Michael Jordan, who is widely regarded as the greatest player in the history of basketball, celebrated his 61st birthday on Saturday.

MJ received tons of birthday well wishes on social media, including some from his former NBA teams in the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards:

Selected third overall by the Bulls in the 1984 NBA draft out of North Carolina, Jordan went on to enjoy a historic career that is still viewed as the NBA measuring stick by many to this day.

In 13 seasons with the Bulls, Jordan won six NBA championships, six NBA Finals MVP awards and five NBA MVP awards, and he was a five-time scoring champion.

Also, he came out of retirement after two seasons and had two productive years with the Wizards, giving him 14 career All-Star selections in 15 seasons.

His Airness boasts remarkable career averages of 30.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 2.3 steals per game, and he is fifth on the NBA’s all-time scoring list with 32,292 points.

Jordan is also a pop culture icon and the face of Nike’s Jordan Brand, which helped him become a billionaire in retirement and allowed him to become the owner of the Charlotte Hornets.

While he sold his majority stake in the Hornets last year, Jordan remains deeply ingrained in the world of the NBA and basketball as a whole, and he likely will be for decades to come.

Michael Jordan, one of the greatest basketball players of all time, was born on February 17, 1963, and turns 61 in 2024. Jordan has a decades long career that is marked with many records and milestones. An east coast athlete through and through Jordan was born in New York before relocating as a child to Wilmington, North Carolina.

Although we recognize Jordan as the GOAT today, his career did not start off on a high note. During his freshman year of high school, MJ was turned away from the basketball team. He was deemed “too short”, standing at 5’11”, a stark contrast to his current height of 6’6”. Determined to overcome this setback Jordan went on to become of the school’s best players, landing himself a basketball scholarship to the University of North Carolina.

At UNC Jordan started to become the player he is recognized as today. He won the 1982 NCAA Championship and is a NCAA All-American First Team member and won two players of the year awards. Eventually Jordan would return to finish his degree, but he left UNC a year early for the NBA draft, which saw him get drafted to the Chicago Bulls.

Despite a brief run with the Washington Wizards MJ spent most of his time with the Bulls. He is a six-time NBA champion, 14-time NBA all-star, two-time NBA Slam Dunk Contest winner and two-time Olympic gold medalist. Jordan finally retired for the second and final time in 2003. His career ended with his number 23, being retired at two teams. He is also recognized as the greatest player of all time, and one of the most successful businessmen to come out of the NBA with the ever-growing popular Air Jordan shoe line.

Off the court MJ has several notable achievements as well. After his first retirement from the NBA, he had a brief stint in baseball, signing a contract with the Chicago White Sox. Jordan was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama and continues to be a prominent public figure to this day.