Over and Back: 50-point games in the Michael Jordan era

The next installment of our series on 50-point games in NBA history looks at the Michael Jordan era of 1987-1998. In this episode, hosts Jason Mann and Rich Kraetsch look at Jordan’s emergence as the NBA’s most prolific scorer since Wilt Chamberlain and the NBA three-point line gives us a handful of unlikely 50-point scorers.

This era sees 83 50-point games with 37 coming from Jordan, six from Dominique Wilkins and four from Karl Malone. We look at all three of these players, the early competition between Jordan and Wilkins, how/why Jordan out-paced Wilkins and more.

Additional players profiled and discussed include Sleepy Floyd, Alex English, Clyde Drexler, Dale Ellis, Tom Chambers, Patrick Ewing, Hakeem Olajuwon, Terry Cummings, Charles Smith, Vernon Maxwell, Bernard King, Michael Adams, Nick Anderson, Reggie Miller, David Robinson, Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, Jamal Mashburn, Jim Jackson, Willie Burton, Dana Barros, Glen Rice, Cedric Ceballos, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, Alonzo Mourning, Allen Iverson and Tracy Murray.

In addition to a recap of all 50-point games of the era, Jason and Rich also delve into several other topics including a breakdown of Jordan’s 50+ point games by team (sorry Cavaliers fans), the shortened three-point line’s impact on 50-point games, number of seasons between franchise debuts and first 50-point games (sorry Hornets fans), longest gaps between 50-point games and much more along the way.