Presented is a Nov. 1, 1986, New York Knicks' ticket stub from the first regular season game in which Michael Jordan scored 50 points. "Who is the only person who could stop Michael Jordan?" went the oft-repeated question, and the gleeful answer was "Dean Smith" (his coach at the University of North Carolina). Jordan played three seasons at North Carolina, winning an NCAA Championship, and in Smith's ball control and frequent "four corners" offense, averaging "merely" 17.7 PPG. Jordan played college basketball in the years shortly before the shot clock was added to college hoops, and Dean Smith's teams would often spread out, to the four corners of the offensive end, put a man in the middle and freeze the ball. With such a spread-out offense, if the defense doubled any offensive player, someone was sure to be open. While North Carolina was freezing the ball, Jordan was not scoring. But when Jordan entered the pro ranks in the 1984-85 season, there was a 24-second shot clock and Michael Jordan was turned loose on the basketball world. 

On Nov. 1, 1986, Jordan's Chicago Bulls were at New York's Madison Square Garden to play the home team Knicks. It was Chicago's first game of the season and the first home game for the Knicks. Pictured on the stub is Hubie Brown, the Knicks' head coach at the time, and a stickler for tough defense. There were 19,325 fans in the stands, and Jordan went to work. He played 41 minutes in a 108-103 Chicago Bulls' victory, hitting 15-31 from the field (all 2-point baskets, in a time before Jordan developed his 3-point shot) and 20-22 from the foul line, for 50 points, on the nose. Hubie Brown couldn't find anyone on his squad who could stop Jordan. After 11 more games, Hubie Brown was fired. Jordan would go on to lead Chicago to its amazing double three-peat championships and basketball immortality.

The ticket stub measures 1.5x4.75". It reads, in part, "Madison Square Garden/GAME k1/1PROM $20.00/KNICKS/Hubie Brown/Sat., Nov. 1, 1986." The stub has been encapsulated and PSA graded "VG-EX 504(MK)." The offering makes a fine remembrance of when Jordan, in the minds of many the pro basketball G.O.A.T., first dropped 50 at least points in the regular season.