Jordan came into the NBA after an outstanding three-year career at North Carolina. As a freshman, he hit the jump shot that gave the Tar Heels the NCAA Championship in 1982. He was College Player of the Year in 1984. Jordan averaged 17.7 points in three seasons before declaring himself eligible for the NBA draft after his junior year. The Chicago Bulls took him with the No. 3 overall pick. (Houston took Hakeem Olajuwon with the first pick, while Portland drafted Sam Bowie at No. 2.) Between his college and pro careers, he was co-captain and star of the gold-medal-winning U.S. Olympic basketball team in 1984.

Jordan joined a club that had finished at 27-55 the previous season and had been led in scoring by Quintin Dailey. Jordan lifted the team to a 38-44 record and a playoff berth for the first time since 1981. Voted a starter in the 1985 All-Star Game, he scored 7 points in 22 minutes. On February 12 he set a club single-game rookie record by pouring in 49 points against the Detroit Pistons. He finished the season with a scoring average of 28.2 points per game (third in the league behind the New York Knicks' Bernard King and the Boston Celtics' Larry Bird) and set Chicago single-season records for points (2,313), field goals (837), free throws (630), free-throw attempts (746), and steals (196). It all added up to an NBA Rookie of the Year Award, a slot on the NBA All-Rookie Team, and a selection to the All-NBA Second Team. After finishing fourth in the Central Division, the Bulls faced the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the playoffs and fell in four games. Jordan averaged 29.3 points in the series.

Three games into the 1985-86 season, Jordan went down with a broken bone in his left foot. He was sidelined for 64 games before returning in mid-March. Without Jordan for most of the campaign, the Bulls won only 30 games but still managed to snag a playoff berth. In 18 regular-season games Jordan averaged 22.7 points, 2.9 assists, and 3.6 rebounds, all career lows. He was voted to the All-Star squad but was unable to play because of the injury.

With a spectacular three-game outburst in the Bulls' opening-round playoff loss to Boston, Jordan showed that he had completely recovered. In Game 2 he scored a playoff-record 63 points in Chicago's double-overtime 135-131 loss to the Celtics. He averaged an astonishing 43.7 points for the three-game series.