Jordan’s 1985/86 season Foot Injury
Michael Jordan’s second season was cut short when the Chicago Bulls Legend broke his foot in the third game of the season against the Golden State Warriors on October 29, 1985. The shooting guard went up for a lob and landed flat-footed and suffered an acute undisplaced fracture of the navicular bone in his left foot. The injury caused Michael Jordan to miss 64 games that season.
Michael Jordan was also voted to play in the 1985-1986 All-Star game, but his injury kept him from playing there as well.
The rehab and the restrictions and the comeback
When MJ came back on the 15th March the Bulls had only won 30 games out of the 64 played, but amazingly they held onto a playoff spot. With only 18 games played in regular season, Mike averaged 22.7 points, 2.9 assists and 3.6 rebounds.
An interesting fact about the 15 Games Jordan played after coming back from injury is that Chicago Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf and Chicago Bulls GM Jerry Krause only let him play seven minutes each half. This frustrated Michael Jordan immensely.
Another thing to note is that even during his recovery, Michael Jordan was training hard at UNC and playing 5 on 5 and doing whatever he could to get back to playing basketball. This was all against the Bulls management orders.
The Bulls made it to the Playoffs and faced the Mighty Boston Celtics with an incredible Hall of Fame line up: Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, Bill Walton and Dennis Johnson. This Boston Celtics team was definitely one of the greatest NBA teams ever.
All this frustration on the injury and recovery and anger towards management, lit a fire in Michael Jordan and produced what is arguably Michael Jordan’s Greatest Game ever, especially given the circumstances.
The Air Jordan 1 variations to provide MJ with more comfort
We would also like to note the amazing Michael Jordan Air Jordan 1 variations that were produced to provide him additional support when playing post injury. These included the Jordan 1 TYPS Strap, the Jordan 1.5 and the iconic Dunk Sole Dual Logo Air Jordan 1, which is the shoe that Michael Jordan played his greatest game ever in.
MJ Greatest Game and the playoff points record that still stands today
In Game 1 in Chicago, Michael Jordan was free to play without restrictions and he dropped a very respectable 49 points.
But it was Game 2 that Michael Jordan created history donning the Air Jordan 1 Dunk Sole Dual logo player Exclusive. Michael Jordan’s 63-point playoff performance is stuff of legend. Here is a photo in game and a photo of a pair owned privately.
The 63 points are even more impressive given the opponents and the fact is was achieved in the hallowed halls of the Boston Garden. MJ shot 22-of-41 from the field and 19-of-21 from the free-throw line. Even though the Bulls lost by four points, the entire NBA world was in awe of what Jordan did. The Celtics won the game 135-131 in double overtime, and went on to sweep the Bulls, but that day Michael Jordan broke records held by Elgin Baylor, Bob Cousy and Wilt Chamberlain and Jordan’s playoff points record still stands today.
On the 20th April 1986 every Celtics legend tried to stop Michael Jordan but there was simply no stopping him.
Larry Bird said, “I didn’t think anyone was capable of doing what Michael has done to us” during an post game interview. He then went on to say “He (Michael Jordan) is the most exciting, awesome player in the game today. I think it’s just God disguised as Michael Jordan.”
In just his second season in the league, Jordan had proven that he was the future of the NBA which as we know I what happened. If Reinsdorf and Krause had gotten their way, we would have never seen Jordan drop 63 points in a playoff game. Thank god the five-time MVP didn’t listen to his bosses and chose to come back. Jordan was highly durable after his foot injury, playing in all 82 games seven times.
The six-time champion took special care of his body and was always in elite shape but as this injury episode followed by this record scoring playoff game demonstrated, Michael Jordan never gives up and gave everything to basketball, which is why Michael Jordan is the GOAT.
This article was written by Gerard Starkey, Expert MJ Collector and Storyteller.