CLEVELAND - Basketball giant Michael Jordan played his first ever regular season game in the pros on this date, 24 years ago.And he still had a head full of hair!
Jordan had been drafted four months prior by the Chicago Bulls after completing his junior year at the University of North Carolina. The lithe, 6'6" guard had also competed in the U.S. Summer Olympics and lead Team USA to a gold medal.
In his first pro game, he appeared a bit tentative but showed flashes of his future dominance. In an opening night matchup against the Washington Bullets, Jordan finished with 16 points, 7 assists and six rebounds. The host Bulls won, 109-93.
Always the high-flying scoring machine, Michael would come to be nicknamed "Air Jordan" which also stemmed from the seminal release of his signature basketball shoe of the same name. Indeed, Nike Inc. premiered the controversial red and black sneaker in the Spring of 1985, shortly after the star rookie took to the skies in the Slam Dunk contest and lost.
Jordan was a winner in his first game though. But we as sports fans were the true winners as MJ's presence came to signal a historic occurrence in American culture.
No comments:
Post a Comment