Michael Jordan’s accomplishments in a vacuum would make a great case for him being the greatest of all time. But the fact that he achieved what he did during what many consider the toughest era of the NBA is what puts him over and above the others.
Despite not playing for 20 years now, many of Jordan’s records stand to this day. He is the oldest player to win an NBA scoring title. And he is the only player who can claim to have scored 50 points in a game in 3 different decades. But one statistic is so ridiculous that it is almost hard to believe.
Michael Jordan is the only player in NBA history to win the NBA’s scoring title, regular-season MVP, the NBA championship, Finals MVP, and make an NBA All-Defensive team in the same season. All of those achievements on their own would be fantastic, but Jordan achieved all of them one season, something no one else can say.
On top of that, he was able to achieve this in 4 different seasons; 1990-91, 1991-92, 1995-96, and 1997-98. He would have achieved it 6 times, but the NBA awarded the MVP to Charles Barkley in 1993, and to Karl Malone in 1997. If Jordan had won MVP in those years, he would have had 6 seasons where he accomplished each of these milestones.
The only other players to come close to this accomplishment are Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Shaquille O’Neal. Both Kareem and Shaq missed out on this historic feat because they were named to the All-Defensive second team in the season that they achieved these accomplishments.
While Jordan did all this in 4 different seasons, many believe that his 1995-96 season is the most perfect season for an individual player. Along with all this, he led the Bulls to a 72-10 regular-season record, which was the best in NBA history until it was bettered by the Warriors in 2016.
This statistic, along with many others, is why Jordan is considered the greatest of all time. In fact, even LeBron James’ teammates, friends, and rivals picked Michael Jordan over him. As for Jordan, his peers and rivals all dubbed him the best ever even while he was still playing basketball.
These accomplishments put into perspective just how brilliant Jordan was during his playing days. He was able to outperform everyone in the NBA on both ends of the court. On top of that, his incredible play allowed for his teams to play winning basketball.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsNiCwlryIg
