Did Michael Jordan Play Baseball? Michael Jordan was more than a basketball player or an athlete, he had so huge an impact on the world that he is a real living legend. Even 20 years after his retirement, MJ is still one of the most famous people in the world and the legacy he has left goes way further than basketball.

He is considered the greatest basketball player of all time and one of the greatest athletes in general and the stardom that he reached back in the 1990s is above any athlete ever did. 

Michael Jordan entered the NBA back in 1984 as a promising young star out of North Carolina, He was drafted as the third overall pick by the Chicago Bulls and very quickly became one of the best players in the league.

In his first season as a pro, Jordan led the league in scoring and was named Rookie of the Year. After missing most of the following season with a broken foot, he returned to lead the NBA in scoring for seven consecutive seasons, averaging about 33 points per game.

He was only the second player, after Wilt Chamberlain, to score 3,000 points in a single season in 1986–87. Jordan was named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player five times and was also named Defensive Player of the Year in 1988.

His rise to the legendary status was not smooth as he had to fight for seven seasons to finally win his first NBA championship in 1991.

By then, Jordan has already taken over the league from superstars such as Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, but by winning a championship he took his status to another level.

The whole world knew who Michael Jordan was and he is the main reason for NBA’s globalization and the expansion the league has had ever since.

Jordan and the Bulls went on to win two more championships in 1992 and 1993 and right there and then, MJ decided to do the unthinkable and retire from the game at the age of 30 after winning three consecutive NBA championships.

On October 6, 1993, Jordan sat in front of a horde of reporters who were ready to question how he arrived at the decision to retire from the NBA. The full version of MJ was on display that day — his charisma, his thoughtfulness, his humor, his anger, his pettiness.

As part of his opening remarks at the 1993 press conference, Jordan made one thing clear: He had nothing left to prove.

“I’m very solid with my decision of not playing the game of basketball in the NBA,” Jordan said. “The reason being — I’ve heard a lot of different speculation about my reasons for not playing — but I’ve always stressed to people that have known me and the media that have followed me that when I lose the sense of motivation and the sense to prove something as a basketball player, it’s time for me to move away from the game of basketball.

“It’s not because I don’t love the game. I love the game of basketball. I always will. I just feel that, at this particular time in my career, I have reached the pinnacle of my career. I have achieved a lot in that short amount of time if you want to call it short. But I just feel that I don’t have anything else for myself to prove.”

In Chicago’s previous three NBA Finals series, Jordan defeated Magic Johnson’s Lakers, Clyde Drexler’s Trail Blazers, and Charles Barkley’s Suns. There were no equals, no reasonable arguments to be made opposing the idea of Jordan being the best player on the planet.

Jordan didn’t just own that era, though. He had thrown his name firmly into the “greatest of all time” conversation. His case only grew stronger through the back half of the decade, but it wasn’t outlandish to consider him for that top spot following his third title.

When Jordan asked Bulls coach Phil Jackson if there was anything left for him to do on the court, Jackson struggled to find an answer. That’s all Jordan needed to hear.

“If I didn’t have the desire to step on the basketball court and have something to prove, then I must admit that,” Jordan said. “I can’t step out there and know that I’m out there for no reason. It’s not worth it for me, and I don’t think it’s worth it for my teammates.”

The early ’90s marked a particularly tough time in Jordan’s personal life.

His immense success resulted in more attention and scrutiny each season. Sam Smith’s book “The Jordan Rules” changed the perception of the guy in the Nike and Gatorade commercials. Media members wondered if he was downplaying a serious gambling problem. He took plenty of shots at reporters during that press conference before he made his way out the building. Jordan was so mentally and physically exhausted that his third championship brought more relief than elation.

But nothing could compare to the tragic death of his father, James, who was murdered in July 1993. While traveling in North Carolina, James pulled his car over to take a nap, and he was shot and killed by two men as part of a botched robbery attempt.

Two teenagers, Daniel Green and Larry Martin Demery, who carjacked his Lexus bearing the license plate “UNC 0023” were convicted for the murder. His body, dumped in a South Carolina swamp, was not discovered until August 3. Green and Demery were found after they made calls on James Jordan’s cell phone, convicted at a trial, and sentenced to life in prison.

Jordan was close to his father. As a child, he imitated the way his father stuck out his tongue while absorbed in work. He later adopted it as his own signature, often displaying it as he drove to the basket.

In 1996, he founded a Chicago-area Boys & Girls Club and dedicated it to his father. In his 1998 autobiography For the Love of the Game, Jordan wrote that he was preparing for retirement as early as the summer of 1992. The added exhaustion due to the Dream Team run in the 1992 Olympics solidified Jordan’s feelings about the game and his ever-growing celebrity status. Jordan’s announcement sent shock waves throughout the NBA and appeared on the front pages of newspapers around the world.

