What was Michael Jordan's shooting percentage during his NBA career? Looking at the efficiency statistics of the basketball legend
Michael Jordan is one of the greatest players ever to play the game of basketball.
He spent 15 seasons in the NBA, playing for the Chicago Bulls in 13 of them and the Washington Wizards in the final two.
Jordan is still connected with the league and is now a majority owner of the Charlotte Hornets.
Although the league has evolved over time (with different eras playing different brands of basketball), Jordan has always been in the GOAT conversation.
His ability to create offense for himself and his teammates, as well as his basketball IQ and his defensive intensity were instrumental in the Chicago Bulls winning six titles.
Throughout his career, Michael Jordan was an efficient shooter, putting up points in a hurry. In 15 seasons, he played 1072 regular-season games and amassed 32,292 points – while shooting 49.7% from the field.
The 3-point shot was not as much of a weapon as it is today, but Jordan was able to efficiently score from distance and had a career 3-point percentage of 32.7.
Michael Jordan’s best season in terms of shooting percentage was in the 1990-91 season, when he shot 53.9% from the field in 82 games. Jordan was the league’s scoring leader that season, with an average of 31.5 points per game.
The subsequent postseason ended up being the first time Jordan was crowned an NBA champion.
The red line is Michael Jordan's Player Efficiency Rating through his years in the NBA. Yellow is for PER of the MVP award winner that season.
Megastars win many accolades, but not as many as they deserve because people get tired of voting for the same guy over and over again. https://t.co/ihxFQXcTxK
Jordan’s best time from beyond the arc came in the 1995-96 season, which marked the start of the Bulls' second three-peat. He shot 42.7% from the 3-point line, converting 111 shots from deep.
He made the same number of 3-pointers in the following season, but from 37 more attempts.
How efficient was Michael Jordan in the playoffs?
Michael Jordan had a perfect record in the NBA Finals (6-0). Jordan almost always had another gear to switch to once the regular season was done.
Jordan’s best shooting performance in the postseason was in 1988, when he was just 24 years old. He started with a 50-point performance against the Cleveland Cavaliers and went on to average 36.3 points, while shooting 53.1% from the field. Despite Jordan’s heroics, the Bulls were outclassed by the Detroit Pistons in five games in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Most playoff runs averaging 30 PPG:
12 — Michael Jordan
7 — Jerry West
6 — LeBron James
5 — Kobe Bryant https://t.co/3BZ1lBFOpB
In the 1996 playoffs, when Jordan was already a three-time champion, he showed his class once again in the post-season playoffs. He averaged 30.7 points in 18 games, while shooting 40.3% from beyond the arc.
Jordan and the Bulls beat the Seattle Supersonics in the finals, claiming their fourth title.