Most NBA players will never score 43 points in a game. For Michael Jordan, it was one of the worst nights of his career. He drew the line in rating that hard to separate a bad game from a great one, and that speaks to his standards.

Jordan shot 43 of 43 field goals against the Houston Rockets on January 15, 1987, approximately one shot a minute. He missed 26 of them, but reached just 17, two more than the whole Bulls bunch put together. Jordan's ball-heavy, volume-heavy style helped to cost Chicago the game 107-96.

Its numbers make it difficult to defend. The only player from either team who attempted more than 20 field goals that night was him. For so many shots, Jordan shot 40 percent from the field, and that wasn't just bad for him; it was bad for his teammates and bad for the Bulls' offense.

But Jordan never acted as if failure didn't really exist; he embraced it.

"I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed," Jordan said during a Nike television commercial filmed.

But despite missing 14,481 shots and losing 366 games, Jordan still averaged 30.1 points per game, won six championships, and five MVPs.

The Rockets' game wasn't an exception to his mistakes. It was merely a line among a long list of things that he wouldn't let define him.

That's what sets Jordan apart from the rest, and this was never more evident than during his greatest performance.

The Night Michael Jordan Carried the Bulls on His Back

Defining a bad game as 43 points on 43 attempts tells you exactly how high Jordan's floor was. His ceiling, though, was something else entirely.

Jordan had a huge night on March 28th, 1990, but it was nothing he'd ever done before. 69 points. 50 minutes. Without him, the Bulls weren't about to win a 117-113 overtime victory.

But the scoring wasn't the only thing. Jordan had 18 rebounds, dished out 6 assists, and had 4 steals and a block. That night, he set an NBA record with his 64.6 game score.

Cleveland tried everything. Coach Lenny Wilkens went for the double-teaming every time Jordan came in contact with the ball, as well as sending out Craig Ehlo and Ron Harper. Brad Daugherty worked on the paint. The Cavaliers fouled him an astonishing 23 times to slow him down.

None of it worked. Jordan went to the floor on his very first dribble and beat every defender he faced. Cleveland, and everyone else in the league, had no answer at the end of the night.

Was Jordan simply too good to have a bad game? Comment down.

Read more at Air Jordan Chronicles!

Written by

Utsav Gupta

Edited by

Utsav Gupta