Michael Jordan 3-Point Contest: Taking a Look at the Worst All-Star Three-Point Competition Performance in History

For all the enviable records he has set, Michael Jordan also has one of the most undesirable ones in the record books. In fact, Jordan had once registered statistically one of the worst three-point performances in the All-Star Three-Point Shooting competition history. During the 1990 NBA Three-Point Contest, Jordan scored just 5 out of a possible 30 points.

The Chicago Bulls star made just 16.67% of his attempts from deep range, as can be seen in this USA Sports on DVD clip. After making two shots in his first rack, Jordan never gained the fluency to get close to double-digits.

His 5 points performance tied Detlef’s Schrempf’s 1988 contest mark, making for two of the worst performances in the long-range shooting contest history. Despite lodging an underwhelming effort, MJ became the first NBA athlete to participate in both the All-Star Slam Dunk and the Three-Point Contest during the same season that year. 

He was selected for the deep-range contest because he had nailed 55 out of his 141 attempts from the three-point line before the 1990 All-Star break. Before the 1989-90 season, Jordan had made just 58 combined three-pointers in his four seasons in the league. It was the 1989-90 season when he made more than one triple a game for the first time in his career. MJ wasn’t a big fan of launching threes, and for his career, he attempted just 1.65 three-pointers per game.

Michael Jordan’s three-point shooting breakdown

Jordan nailed 581 triples out of 1,778 attempts for 32.7% shooting from the three-point line in his career. Apart from the 1989-90 season, he employed long-range shooting the most during the 1995-96 and 1996-97 seasons. He attempted a career-high 297 three-pointers in the 1996-97 season and connected on 111 for a respectable 37.4% shooting from the field. Meanwhile, his most efficient three-point season was 1995-96. He nailed 111 like the 96-97 season but required 260 attempts. Therefore, his 42.7% shooting from deep was the most efficient effort from MJ if we consider the volume of shots. 

Meanwhile, in the playoffs, Jordan sank 148 shots on 33.2% shooting from deep. He nailed a career-high 28 triples in 19 games on 38.9% shooting during the 1992-93 playoffs. Apart from that, he hit 25 in 18 games during the 1995-96 playoffs, shooting 40.3% from the long range.  In terms of most three-pointers in a Regular Season game, Jordan made 7 against the Warriors on January 18, 1990, per StatMuse. He had 42 points on 7/12 three-point attempts to help the Bulls win 132-107. 

In the playoffs, during a single game, Jordan has sunk a career-high six triples two times. In the Bulls’ Game 1 win against the Portland Trail Blazers in the 1992 Finals, he had his famous “Shrug Game”, where he connected on six threes for 39 points.