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October 26, 1984 Michael Jordan NBA Debut Photograph (PSA Type I)
"By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time," says the official National Basketball Association website. Few disagree that Jordan is the pro basketball G.O.A.T. Presented is an NBA debut Type I photograph of Hall of Famer Jordan's first professional regular season game, on October 26, 1984, at Chicago Stadium, before 13,913, against the Washington Bullets. In college, "MJ" had played for North Carolina under Hall of Fame coach Dean Smith for three seasons, 1982-85, leaving to enter the NBA Draft after his junior season. Playing mostly at small forward, the 6'6" Jordan averaged 17.7 PPG in his North Carolina years, with a career 5.0 RPG and 1.8 APG. As a freshman, Jordan hit the winning shot in the 1981-82 season to give North Carolina the NCAA Championship over Georgetown, with star center Patrick Ewing. A consensus All-American in his sophomore and junior seasons, Jordan was taken as the 3rd overall pick in the 1984 NBA Draft by the Chicago Bulls. After Jordan was an established superstar, the "tongue-in-cheek" question in basketball circles was, "Who is the only man who could stop Michael Jordan?" The answer was, "Dean Smith (his coach at UNC)." Although Dean Smith is acknowledged as one of the greatest college basketball coaches of all time, Smith's team-oriented offense and his four-corners offense, without the pressures of a time clock, did not permit Jordan to run wild on offense, and, in a way, "stopped him." That immediately changed in the NBA. In Jordan's first regular season game, he started and played 40 minutes, and shot 5-16 from the field (all 2-point attempts) and hit 6-7 foul shots to tally 16 points, second in points on the Bulls that night to Orlando Woolridge, who notched 27. Jordan helped the Bulls take a 34-19 lead after a quarter, and although the Bullets narrowed the gap in the third quarter, Jordan helped Chicago pull ahead at the end for a 109-93 win. "His Airness," who would become the 1984-85 NBA Rookie of the Year, also added 6 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals and 4 blocks for an auspicious debut. For his NBA career, Jordan averaged 30.1 PPG, was a 6-time NBA Champion, a 6-time NBA Finals MVP, a 5-time NBA MVP, a 14-time All-Star, a 9-time NBA All-Defensive Team, and the 1998 NBA Defensive Player of the Year. Most incredible, however, was Jordan's leadership. As his first coach with the Bulls, Kevin Loughery, explained, "For me, the surprise was that a guy (Jordan) could come in and take over a team (the Bulls) like that, right from the start." Jordan's amazing leadership took the Bulls to an almost unbelievable two three-peats (three consecutive NBA Championships in a row) in 1991-93 & 1996-98. The offered Type I photograph was taken by Dan Bierman for the Chicago Sun-Times. The 8x10" black & white photo depicts Jordan dribbling up court, with his tongue starting to stick out, already his trademark, and a sure sign that he was getting close to the basket. The offered Type I photo, which comes with a PSA LOA, is in excellent condition, and it provides a splendid action shot of Jordan, still with hair, driving towards the basket on the way to making a smashing success of his debut, and at the very start to becoming basketball's Greatest of All Time.
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