Michael Jordan reveals favourite performance from his own career and it's a surprising choice

Michael Jordan put in plenty of memorable performances on the basketball court during his illustrious career but the man himself made a surprising choice when it came to naming his personal favourite.

The 61-year-old has long been retired for more than 20 years but his appeal lives on thanks to his extraordinary career, much of which was spent with the Chicago Bulls, then latterly with the Washington Wizards in the closing stages.

The six-time NBA Champion enjoyed a memorable spell with the Bulls as he was crowned the MVP in the NBA Finals a total of six times.

He was also named the NBA's Most Valuable Player overall on five instances and is seen by many as basketball's GOAT.

Jordan has transcended the sport and his appeal stretched way beyond the basketball court thanks to his other accomplishments in other areas.

It extended into sportswear with his Nike Air Jordan trainers, as well as to Hollywood with the 1996 film Space Jam and became the focus of Emmy-winning documentary series The Last Dance in 2020 on streaming service Netflix.

And his achievements have given him an enormous net worth, which was estimated this year by Forbes to stand at $3.2bn.

When it comes to Jordan selecting his favourite performance of his career, you might imagine it would be one of his showings in the NBA Finals.

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But you would be wrong with that assumption as the man himself selected an encounter from before he became an NBA Champion with the Bulls.

This was an encounter back in 1987 when the Bulls faced their fierce rivals the Detroit Pistons in early March of that year.

The Bulls emerged victorious with a 125–120 win on the road.

Jordan had a great game offensively as he scored 61 points in the victory, nearly half of the Bulls' total.

But the man himself did not talk up his offensive achievements in the game, but rather his defensive contribution in the key moments during the encounter.

In particular he cited how he helped to stall the Pistons' Adrian Dantley, who had been a prolific scorer and Jordan was put on defensive duties in overtime by Bulls coach Doug Collins - and it helped it become his favourite performance of his career.

As per Pinkvilla, Jordan said: "Because we won. And because I switched to Adrian Dantley in the last few minutes, stole the ball three times and held him without a basket. A victory for the defence."