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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a

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Speaker 1: show that tallies the wins and losses of everyday history.

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Speaker 1: I'm Gabe Lucier, and today we're looking at the story

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Speaker 1: behind the famous facts that launched Michael Jordan's second act

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Speaker 1: with the NBA. The day was March nineteenth, nineteen ninety five.

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Speaker 1: Michael Jordan announced his return to professional basketball by releasing

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Speaker 1: a two word statement, I'm back. The concise message was

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Speaker 1: written by Jordan himself and was delivered to the press

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Speaker 1: via Facts. Jordan's agent, David Falk, had taken several passes

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Speaker 1: at writing the announcement himself, but Jordan dismissed all of

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Speaker 1: the drafts as too wordy or long winded. In the end,

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Speaker 1: the athlete stuck with the old advice to keep it

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Speaker 1: short and sweet, trusting that two simple words would be

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Speaker 1: enough to shake the sports world to its core. On

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Speaker 1: October sixth, nineteen ninety three, Michael Jordan shocked the world

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Speaker 1: by retiring from the NBA after nine seasons. The decision

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Speaker 1: left fans baffled, as the athlete was still in the

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Speaker 1: prime of his career. Only thirty years old and fresh

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Speaker 1: off his third straight championship title with the Chicago Bulls,

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Speaker 1: but Jordan knew it was the right time to walk away.

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Speaker 1: He had felt weighed down all season by the mounting

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Speaker 1: pressures of his fame, and then in the summer of

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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three, he endured one of the worst personal

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Speaker 1: tragedies imaginable. On July twenty third, Jordan's father, James Jordan Senior,

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Speaker 1: was murdered at a highway rest stop in North Carolina.

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Speaker 1: Jordan spent the next few months grieving, and announced in

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Speaker 1: early October that he would not be returning to the

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Speaker 1: NBA for the upcoming season. Instead, he said that as

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Speaker 1: a tribute to his late father, he would pursue his

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Speaker 1: childhood dream of becoming a professional baseball player. Jordan achieved

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Speaker 1: that dream in short order, and spent the next year

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Speaker 1: and a half playing minor league baseball, first with the

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Speaker 1: Birmington Barons and then with the Scottsdale Scorpions. He never

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Speaker 1: played the game as well as he did basketball, but

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Speaker 1: Jordan still made steady improvements, and by the fall of

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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety five he'd become a pretty respectable batter. However,

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Speaker 1: his baseball career was ultimately cut short the following spring

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Speaker 1: due to an ongoing players strike in the MLB. Jordan

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Speaker 1: refused to cross the picket line to become a replacement player,

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Speaker 1: so he decided to return to basketball instead. He hung

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Speaker 1: up his bat in early March of nineteen ninety five

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Speaker 1: and announced his triumphant return to the NBA just a

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Speaker 1: little over a week later on March nineteenth. The very

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Speaker 1: next day, the thirty two year old Jordan suited up

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Speaker 1: and took to the court for his first game of

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Speaker 1: the season. He had been away from basketball for a

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Speaker 1: year and a half, but she never would have known

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Speaker 1: it from looking at him. The only giveaway was his jersey,

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Speaker 1: as the Bulls had retired Jordan's number twenty three just

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Speaker 1: a few months before his comeback. Instead, the fourteen time

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Speaker 1: All Star chose to retain the number forty five jersey

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Speaker 1: that he had worn during his brief stint in baseball.

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Speaker 1: The game on March twentieth saw the Chicago Bulls facing

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Speaker 1: off against the Indiana Pacers in Indianapolis. Jordan played for

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Speaker 1: forty three minutes, putting up nineteen points, six rebounds, six assists,

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Speaker 1: and three steals. Unfortunately, his shooting wasn't sharp enough to

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Speaker 1: keep the ball from losing one to oh three to

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Speaker 1: ninety six in overtime. So even though Jordan looked the

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Speaker 1: same on the court, his performance was a little rusty.

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Speaker 1: His fans didn't seem to mind, though. In fact, an

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Speaker 1: estimated thirty five million people tuned in for Jordan's return,

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Speaker 1: making it the most watched regular season game in NBA history.

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Speaker 1: Jordan got back into his groove over the next few games,

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Speaker 1: culminating in his famous double nickel or fifty five point

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Speaker 1: game against the New York Knicks. The game took place

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Speaker 1: in Madison Square Garden and was considered the highlight of

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Speaker 1: Jordan's brief seventeen game return season. The Bulls did make

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Speaker 1: it to the playoffs that year as well, but it

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Speaker 1: wasn't exactly a star showing for Jordan. The veteran player

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Speaker 1: had struggled in a close Game one against the Orlando Magic,

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Speaker 1: and in the final moments of the game, Nick Anderson

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Speaker 1: was able to strip the ball from Jordan and deliver

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Speaker 1: a game winning feat gass break dunk. Then, in a

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Speaker 1: bold postgame interview, Anderson called out Jordan's decline, saying quote

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Speaker 1: number forty five doesn't explode like number twenty three used to.

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Speaker 1: Number forty five is not number twenty three. I couldn't

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Speaker 1: have done that to number twenty three. The statement seemed

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Speaker 1: to rile Jordan, because from that point on he never

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Speaker 1: again wore a number forty five jersey. He switched back

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Speaker 1: to twenty three in Game two of the playoffs and

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Speaker 1: went on to score thirty eight points, helping secure the

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Speaker 1: Bulls victory. Chicago wound up losing the series in six

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Speaker 1: games that year, but Jordan's return had already rejuvenated the team.

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Speaker 1: He and the Bulls had won three straight championships before

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Speaker 1: his first retirement, and they went on to win three

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Speaker 1: more following his return from nineteen ninety six to nineteen

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Speaker 1: ninety eight. At the top of his game once again,

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Speaker 1: Michael Jordan then retired for a second time in early

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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety nine. He spent the next couple years serving

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Speaker 1: as the president of basketball Operations for the Washington Wizards,

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Speaker 1: but in two thousand and one, he just couldn't bear

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Speaker 1: standing on the sidelines any longer and came out of

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Speaker 1: retirement yet again to play for the Wizards at the

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Speaker 1: age of thirty eight, Jordan's third return to basketball lasted

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Speaker 1: just two seasons, with the Wizards failing to reach the

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Speaker 1: championship in either one, and while it's unlikely that the athlete,

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Speaker 1: now in his sixties will ever return to the court

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Speaker 1: for a fourth time, we can't rule it out entirely either.

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Speaker 1: Gif in his track record, it's a long shot to

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Speaker 1: be sure, but maybe dust off your fax machine just

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Speaker 1: in case. I'm gay Blues yay, and hopefully you now

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Speaker 1: know a little more about history today than you did yesterday.

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Speaker 1: If you'd like to keep up with the show, you

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Speaker 1: can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at TDI

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Speaker 1: HC Show, and if you have any comments or suggestions,

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Speaker 1: feel free to send them my way by writing to

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Speaker 1: This Day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to kazb Bias

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Speaker 1: for producing the show, and thanks to you for listening.

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Speaker 1: I'll see you back here again tomorrow for another day

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Speaker 1: in History Class.