My 100 favorite collectibles ... No. 93: Michael Jordan's 50 Sports Illustrated covers
- Mark Potash
- Jul 5
- 2 min read
Updated: Jul 8
Michael Jordan has been featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated's weekly issue 50 times — more than any athlete in the 72-year history of the magazine. But it actually took him awhile to get on the cover for the first time.
Jordan should have been on the Nov. 30, 1981 cover with North Carolina teammates James Worthy, Sam Perkins, Jimmy Black and Matt Doherty as a ballyhooed freshman starter for the preseason No. 1-ranked Tar Heels. But coach Dean Smith did not allow freshmen to participate in any media until they had played a game.
And Jordan very well could have been on the cover of the April 5, 1982 issue after hitting the game-winning jumper with 17 seconds left to beat Georgetown 63-62 in the NCAA championship game. Instead, Worthy got the honors, and earned them as the best player in that game with 28 points on 13-of-17 shooting.
Jordan didn't really blossom into an All-American until his sophomore season, and even then was still a relatively muted cog in a stacked roster of prep All-Americans at North Carolina. So when he finally made Sports Illustrated's cover in the college preview issue in 1983, it was with teammate Perkins, also a first-team All-American.
It wasn't until after Jordan left North Carolina following his junior season in 1983-84 that Jordan became an undeniable tour-de-force for Sports Illustrated. He ended up being featured on 50 covers, and was on two other issues — an inset photo on the June 24, 1991 cover after leading the Bulls to their first NBA title (Mike Tyson was featured on that cover); and in the foreground of the May 27, 1996 cover that featured coach Phil Jackson ("Running of the Bulls").
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