After winning Rookie of the Year and leading the Chicago Bulls to the playoffs in the 1984-1985 season, Michael Jordan made his first attempt at expanding his brand on a global level by taking part in a Nike-sponsored exhibition game in Italy that summer.
Jordan, wearing a Stefanel Trieste uniform, naturally dominated the game against lesser competition, putting up 30 points, but the most memorable play of the game was this backboard-shattering dunk.
This happened before the implementation of breakaway rims, so the rim has bolted directly to the backboard, which is why backboard-shattering dunks were much more common in the 1980's. In an episode of Sport Science, they discovered it took 625 lbs. of force to break a backboard with the rim bolted directly to it. With the breakaway rim, which is bolted to the hoop's post instead of the backboard, is takes more than 6,000 lbs. of force to do so.
However, that doesn't take anything away from how impressive the feat is - or how cool it is to watch. Nike even made a special edition of the Air Jordan I's to commemorate the event.
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