nts per game, the best in NBA history (Aschburner, 1998, 1C).
In 1986-87 he began a career long onslaught on the NBA record book. He earned the game's MVP Award in 1988 after a 40 point performance. As a rookie, he joined the Bulls team that had won only 28 games in the previous season. By 1991 the club had topped 60 wins during the regular season while marching to the first of three consecutive titles. Jordan had two Olympic gold medals to show for his participation on the Team USA in 1984 and 1992.
Jordan shocked everyone when he announced his retirement prior to the 1993 season. He spent his year playing Minor League baseball for the class AA Birmingham Barons of the Chicago White Sox. Then he returned to the Chicago Bulls in the late 1996 campaign with his basketball skills intact.
In 1996 he won a record eighth scoring title and led the Bulls to their fourth NBA Championship of the 1990s and in 1996-1997 he raised those numbers to a scoring championship athlete in the world, he is not only the top player in his era, but is quite possible the best player ever to wear the uniform of an NBA team. But his most impressive record is his financial achievement (Benkoe, 1997, 14).
In 1983, the year before Jordan entered the league, Fortune Magazine reported that the gross retail sales of NBA related merchandise were $44 million. "By the time Chicago won its first championship in 1990-91, merchandising sales had reached $1.56 billion--and Jordan and the Bulls were the darling of the retail industry.
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