19. The put-back dunk on Scottie Pippen’s free-throw attempt
Put-back dunks on missed free frows are some of my favorite plays in basketball. They require an immense amount of athleticism, skill and luck. Three of my favorite things!
When Scottie Pippen lines up to take the free throw, Jordan has a plan. He crashes the rim hard as soon as Scottie releases the ball and leaps to the heavens. Luckily for MJ (and fans of cool highlights), the ball bounced off the rim perfectly and into Jordan’s outstretched hand.
He then proceeds to throw down an elegant, graceful one-handed hammer as the Portland Trail Blazers just sit back and watch. This also seems like a good time to give a shout out to the Blazers for putting on a wonderful display of ball-watching and letting MJ sift right through the middle of the lane. Thanks, Blazers! This highlight wouldn’t have been possible without you.
18. His jersey retirement
Any time a player gets his jersey retired it’s a special moment. The franchise thinks you were so important that no one should get to wear your jersey ever again.
The Bulls have only retired the jerseys of four players: Jerry Sloan, Bob Love, Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan. The other two retired jerseys are Phil Jackson (as head coach) and Jerry Krause (as general manager).
The interesting thing about Jordan’s jersey, though, is that it was retired before he won his final three championships. Of course, at the time of the jersey retirement, no one knew MJ was coming back to dominate the NBA for a few more years, so it made sense.
Another important note: the Miami Heat also retired Michael Jordan’s jersey number. Yes, that’s right. No Miami Heat player will ever wear no. 23 because that’s how important they thought MJ was to the game of basketball. That’s an incredible honor.