After retiring from the
Chicago Bulls in early 1999,
Michael Jordan became the Washington Wizards' president of basketball operations as well as a minority owner in January 2000. In September 2001, after divesting himself of any ownership of the team due to NBA rules, Jordan came out of retirement at age 38 to play basketball for the Washington Wizards. Jordan stated that he was returning for the love of the game, indicating his intention to donate his salary as a player to a relief effort for the victims of the
September 11 attacks. Jordan was heading into his return dealing with
tendinitis in his wrist and both of his knees, from which he would have fluid drained multiple times throughout the season. In addition, during a pickup game before the season,
Ron Artest broke two of Jordan's ribs. The Wizards finished with the third worst record at 19–63 the previous season, their worst season in franchise history, and started the new season with a 2–9 record. However, they would then go on to have a nine-game winning streak and improve their record to 14–12. ending his 866-game streak with at least 10 points. In the first game against the
Charlotte Hornets, Jordan scored 51 points on 55% shooting and added 7 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals in a 107–90 win. The second game was against the
New Jersey Nets, who would go on to be in the
2002 NBA Finals, and Jordan added 10 rebounds, 7 assists, and 3 steals to 45 points on 50% shooting in a 98–76 win. With these performances, Jordan became the only player in NBA history to score 50 points in three different decades, and at the time he was also the oldest player to score 50 points at 38 years, 315 days. After a four-win streak, the Wizards entered a four-loss streak and continued to have a 50% winning pace. At the end of January 2002, Jordan recorded two back-to-back 40-points game, including a game-winning buzzer beater over the
Cleveland Cavaliers, resulting in two wins and a 21–20 record. In addition, the Wizards had a winning record of 26–21 and were in playoff contention, as they were seeded 5th on a 5-game win streak and had won 7 out of the latest 8 games. In the 46 games that Jordan played before the injury, he averaged per game 25.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 1.5 steals, and 0.5 blocks on 42% shooting. Jordan's numbers were also improving as the season went on, as in his last 20 games up to the injury he averaged per game 27.5 points, 6.4 rebounds, 5.2 assists, 1.3 steals, and 0.5 blocks on 44% shooting, and in his last 10 games up to the injury he averaged per game 29.7 points, 6.6 rebounds, 6.1 assists, 1.2 steals, and 0.3 blocks on 47% shooting. he would eventually finish 13th in the MVP ballot won by
Tim Duncan. The Wizards would lose 9 of their next 10 games following Jordan's knee injury. In the Wizards' 26–21 stretch,
Richard Hamilton, the best scorer after Jordan, missed 5 weeks of playing time due to a groin injury. Starting with a November 28 win over the
Philadelphia 76ers, the Wizards were 15–1 in the last 16 games that Jordan and Hamilton played together prior to Jordan's injury on February 7; no team had gone from less than 20 wins to 50 wins or a winning record the following season. At the time, the Wizards were on a 45-win pace for the season. In addition, the Wizards had the second worst defense in the league in terms of opponents' points allowed per game but with Jordan, the only significant addition to the roster, the Wizard became the sixth best defense, allowing only 92.2 points per game and only 90.0 points per game in the last 35 games before Jordan's injury, further improving to become the third best defense. With both Jordan and Hamilton in the 26–21 stretch, the Wizards had the best defense with 86.3 points allowed per game, 2.4 points less than the best defense throughout the season, the
Miami Heat. After Jordan's injury, the Wizards allowed 96.8 points per game, falling to 19th place. Although Jordan tried to play through the pain and on reduced minutes in the next 4 games and then the next 3, he was not the same and the Wizards went 1–7. Jordan's torn
cartilage right knee injury and its aftermath knee soreness and losing streak moved the Wizards away from playoff contention. After 14 more games, Jordan had
arthroscopic knee surgery and his season ended after only 60 games, the fewest he had played in a regular season since playing 17 games after returning from his first retirement during the
1994–95 season.
Chris Whitney was the only Wizard player to play all 82 games while
Popeye Jones, Jordan, and
Brendan Haywood had the best average for rebounds, assists, and blocks at 7.3, 5.2, and 1.5, respectively. Jordan also led the team in steals at 1.4 and points at 22.9, with only Hamilton also scoring at least 20 points.
Kwame Brown, the
number-one draft pick in the
2001 NBA draft, averaged 4.5 points and 3.5 rebounds per game.
Standings ==Player statistics==