Jordan had discussed retirement with his father prior to James’ death and was already “kind of leaning toward that direction.” Jordan also told reporters his father advised him to retire after his first title.

“I think one thing about my father’s death is that it can be gone and taken away from you at any time,” Jordan said. “There’s still a lot of things out there for me to achieve. There are a lot of family members and friends I haven’t seen because I’ve been very selfish in my career to try to get to this point and make sure that I achieved all the dreams that I wanted to achieve.”

“Now that I’m here, it’s time to be a little bit unselfish in terms of spending more time with my family, my wife, my kids, and just get back to a normal life, as close to it as I could.”

Jordan further surprised the sports world by signing a Minor League Baseball contract with the Chicago White Sox on February 7, 1994. He reported to spring training in Sarasota, Florida and was assigned to the team’s minor league system on March 31, 1994.

Jordan said that this decision was made to pursue the dream of his late father, who always envisioned his son as a Major League Baseball player. The White Sox were owned by Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who continued to honor Jordan’s basketball contract during the years he played baseball.

In 1994, Jordan played for the Birmingham Barons, a Double-A minor league affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, batting .202 with three home runs, 51 runs batted in, 30 stolen bases, 114 strikeouts, 51 bases on balls, and 11 errors.

He also appeared for the Scottsdale Scorpions in the 1994 Arizona Fall League, batting .252 against the top prospects in baseball. On November 1, 1994, his No. 23 was retired by the Bulls in a ceremony that included the erection of a permanent sculpture known as The Spirit outside the new United Center.

Was the retirement a secret suspension?

However, once he had a good enough supporting cast, he completely dominated the league for the majority of the decade and cemented himself as a legend of the game and the best player in the decade.

MJ retired after he led the Bulls to their first three-peat for over a year and a half before coming back and leading the team to another three-peat. So, why would the face of the league on the best team in the league who was known for his enormous competitive drive and his desire to be the best ever suddenly retire in the middle of his prime? Let’s look at the facts.

In 1992, after winning his second championship, Jordan was called to testify in the criminal trial of James Bouler to explain why Bouler, a convicted drug dealer, was in possession of a Jordan-signed personal check for $57,000.

First, Jordan claimed it was a business loan, but under oath, he admitted that it was a payment for gambling losses for a single weekend.

Then, in early 1993, San Diego businessman Richard Aquinas revealed in his book Michael and Me: Our Gambling Addiction…My Cry for Help that he had won over $900,000 from Jordan in golf betting.

Around the same time, MJ was spotted in an Atlantic City casino in the early hours on the morning of Game Two of the Eastern Conference Finals.

After the Bulls won their third championship, the NBA launched an investigation into Jordan’s gambling problems to check whether he had violated any league rules. Then, four months later Jordan stunned the world by suddenly retiring from professional basketball.

At the press conference when he was asked if he would ever return he said, “Five years down the road if the urge comes back if the Bulls will have me, if David Stern lets me back in the league, I may come back.”

Now why in the world would Jordan ever say if David Stern lets him back, then maybe he would come back when the reporter didn’t mention Stern’s name at all in his question?

Only days after Jordan announced his retirement, the league dropped its investigation, saying he did nothing wrong.

Was there a secret agreement between Jordan and Stern where Stern told him to simply retire and create a distraction so that he wouldn’t face a suspension and have his huge marketable name stay clean?

The distraction occurred when Jordan then decided to play minor league baseball in the White Sox organization, even though he would’ve had trouble hitting a beach ball, let alone a baseball. In 102 games with the Barons, Jordan had a .202 average along with 3 homers, 51 RBI, 30 stolen bases, 114 strikeouts, and a .555 OPS.

Also, in the much-respected book Money Players Days and Nights Inside the New NBA by Armen Keteyian, it states that in 1993, the league had an interview with Richard Aquinas during their investigation on Jordan’s gambling. He said that in March of 1992, he overheard a telephone conversation Jordan was having with an unknown person.

During the conversation, he heard Jordan talking about a betting line, “So you say the line is seven points.” The game MJ was talking about isn’t known, but the accusations are extremely serious as that means if Jordan was indeed betting on sports, he was breaking a sacred, unwritten rule for all professional athletes, as that is against the integrity of the game.

However, in March 1995, Jordan decided to quit baseball because he feared he might become a replacement player during the Major League Baseball strike. On March 18, 1995, Jordan announced his return to the NBA through a two-word press release: “I’m back.”

He went on to win another three NBA championships with the Bulls and leave the game as the greatest basketball player of all time in 2003.