Michael Jordan’s bad mistakes

Michael Jordan, for many (most) the best basketball players of all time, is fourteen times All-Star. He didn’t end up with higher numbers due to career breaks, first after retiring from 1993 to 1995, and second after a sixth ring before returning three years later to play for the Washington Wizards for two years, and twice All-Star (2002 and 2003).Therefore, in the all-time rankings, they are ahead of Shaquille O’Neal, Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan (all three are 15 years old), Kobe Bryant (18 years old), Kareem Ah Abdul-Jabbar and LeBron James, among others 19 In a few weeks LeBron will (he will be the first to do so) turn twenty.

Jordan won the All-Star Game MVP three times: 1988, 1996 and 1998. The first of them, not coincidentally, was in Chicago. He also won two of the most iconic dunk contests in history (1987 and 1988), and his flight was unforgettable at the moment his career took off. Super star.but twenty three He also left the All-Stars His name appears in one of the few moments on the dark side of history: In 1990, his involvement in the three-point game was at its lowest ever.

Jordan’s participation in that game was already weird from the start. In the five years before the 1989-90 season, he only made 56 three-pointers. He’s not a specialist: Outside shooting was a resource he perfected as his career progressed until it became lethal in his second season. 3 Peat (1996-98), but his favorite area is the mid-to-long range; moreover, the average team uses much fewer three-man lines than now, with triple revolution Has been installed perfectly. In the 1989-90 season, his numbers did improve: 37% from three-point range and a total of 92 points (245 attempts).. But, of course, his name doesn’t fit (numerically) like Larry Bird (who won three of the four previous games held), Reggie Miller, Mark Price or Experts like his Bulls teammate Craig Hodges. Won that game and the next two and became one of the historical references of the game, before also becoming a player who was persecuted and banned for his social struggles.

Throughout his career, Jordan invested Regular season 581 triples, accounting for 32.7%. Of course, in the 1992 Finals, he achieved a milestone that no one has surpassed: He scored six points in just half a game (35 points before halftime, scoring 6/9). It was the first game of the Bulls-Trail Blazers series, and that day, after scoring the sixth point, he made a famous gesture shrug, one of the most iconic moments of his extraordinary career. But first, in Miami, skating Definitely in the 1990 trio: Signed 5/30 with 16.6%, which is (still) the worst figure ever, along with German Detlef Schrempf, who also stood at 5 in 1988. He didn’t score any doubles, and his racing series were 2/5, 1/5, 1/5, 1/5 and 0/5. “I want to forget about it as soon as possible, I think it was the worst game ever, I shot it with no one guarding me… it puts you in your position,” he said later.

In one of the most important books about Michael Jordan’s career, controversial Jordan Rules Sam Smith uses this game to tell us By then he was tired of the NBA world and began to think about his first retirement in 1993. This was influenced by a variety of factors, some of which were undoubtedly dark, including his father’s murder. According to Smith, Jordan didn’t want to play in the All-Star Game and told former Bulls general manager Rod Thorn, who later worked in the NBA offices, that they’d better increase the bonus pool. Thorne announced Jordan’s participation even before the changes to those awards were finalized, and Jordan was planning to skip the appointment with the complicity of the Bulls’ medical team, which claimed he had medical issues.

But Jordan went to Miami and screwed up the three-point game, and Smith recalls a curious fact about his career: “He shot more threes that season and scored more threes. But He was nervous and ended up staying at five points. There, he completely grew tired of the All-Star game. At some point, he was tired of basketball. “Five more years,” he told his teammates that January. “In five more years, I’ll be out of here.” I marked the remaining days on my calendar as if I were in prison. “I’m tired of being taken advantage of by this team, by this league, by reporters… by everyone.”