CHICAGO, IL — September 12, 1984 will forever go down as the most important day in the history of the Chicago Bulls. The magnitude of this day changed the sports landscape in the City of Chicago forever.

On this day, Michael Jeffery Jordan signed his first NBA contract with our very own Chicago Bulls. It was a 5-year guaranteed contract with two option years. The total for signing what would become the greatest player to ever lace up a pair of Nike’s?? A whopping $6 million, and that even included a $1 million dollar signing bonus. At the time, this offer happened to be the third highest contract ever given to a rookie, behind only Ralph Sampson (’83) and Hakeem Olajuwon (’84).

Photo: Ball is Life

To put this all in perspective, back in 1984 the salary cap for the entire team was only $3.8 million. For Bulls GM Rod Thorn, who was instrumental in the selection of Jordan, the decision was easy — he was worth it, but they had no idea just how great of an investment that would turn out to be.

What You May Not Know About the 1984 NBA Draft

The ability to draft Michael Jordan aligned perfectly, there were a very specific set of circumstances which allowed things to fall perfectly into place for Chicago.

The Indiana Pacers actually owned the worst record in the Eastern Conference; however, they traded the rights of their first round pick to the Portland Trail Blazers for Tom Owen in 1981.

The Houston Rockets, even with star rookie Ralph Sampson, owned the worst record in the Western Conference and it was decided that a ‘coin-flip’ would determine who would have the 1st overall pick.

Hakeem Olajuwon, fresh off winning the NCAA championship as part of the Phi Slamma Jamma at the Universtiy of Houston, was the overwhelming favorite for the first overall pick.

Patrick Ewing, who would have been the second pick in the draft, chose to stay at Georgetown as he had no interest in playing for anyone other than L.A. or New York.

The Blazers were fined for tampering by the newly named NBA Commissioner David Stern for their attempts to get Ewing to enter the draft in 1984.

The ‘coin-flip’ was instrumental in the Bulls landing Jordan. Whoever won the flip was taking Olajuwon; however, Houston made it abundantly clear they would not take Sam Bowie second overall if they lost out on the first pick. Thus, the Chicago Bulls could very well have had Bowie fall to them at No. 3. The Bulls would reportedly have shipped Bowie off to Seattle for All-Star and Illinois native Jack Sikma, but when the Rockets won the flip all was forgotten.

The Bulls also took in and pondered offers from the Atlanta Hawks of Center Tree Rollins for the third pick. The San Diego Clippers (soon to be Los Angeles) offered Forward, and Chicago native, Terry Cummings. Thorn turned down all offers.

The Trail Blazers controlled the Bulls’ fortunes sitting at No. 2 and according to Olajuwon’s memoir ‘Living the Dream‘ — the Rockets were offered an unbelievable trade which would have changed the history of the NBA as we now know it. Houston would receive Clyde Drexler and the No. 2 overall pick for Ralph Sampson, thus potentially drafting Hakeem at #1 and Jordan #2 to go alongside Clyde Drexler. But, the Rockets saw the potential pairing of Olajuwon and Sampson as something to great to pass up on.

The rest is history.

Six NBA Championships and six NBA Finals MVPs later, the greatest player ever, Michael Jordan will forever be remembered as a member of the Chicago Bulls.