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CHAMPIONSHIP YEARS:
Part II (1995-98)

HE’S BACK! The following two Upper Deck cards announce “loudly” that MJ is back in basketball. But you have to look closely. We have zoomed in on the applicable portion of each card to make your viewing easier.

Click on any image on this page (including stats) to enlarge it and view the whole row in gallery format. Place cursor on enlarged image to view title. (You must be a registered user to view.)

So again the years 1995 to 1998 were filled with the same excitement as the first era of the Bulls championship games. Some highlights during this period per the Chicago Tribune include:

June 16, 1996 -- Jordan leads Chicago over Seattle in the NBA Finals in his first full season back since retirement. The Bulls win an NBA season-record 72 games and Jordan wins his eighth scoring title, is named regular season MVP, NBA Finals MVP and All-Star Game MVP.

Nov. 30, 1996 -- Jordan scores 25,000th career point in San Antonio.

March 18, 1997 -- Jordan has 18 rebounds in a game against Seattle.

June 13, 1997 -- Jordan and the Bulls win their second straight NBA title -- fifth overall -- by defeating Utah in six games.

1996-97 -- Jordan wins his second consecutive scoring title, ninth overall, and is named NBA Finals MVP for the second straight season.

March 27, 1998 -- The largest crowd in NBA history -- 62,046 -- shows up at the Georgia Dome. Jordan scores 34 points in Chicago's 89-74 win over Atlanta.

April 3, 1998 -- Jordan scores 41 points against Minnesota to become the third player in NBA history to reach 29,000 points. The others are Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlain.

June 14, 1998 -- Jordan steals the ball from Karl Malone and makes the championship-winning shot against Utah in Game 6. Chicago wins its third straight NBA title and sixth in eight years. It is the second time in the decade the Bulls won three consecutive titles.

1997-98 -- Jordan wins his third straight scoring title and 10th of his career. Named regular season MVP, NBA Finals MVP and All-Star Game MVP.

Jan. 13, 1999 -- Officially announces his retirement from the NBA, saying he is   "99.9 percent" sure he would never return.

Dec. 26, 1999 -- Named Athlete of the Century by ESPN, beating out Babe Ruth.

By this point in Michael’s career, he was not only on his way to becoming the greatest basketball player ever and the athlete of the century, he literally turned into an icon. There were now hundreds of individual cards and card sets being produced each year with his image. To try and collect all or even a portion of these cards was beyond our time and financial resources. Other than the Upper Deck buy backs shown on the UD page, we only show here the first of the three most elusive Jordan cards according to the July 11-18, 2005, issue of Sports Illustrated, as well as a related card: 

SI provides the following commentary on the above card:

In 1988 a Chicago Chevrolet dealership offered a promotion: Buy a Blazer for $26,000 and receive a limited edition Michael Jordan trading card. On the front of the card was a portrait of His Airness; on the back, a coupon for dinner in an exclusive, glassed-in room at Jordan’s steakhouse. No one knows how many cards were given out; Oscar Gracia, author of Collecting Michael Jordan Memorabilia, has seen only two of them in seven years. He has one of those. “People turned in their cards, and the restaurant hosts trashed them,” he says. “That’s why they’re so hard to find.”

And finally, we show a related card that was issued as a promotion card for potential customors to test drive a Chevy Blazer.

Bulls Career Stats:

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