On 16 May 1985, Michael Jordan was named NBA Rookie of the Year. In his debut season for the Chicago Bulls he averaged 28.2 points, 6.5 rebounds and 5.9 assists a game. The award confirmed a talent that had unsettled the league from October.
Passed over at No. 3, then impossible to ignore
Jordan reached Chicago as the third overall pick in the 1984 draft. Houston took Hakeem Olajuwon first, and Portland passed on Jordan to select Sam Bowie second. He arrived fresh from Olympic gold in Los Angeles and with a Nike deal signed before his first professional game.
His All-Star debut in February brought the so-called freeze-out, when veteran teammates were said to limit his touches and he scored just 7 points. Two days later he answered against Detroit with 49 points, 15 rebounds and five assists. It stood as his highest total of the season.
He carried that form into the playoffs. Chicago improved by eleven wins on the prior year and returned to the postseason. There Jordan averaged 29.3 points across a first-round series the Bulls lost 3–1 to Milwaukee.
A debut ranked among the whole league's best
His scoring average ranked third in the entire NBA, behind only Bernard King and Larry Bird. He shot .515 from the field, made the All-NBA Second Team and finished sixth in MVP voting. He took the Rookie award with 2,134 points to Olajuwon's 780.
Speaking early that season, Jordan set himself a modest goal. "I'd like to play in at least one All-Star game," he told Sports Illustrated.
The season opened a career of five MVP awards, six titles and a record ten scoring titles. He would finish with the highest career scoring average in NBA history. The phenomenon he launched here began with a rookie no one could dismiss.
