MICHAEL JORDAN Debut Program RC 1984 Olympics Basketball Team USA 6/22/84

This listing is for the Program & Scorecard to the 1984 Men's Olympic Basketball Team's 1st Exhibition game - played June 22, 1984 against the Indiana University Alumni team led by Isiah Thomas. The game was played in Bloomington, Indiana where the Olympic team was training.

This was Michael Jordan's first game after being drafted by the Chicago Bulls on June 19 and winning the Naismith Trophy on April 6. The Olympic Trials were held April 17-22 with the 73 best American amateurs, followed by intensive training with Head Coach Bobby Knight. Charles Barkley didn't survive the successive cuts. This is an extremely difficult program to find and recognized by collectors as Jordan's professional debut - just 3 days after being drafted by the Bulls.

So few of these programs survived the last 40 years because no one understood the significance of an Exhibition game at the time. Jordan's Debut and 1st Game after College and Draft. Final Score: USA 123 - Indiana 89.

INDIANA Isiah Thomas 17 points. The 12-man Olympic roster was finalized on June 27, when Bobby Knight cut Lancaster Gordon, Johnny Dawkins, Chuck Person, and Tim McCormick. All four played in this June 22 game. The team later played multiple exhibition games against NBA All Stars as well, starting with the 2nd exhibition game on June 28 in Providence, Rhode Island.

The Olympians won out 9-0 in their fundraising games, but box scores aren't easily available for most of the exhibition games. This first game had far lower attendance than the other exhibitions - most of them over 60,000. It may also be the start of bad blood between Jordan and Isiah Thomas. Uwe Blab (West Germany Olympic Team). YouTube: "Michael Jordan's rookie NBA season - 1984 USA pre-Olympic exhibition games - NB85-3".

Program condition is VERY GOOD, unscored, and with no writing anywhere. You will receive the exact program in the listing photos.

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