Description

Michael Jordan's rookie card came in 1986 Fleer, three years before this issue, so this Flair Hardwood Leaders card is not that historic first card — it is a snapshot of a different kind of milestone: the season he came back. Jordan had walked away from basketball in 1993 after a third straight championship, choosing to chase minor-league baseball with the Birmingham Barons instead. The retirement lasted a year and a half, and when he ended it in March 1995 he did so with a two-word fax to the world: "I'm back." The return was not a seamless victory lap. The Bulls were struggling with a 34-31 record when Jordan came back, and upon his return on March 19th he scored just 19 points against the Indiana Pacers in a loss. It took only a few more games for the rust to shake off — he scored 55 points against the New York Knicks to remind the league he had not lost anything. Over the 17 games he played down the stretch the Bulls went 13-4, and he finished the regular season averaging 26.9 points, 5.3 assists, 6.9 rebounds and 1.76 steals a game, even though his shooting was off, hitting only .411 from the field. Chicago made the playoffs and Jordan poured in big scoring nights against Charlotte, but the Bulls were defeated by the Orlando Magic in the Conference Semifinals — a disappointment that, in hindsight, was the last obstacle before the second three-peat began. That imperfect, still-finding-his-legs comeback season is exactly what this card commemorates. Issued one per pack in all first series packs, these 27 super-premium, double-thick Flair style standard-size cards feature each team's statistical leader or award winner from the 1994-95 season, and the set is sequenced in alphabetical order by team, which is how Jordan, as Chicago's leader, lands at card #4. The fronts carry a color action photo with the key statistical category as the background, while the backs pair a color photo with a hardwood background and player information. None of this diminishes what Jordan built afterward. He went on to close his career with 6 NBA championships, 5 MVP awards, 6 Finals MVP awards and 10 scoring titles, and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009. But this particular card sits at the hinge point of that legend — issued the same year he proved, first with a rusty 19-point outing and then with a 55-point explosion, that the greatest player of his era still had the second act of the three-peat left in him.