconds to play, Wilkins slapped the ball away, but Jordan quickly retrieved it. His back to Wilkins, he worked in toward the foul line, glanced up at the clock at the far end of the court - it showed 3.5 seconds - then wheeled and shot a fadeaway over Wilkins' outstretched hand. The ball nestled into the net as the buzzer sounded, stunning the sellout crowd of 20,273.
NOTE: Most summaries are from newspaper reports
0 Comments:
