It was announced in a press conference in Detroit today that Michael Jordan will be inducted into the basketball hall of fame along with John Stockton, David Robinson, Jerry Sloan, and C. Vivian Stringer.
The biggest disappointment is that Chicago Bulls legend, Johnny Red Kerr, failed to make the Hall of Fame once again.
This is an interesting class for Jordan to be inducted into because it includes two members of the Utah Jazz, John Stockton and Jerry Sloan, who Jordan denied a championship to in the late 1990’s.
This is going to be a great day for basketball and a great day for the NBA. Michael Jordan is by far the greatest player in the history of the NBA.
Jordan just had it all. He was a great scorer, but also a great passer and a lockdown defender. Some critics will argue that Michael Jordan is the better player and that Kobe Bryant is the better scorer. This is simply false. Jordan averaged more points on a higher scoring efficiency in the hand check era.
What made Jordan so great, is that he was great every step of the way, he did it all.
In 1982 he won a national championship with North Carolina. In 1984 he was named the AP College Player of the Year while winning the John R. Wooden Award.
He jumped into the NBA hot, becoming the NBA’s Rookie of the Year in 1985. In February of 1988, he would win his first Allstar Game MVP, and then finish the year becoming the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year and securing his first MVP. In 1991 he led the Bulls over the Los Angeles Lakers in five games in the NBA Finals and became an NBA Champion as well as the Finals MVP.
In 1992, Jordan had done it all, becoming an Olympic Gold Medalist as the Dream Team won the gold in the 1992 Summer Olympics.
In total Jordan had won 6 NBA Championships, 1 NCAA Championship, 1 Olypmic Gold Medal, won 2 college player of the year awards, was a 14 time NBA Allstar, was a 3 time Allstar Game MVP, 6 time NBA MVP, 1 time NBA Defensive Player of the Year, 6 time NBA Finals MVP.
His other honors include being a McDonald’s All American, being a 2 time NCAA AP All American. He made the NBA All Rookie First Team, made the All NBA Second Team once, made the All NBA First Team 10 times, and made the NBA All Defensive First Team 9 times.
His gaudy stats and endless lists of awards, honors, and championships made Michael Jordan the greatest basketball player ever, but his flair for the dramatic is what allowed him to transcend sports.
Michael Jordan had to do everything big and do everything great. He led the greatest basketball team ever to 72 wins. He hit 25 game winners throughout his career, including the famous jumpshot over Craig Ehlo. He led the Bulls back from 16 down in Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals, scoring 38 points while playing 44 minutes with the flu. In 1998, his final game as a Chicago Bull, Jordan scored 45 points and hit the game winning jumpshot over Byron Russell to lead the Bulls to their second straight Finals victory over the Utah Jazz.
It will be a big day when Jordan is inducted into the basketball hall of fame. I don’t think Jordan should have his own day being inducted into the hall of fame. That diminishes the accomplishments of other players, such as John Stockton, who leads the NBA in career assists. But I do think that the NBA and the sports world need to play this up as a big day, because it’s not everyday that you get to see the greatest athlete of all time inducted into his sports’ hall of fame.
