Jordan Returns to NBA After Stint in Baseball

It became official four years ago today. Michael Jordan, his sojourn through double-A pro baseball complete, was returning to the Chicago Bulls.

And really, was there any question how good he’d be, the second time around?

Not to Phoenix Sun guard Danny Ainge.

“The guy had 17 months off, he should be better than anybody,” he said. “The last time he did this, when he took a year off with a broken foot, he came back and scored 63 on me.”

Jordan had announced his retirement from the NBA at 32, on a contract paying him $3.8 million a year. He would retire nearly four years after coming back making 10 times that sum.

On the day he made his anticipated return to basketball official, share prices of companies for whom he had endorsement deals jumped. McDonald’s, for example, gained 1 7/8 points, a gain of roughly $1 billion.

Moreover, the mere rumor of his return had spurred ticket sales to Bull road games.

At the outset, Jordan found he’d left his shooting touch somewhere in baseball’s minor leagues. In his first game back, at Indianapolis, he missed 21 of 28 shots but still managed 19 points, six rebounds, six assists and three steals in 43 minutes of an overtime loss, 103-96.

Also on this date: In 1953, the National League approved the move of the Boston Braves to Milwaukee, the first baseball franchise shift in half a century. . . . In 1962, Jess Mortensen, who coached USC to seven NCAA track and field championships in 11 years, died at 54. . . . In 1964, George T. Davis, 65, sports editor of the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner for 25 years, died after covering a Dodger spring training game at Vero Beach, Fla. . . . In 1978, Houston’s Calvin Murphy, 5 feet 9, became the shortest player to score 50 points in an NBA game when he got 57 against New Jersey. “I only have 117 to go,” quipped Murphy afterward, referring to Wilt Chamberlain’s record 118 50-point games.