Michael Jordan scored merely 8 points on a night against the Cleveland Cavaliers amidst his return from a broken foot.
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Michael Jordan established himself as one of the NBA’s best scorers in merely his rookie season in the league. After averaging 28+ points in that rookie campaign of his and leading his squad to the Playoffs (first round exit at the hands of Sidney Moncrief and his Bucks), Jordan was poised lead them yet again in 1985-86.
Unfortunately, their plans to build upon their upward trajectory in the regular season took a hit as Michael Jordan went down with a broken foot. It was the 3rd game of the season as MJ would go up for a lob dunk against the Golden State Warriors only to land awkwardly and break his left foot.
‘His Airness’ would miss 64 games straight that season, causing the Bulls to spiral down the standings. He grew so antsy to return to the game towards the end of his rehab that he would sneak into UNC, his alma mater, to play 5v5 without the Bulls front office knowing.
Eventually, Jordan would return on March 15th, 1986 under a strict minutes restriction where he would exactly 13 minutes and score 12 points.
Michael Jordan would score 8 points in a game.
During that March of ‘86, Michael Jordan would continue to feel out his game as he had missed quite a bit of time. Along the way however, he would score the lowest point total of his entire Chicago Bulls career.
This would come against their soon-to-be Eastern Conference rivals, the Cleveland Cavaliers, where Jordan would score merely 8 points on 13 shot attempts. To add insult to injury, the Bulls would get blown out by 26 points this game, losing 123-97.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the season for Chi-Town however, would be the fact that they snuck into the Playoffs despite having a 24-44 record at the time of MJ’s return.
Of course, as everybody remembers, the series that followed was one that cemented Jordan’s legacy as an all-time great scorer, dropping 49 points in Game 1 and then a Playoff career-high, 63 points, in Game 2.
Mind you, this was against perhaps the greatest iteration of the Larry Bird-led Boston Celtics. While the Celts would sweep the Bulls, MJ did walk away with a comment from Bird that would stick forever: “That was God disguised as Michael Jordan.”
