NBA 2K23’s The Jordan Challenge: All 15 moments from Michael Jordan’s career

NBA 2K23 will bring back the series’ celebration of Michael Jordan’s greatest feats with The Jordan Challenge, adding five more games to the original set of 10 that NBA 2K11Offert 12 years ago.

“This was a passion project for me,” said executive producer Erick Boenisch, a 20-year veteran of Visual Concepts who has worked on all but three games in the series. “I wanted this to be head and shoulders above NBA 2K11’s Jordan Challenge in every way possible.”

Boenisch and gameplay director Mike Wang leaned hard into the history and context of each moment in Jordan’s career, in hopes of making it come alive for a new generation of basketball fans who may have never seen him play.

All versions of the Jordan Challenge are available for purchase NBA 2K23 — Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X — when it launches Sept. 8. These are 15 highlights from NBA 2K23’s new Jordan Challenge, and the deeper meaning inside each of them.

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National Championship

March 29, 1982. Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans.

“Mike Jordan” was just the fourth freshman in North Carolina basketball history to start in his first game for the Tar Heels. He was 6-6 and a swingman at Wilmington Laney High School. He played in a Tar Heel line-up that also included James Worthy, whose future Hall of Famer, as well three-time all American Sam Perkins. With 15 seconds remaining in the 1982 NCAA Final against Patrick Ewing, Georgetown, Jordan hit an 18-foot jumper to give UNC a lead of 63-62. Dean Smith won his first national title, following six Final Four appearances. Jordan’s No. Chapel Hill has seven fully retired numbers, including 23.

The Prelude to Your Dream

July 9, 1984. Hoosier Dome, Indianapolis.

The United States’ men’s national basketball team opened Indiana’s brand-new Hoosier Dome with a scrimmage against a team of NBA stars that included Hall of Famers Robert Parish, Kevin McHale, and Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics. At that point, the U.S. had the biggest basketball crowd at the time with 67,596 people. President Ronald Reagan spoke to them in an audio recording and addressed them in front of the arena scoreboard. Jordan scored 14 in the game which was won by the collegians 97-82. He would reunite with 1984 Team USA teammates Ewing and Chris Mullin on the 1992 “Dream Team,” the greatest assembly of talent in basketball history.

God In Disguise

April 20, 1986. Game 2, Eastern Conference first round, Boston Garden, Boston.

From a 1984 NBA draft, Jordan was selected by the Chicago Bulls third. The top five picks included future Hall of Famer Charles Barkley and Hakeem Olajuwon. In 1986, the Bulls were 30-52 and seeded eighth against a powerful Celtics team steaming toward that franchise’s 16th NBA title. Although Boston overpowered Chicago 135-131 in the second game of the first-round series, the Celtics had to survive Jordan’s eye-goggling 63-point barrage, which remains a record for an NBA playoff game. His between-the-legs dribble and stepback jumper in Bird’s face is still one of the greatest highlights in NBA history. “That wasn’t Michael Jordan out there; that was God disguised as Michael Jordan,” Bird said.

An All-Star Forever

Feb. 7, 1988. NBA All-Star Game. Chicago Stadium.

Jordan scored 40 points against Magic Johnson and his Western Conference All-Stars, just one day after taking a jump from the free-throw line in order to defeat Dominique Wilkins in the most memorable NBA Dunk Contests. At the time, it was 2 points short of Wilt Chamberlain’s record for All-Star Game scoring.

The Shot

May 7, 1989. Game 5 Eastern Conference, Richfield Coliseum in Cleveland.

You’re probably already visualizing it. Only three seconds left. Bulls leading 100-99 Brad Sellers is inbounding from the midcourt. Craig Ehlo and Larry Nance double-team Jordan. Jordan shoves Nance out of the play and takes Sellers’ pass, with Ehlo scrambling after him in a panic. Jordan jumps to the foul line and waits for Ehlo. He then hangs in midair, taking The Shot as he goes. Splash. Time expires. Ehlo collapses in grief, and Jordan wings four punches in the air, nearly decking Sellers in their celebration of the Bulls’ first-round playoff triumph.

ATL Corral shootout

1990. Chicago Bulls vs. Atlanta Hawks.

This is not a new challenge. NBA 2K11It is intended to highlight the rivalry and scoring talents of Wilkins and Jordan during their peak careers. It doesn’t re-create any single game that actually took place. Jordan and Wilkins’ highest-scoring game, combined, came on Jan. 19, 1990, when MJ scored 36 points and ’Nique got 26 in a 92-84 Bulls victory.

Nice

March 28, 1990. Richfield Coliseum in Cleveland.

