|Jordan the player|
|Around the Academy:
As Michael Jordan bows out of the NBA for the final (final) time, the Academy gives a few facts on his wonderful career.
1. Jordan was only the third pick in the 1984 draft, behind Hakeem Olajuwon and Sam Bowie.
2. All-time greats Charles Barkley (5) and John Stockton (16) were in the same draft.
3. He is called his "Airness" in homage to the hang-time attained during his slam-dunks.
4. In his youth, he could slam-dunk from the free-throw line.
5. He was rookie of the year in 1985.
6. Jordan has selected for 14 All-Star games, behind only Kareem Abdul-Jabar.
7. He has the only All-Star game triple-double - 14 points, 11 boards and 11 assists in 1997.
9. He is also a five-times regular-season MVP (1988, 1991, 1992, 1996, 1998).
10. MJ is third in all-time NBA scoring behind Karl Malone and Kareem Abdul-Jabar.
11. Only MJ and Wilt Chamberlain average 30-plus points for their-regular season careers.
12. But Jordan has by far the highest play-off scoring average - at 33.4.
13. On 20 April 1986, Jordan set an NBA play-off record with 63 points in a 135-131 double overtime loss to the Boston Celtics.
14. After that game NBA legend Larry Bird famously said: "That was God disguised as Michael Jordan."
15. Jordan has led the league in scoring 10 times, more than anyone else.
16. He scored 10-plus points in 840 straight games between 1985 and 2001.
17. He sank a championship-winning jump shot with seconds remaining against Utah in 1998.
18. MJ was also voted on to the NBA's all-defensive team nine times and won Defensive Player of the Year in 1988.
19. As a little-league baseball pitcher, Jordan was one game from leading his team to the national final.
20. When he took up baseball again in 1994, it took him 354 games to hit a home run for the Birmingham Barons and he finished with a lowly .202 batting average.