Michael Jordan scored at least 50 points. He's done it 38 times in his career. Michael Jordan wowed the basketball world 39 times with 50-point performances. Because MJ accomplished it 38 times with the Bulls' jersey, including 22 times in Chicago, Bulls fans got the best view. The NBA has never had a other 50-point scorer besides Jordan.
He spent the first 12 seasons of his career with the Chicago Bulls, and he finished as the team leader in almost every major category: games played (1,731), minutes played (319,844), field goals made (22,683), field goal attempts (39,439), three-pointers made (6,512), free throw attempts (15,176), and total rebounds (10,020). During that time, the Bulls won six championships. In 1997, after leading the Bulls to their sixth title, Jordan announced his retirement from playing basketball. He came back in 2003 for one final season with the Bulls before retiring for good.
During his career, Jordan averaged 50.4 points per game, which is second only to Wilt Chamberlain's 100 points per game. Only two players have ever scored 50 or more points in an NBA game: Jordan and Chamberlain.
Chamberlain did it seven times, all with the Philadelphia 76ers. The last time they did it was in 1975 when he scored 61 points.
Only once in Jordan's career did an enemy player score 50 points or more against the Bulls (Dominique Wilkins 57, 12/10/86). Jordan scored 29,277 points from 1984-85 through 1997-98, accounting for 24.23 percent of the Bulls' total of 120,818 points.
Wilkins was a great player who enjoyed great success with the Atlanta Hawks and New York Knicks. The Bulls defeated Atlanta 111-107 on 12/10/1986 to take control of the first-round playoff series 3-2. With his 52nd point of the game, Jordan surpassed Jerry West as the leading scorer in NBA history. West had previously held this record since 1973 when he tallied 51 points for the Los Angeles Lakers vs. the Chicago Bulls!
The next day, December 11th, the Bulls lost Game 5 112-109 in Chicago. With time running out, Jordan hit a three-pointer at the end of regulation to send the game into overtime. In the first minute of the extra period, Wilkins scored 47 points to break the record down again!
In Game 6 back in Atlanta, the Bulls took control early by outscoring the Hawks 31-14 in the first quarter. Jordan had 18 points before leaving the game with a calf injury. Without him, the Bulls fell behind 60-49 heading into the fourth quarter.
Jordan has 30 games with at least 50 points from 1984-85 to 1997-98 (his Bulls years). Dominique Wilkins had the next greatest total during that time period, with seven. Despite Jordan missing more than a season and a half to play baseball.
He played 694 games over eight seasons, which is about 95 per year. That's not very much considering how often they play these days. In fact, the average NBA player now plays about 70 games per year.
However, consider that Jordan missed nearly two full seasons of playing time due to an ongoing contract dispute with the Bulls. The final season of his deal was also cut short when he decided to retire after the 1998 season.
So, overall, we can say that Michael Jordan played eight seasons in the NBA and averaged about 95 games per year. He scored 30 points in every game he played and shot around.542 from the field and.818 from the free throw line.
Jordan shoots six three-pointers in the first half of Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Portland Trail Blazers on June 3, 1992, before turning to the fans and shrugging his shoulders. The series was won by the Bulls in six games.
Mr. Jordan, here he comes, straight into the record books. Jordan scored 61 points Thursday night, becoming the first player in 24 years – and the only one other than Wilt Chamberlain – to reach 3,000 points in a single National Basketball Association season. He now has 3,024 points with one game left to play, tonight at Boston.
69 out of 100 Michael Jordan scored 69 points in the Chicago Bulls' overtime victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers. This is the highest single-game scoring mark ever reached by an NBA player.
This amazing feat was accomplished on April 4, 1990. At the time, Jordan was in his 20th season with the Bulls and playing all 82 games for the first time in his career. He had already won six NBA championships when he hit this milestone score.
The record has since been eclipsed three times: by Kobe Bryant (72 points), Kevin Durant (70 points), and LeBron James (71 points).
Michael Jordan played in only five games during his rookie season in 1991-92 because of injury. However, he still managed to set a new scoring record with 95 points. His average per game was 38.8 points which is still a record for rookies.
The next season, 1992-93, saw more improvement from Jordan as he became just the third player in NBA history to score 50 or more points in a game five different times. He finished that season with a then-record 641 points scored in 80 games played. That's about 70 points per game!
Jordan established an NBA record for most points in a playoff game with 63 points, 3 steals, and 2 blocks against the Boston Celtics in Game 2 of their first-round matchup in 1986 while wearing the "Chicago" colorway. He finished with 21 points during that first half alone! The Celtics were leading by as many as 14 points before Jordan came back to tie the game at 78 apiece near the end of the third quarter. Then he went on a 22-point fourth-quarter run to give the Bulls a 96-94 victory.
The record has since been surpassed twice more, first by Kobe Bryant (48 points) in 2009 and then by James Harden (47 points) this year.
But even though those two players have also had games where they were close to breaking the record, neither of them actually accomplished this feat. The record remains with Michael Jordan because he is one of only three players who has done so. The other two are Bryant and Harden.
Check out the rest of our collection of ballpark facts about Michael Jordan's career.
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