Jordan won an overtime win against the Cavaliers by 54 points, to kick off the 1990 Chicago season. Four months later, they met again in Cleveland for another amazing track meet. Chicago won overtime, 117 to113. Jordan, who played 50 minutes, scored 69 points from 23-of-37 shots. This was his best performance, according to Airness. It also inspired one of the all-time greatest postgame quotes in NBA history, when rookie teammate Stacey King (today a Bulls broadcaster) told reporters, “I’ll always remember this as the night Michael Jordan and I combined to score 70 points.”

Jordan Rules

May 26, 1990. Chicago Stadium, Chicago, Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

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Chuck Daly’s “Bad Boys” Detroit Pistons made no apologies for their brutal game plan, which teed up Jordan for hard contact any time he drove to the basket. They were called “The Jordan Rules,” which was also the title of Sam Smith’s 1991 book about the Bulls-Pistons rivalry. “Any time he went by you, you had to nail him,” Daly told Sports Illustrated in 2012. “If he was coming off a screen, nail him.” The game they played was psychological as much as it was physical. The Bulls and Jordan won the Eastern Conference Finals in 1991, but Detroit dominated them the entire way to the NBA title in 1990 and 1989.

Showtime

June 2-12, 1991. NBA Finals at Chicago Stadium in Chicago and Great Western Forum Los Angeles.

Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, the Bulls, and the Lakers inaugurated the NBA’s decade of appointment television with a five-game NBA Finals culminating in Jordan’s first championship. Although the Lakers won the first game of their series at Chicago Stadium, 93-91 it was all Bulls. The series highlight came in Game 2 with Jordan’s mind-boggling switched-hands layup, his 13th consecutive field goal of the evening, on the way to 33 points, leading all scorers. Jordan, who was his sixth NBA Finals MVP selection, won it with ease.

The Shrug

June 3, 1992. Chicago Stadium: Game 1 NBA Finals.

Image: Visual Concepts/2K sports

Even 35 points was a mundane total for Michael Jordan at the height of his career — but not when it was 35 points scored in the first half, of the first game, of the Bulls’ second straight NBA championship. After burying his sixth 3-point basket of the half, Jordan turned to NBC play-by-play announcer Marv Albert and shrugged, as if to say that he didn’t know how he did it, either.

Double Nickel

March 18, 1995. Madison Square Garden, New York.

Jordan’s father, James Jordan, was murdered July 23, 1993, in Lumberton, North Carolina, one month after Jordan and the Bulls celebrated their third consecutive NBA title. Jordan, in his grief, decided to retire from the NBA. He said he didn’t want to play basketball anymore and wanted to fulfill his childhood dream to be a professional baseball player. After one year riding buses in the minor leagues, Jordan returned to a listless Bulls team with a two-word announcement, “I’m back.” After a four-game tuneup, he went to New York and The World’s Most Famous Arena, and lit up the Knicks for 55 points.

Father’s Day

June 16, 1996. Chicago United Center, Game 6 of the NBA Finals

This actually wasn’t one of Jordan’s better games: 22 points on 5-of-19 shooting, five turnovers, seven assists. The Bulls’ 72-win streak had seen them leapfrog Gary Payton and his SuperSonics to take a 3-0 series advantage. However, they lost their focus in games 4, and 5. But it was still Father’s Day, and on that day the Bulls won their fourth world championship — and first since James Jordan’s death three years earlier.

Flu Game

June 11, 1997. Game 5, NBA Finals, Delta Center, Salt Lake City.

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With the Bulls’ series against Karl Malone and the Utah Jazz tied at two games apiece, Jordan caught some kind of stomach virus at the team hotel two nights before Game 5. To that point, the Jazz had a perfect record of 10-0 at home on their playoffs court. Jordan woke up less than one hour before tipoff to start the game, even though his athletic trainers said he couldn’t play. Jordan scored 38 points and hit the winning 3-pointer. Chicago took home its fifth NBA championship two days later. “No matter how sick I was, how tired I was,” he told fans after the championship parade, “I felt the obligation, to my team and the city of Chicago, to go out, and give that extra effort.”

Passing the Torch

Dec. 17, 1997. United Center, Chicago

This meeting is new to the 2023 Jordan Challenge. It features Kobe Bryant, in his second season, and Jordan, in his final season with the Bulls. Bryant scored 33 points in this matchup on 12-of-20 shooting. But Jordan scored 36, and the Bulls cruised to a 104-83 victory over a Lakers side absent injured big man Shaquille O’Neal.

Last Dance

June 14, 1998. Game 6, NBA Finals, Delta Center, Salt Lake City.

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The game should have finished here. Jordan’s last shot for the Chicago Bulls was, again, the game-winner, 87-86 over Bryon Russell and the Jazz, coming after Jordan’s steal from Karl Malone with 18 seconds left. Jordan retired the following January — and returned again, in 2001, for two forgettable seasons with the Washington Wizards. But NBA 2K23 properly closes the door with MJ’s last great moment, and his sixth world title.