17. His career-high 69-point game
MJ was good at every aspect of basketball, but scoring was clearly his best skill. On March 28, 1990, he had his greatest scoring game ever, tallying 69 points.
The most mindblowing part about this performance isn’t his final scoring mark, it’s the efficiency with which he reached that mark. Jordan shot 23-of-37 from the field (incredible), 2-of-6 from 3-point range (not bad) and 21-of-23 from the free-throw line (amazing). He had a 73.2 (73.2!) true shooting percentage. That’s downright absurd.
Jordan did more than just put the ball in the basket in this game, though. He totaled 18 rebounds (seven offensive), six assists, four steals and only two turnovers. I mean… he took 37 shots, dished out six assists, played 50 minutes, had a usage percentage of 42.6 and still only turned the ball over twice! That’s almost hard to believe.
Not only was this one of his best individual performances of his career, but it was also a really nice team win in overtime. I’m not going to name any names, but a certain youngster in Phoenix who scored a beloved 70 points one night relatively recently did so in a blowout loss. Jordan’s 69 was in a win. These things matter.
16. His first MVP award
Between 1984 and 1990, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson each won three MVP awards. The only year in that time frame neither of them won? 1988 – thanks to Michael Jordan taking home his first MVP hardware.
Jordan’s 1987-88 season was mesmerizing. Let’s take a quick dive into the numbers.
He led the league in points (35), steals (3.2), minutes per game (40.4), win shares (21.2), box plus/minus (12.2) and value over replacement player (11.8). For reference on that last stat, LeBron’s highest ever VORP was 11.6 in the 2008-09 season. James Harden’s VORP last season was 9.9. And for reference on BPM (box plus/minus), Harden led the league last year at an impressive mark of 11.7 – just slightly below MJ’s 12.2 during his first MVP season.
For a young MJ, getting that Bulls team to a 50-win season was really impressive. Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant were rookies, Charles Oakley was arguably the team’s second-best player and Brad Sellers was a starter. It’s safe to say Jordan earned that MVP.