On Some Michael Jordan ‘Ish

Real talk, Michael Jordan did everything during his NBA career. Championships, Olympic Gold, scoring titles… if there’s a basketball award for it then MJ got it. His 6/6 NBA Finals record is probably the most memorable Jordan factoid; but he also had five regular season MVP Awards, which brings us to our point. Exactly 23 years ago (fitting, huh?) Michael Jordan won his fourth NBA MVP Award. In true Air Jordan fashion he did so while taking him 96.5% of the first place votes! Numbers don’t lie, Jordan went off nightly throughout the 1995-96 season:

Michael Jordan 1995-96 Regular Season:

• 30.4 points
• 6.6 rebounds
• 4.3 assists
• 2.20 steals per game

Jordan tore up the league from start to finish in ’96; not only did he win the regular season MVP Award, but he also won the All-Star Game MVP and Finals MVP. Oh, he lead the Bulls to a 72-10 record too, the best record of all time until the Warriors when 73-9 in ’16. Lets take a look back at Michael Jordan’s historic season with photos detailing the season, enjoy!

Sneakerheads will forever remember the ’96 season because of the iconic Air Jordan 11 Concord. Many consider it a perfect basketball shoe with looks that work in the streets and the hardwood. Tinker Hatfield designed the 11 with luxury in mind, so he used patent leather on the mudguard (area between the midsole and upper) resulting in a pair of Jays fit for high school Proms and weddings across the country. Four OG colorways of the 11 released in 1996: the Concords, Breds, Space Jams, and Columbias but the white/black Concords are easily the most recognizable pair of the bunch. Timeless, oof.

As you can see in the picture above, the patent leather height on the OG Air Jordan 11 looks a lot like the pairs we’ve seen at retail since 2016. For awhile (2001-2015) they were much lower, but Jordan Brand went back to a more ‘heritage’ build to coincide with their ‘remastered’ initiative aka retro-ing Jordans in the OG forms.