Michael Jeffrey Jordan.
The Blazers passed on drafting him.
Too bad for them.
The Bulls unsuccessfully tried to trade his draft rights.
Lucky for them, all of their potential suitors didn’t want to part with a big man.
So the Bulls settled with him.
On October 26th of 1984, hours after signing a 5-year/$2.5M deal (with a 5% royalty) with Nike, the man who would become Air then God in sneakers and then the GOAT, laced up his Nike Air Ships and made his NBA debut at the old Chicago Stadium: 16 points (5-of-16 shooting), 7 assists, 6 rebounds, and one spectacular block in a 109-93 win over the Washington Bullets.
Only 16 points?
Well, at that time, Orlando Woolridge still thought he was going to be the man in Chicago, took the most shots (19), and finished with a team-high 28 points and 9 rebounds. The Bulls’ Quintin Dailey — also not too fond of the Bulls keeping Jordan — matched MJ’s shot attempts and finished with 25 points.
Jordan’s first NBA game also gave Bulls fans a scary “this could be his last game” moment when Jordan tried to posterize 6’11” All-Star Jeff Ruland (1/2 of the Beef Brothers) during the first half.
After lying on the ground for a while, Jordan got up and continued to attack the rim for the rest of the game.
It didn’t take long for Jordan to start putting up more shots and a whole lot of points. In Jordan’s second game, he scored 21 points, although his most memorable moment from the game was shooting an airball three-pointer at the end of regulation. He bounced back strong with 37 points and 9 more shots than Woolridge in his 3rd game. His first 40-point game came during his ninth when he dropped 45 on the Spurs. He finished his Rookie of the Year campaign with seven 40+ point games and actually led the league in total points. All of that was good enough to land him on the All-NBA 2nd Team and enough MVP votes to finish SIXTH!
As for the rest of his career, he played pretty well and also found some success off the court.
As for those Nike Air Ship sneakers, in 2015, a pair sold at an auction for $71,554. You can hear the story about the sneakers and how a ball boy ended up with them in the following video.