When Did NBA Legend Michael Jordan First Feature in a Video Game?

Published 02/19/2022, 2:45 PM EST

Michael Jeffrey Jordan, or as the world knows, the NBA legend, ‘Air Jordan’, is widely regarded as the greatest of all time. The Chicago Bulls #23 has had a tremendous career on and off the court, finding success in every field. Jordan was a six-time NBA champion during his time at the NBA and has a net worth of $1.6 billion as of February 20, 2022, as per Forbes.

Over his 15-year career span, Jordan featured in various video games apart from the popular 2K series. But do you know the first game that let gamers walk in Michael Jordan’s shoes (Jordans, of course)? Well, you’ve come to the right place to find out the answer to this intriguing question.

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Michael Jordan: First video game to feature NBA’s ‘Jumpman’

As the ‘Jumpman’ recently turned 59, on February 17, 2022, the world paid tribute to the legend on this special occasion. Jordan has had an elaborate career winning everything a professional basketball player could ever imagine. Jumping right in, let’s look back at the first video game that starred the man that made several teams retire the #23.

In 1998, after Michael Jordan accomplished the nearly impossible second three-peat with the Chicago Bulls, developers Electronic Arts introduced him as their star man alongside Larry Bird in Jordan vs. Bird: One on One.

The Chicago Bulls’ Jordan and Boston Celtics’ Bird were the only two NBA players to feature in the game. This was due to the game’s design, drawing inspiration from the traditional ‘One on One’ take on.

In addition to PvP (restricted to 1v1) functionality, the title included mini-games such as a dunk contest and a three-point quest. Gamers could dominate the dunk contest playing as Jordan and sink in three-pointers all day long as Bird.

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Interestingly, the game was a sequel to One on One: Dr. J vs. Larry Bird featuring the latter and another icon, Julius Erving. Jordan dethroned Dr. J in the game, featuring in the 1998 edition of the series.

Jordan vs. Bird: One on One launched for the retro consoles such as Game Boy, Sega Genesis, NES, DOS, and a few more. However, it did not meet the fans’ expectations.

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Now that you know the first video game Michael Jordan appeared in, which is your favorite basketball title of all time? Let us know in the comments down below.

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Written by:

Tanay Grover, an eSports writer for EssentiallySports, is currently pursuing a degree in technology. Before finding his way into the world of eSports, he worked on Social Media management. An enthusiastic soccer player who never played any other game except FIFA, he found his calling when he started playing Valorant and Pokemon GO.

When Did NBA Legend Michael Jordan First Feature in a Video Game?

Michael Jordan: First video game to feature NBA’s ‘Jumpman’

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