NBA Draft: Top 30 draft steals in league history
Scouting Report. Pick Analysis. Shooting Guard. Michael Jordan. 3rd pick: 1984. 2. player. 24
Best NBA Draft steals of all time: Michael Jordan, Chicago Bulls
The Chicago Bulls possessed the third pick in the 1984 NBA Draft.
They selected a shooting guard by the name of Michael Jordan out of the University of North Carolina.
Now, 35 years later, Jordan is pretty much universally accepted as the greatest basketball player to ever take the court.
To get him with the third pick makes the word “steal” an understatement.
His list of accolades is enough to fill a book: 14-time NBA All-Star, three-time All-Star Game MVP, 10 scoring titles, 11 All-NBA selections, nine times on the NBA All-Defensive team, the 1987-88 Defensive Player of the Year, six-time NBA champion (and NBA Finals MVP each time), five-time NBA MVP and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee.
He is one of the most decorated players in NBA history.
Jordan’s teams went to the finals six years out of his 15-year NBA career (two of those being at the ages of 38 and 39). He never lost an NBA Finals series, going 6-0.
One of his biggest rivals, Larry Bird, described him as “God dressed up as Michael Jordan” after a playoff game against the Celtics when Jordan scored 63 points — the highest scoring single playoff game in history.
He is fifth on the all-time scoring leaderboard and tied for second for most league MVPs. He is one of only seven players to have a college championship, an NBA championship and an Olympic gold medal.
His Nike sub-division brand “Jordan” is one of the most recognizable athletic brands in the world.
There is no denying the greatness of Jordan. The fact the two other players went before him in the draft makes Jordan one of the top five draft steals in NBA — and maybe all of sports — history.