AHMAD2423 - I've watched WAY TOO MANY MJ games (back in the day) and full games & highlights on YT... I mean, countless hours (confession) analyzing his game and this question. I'm not the only one I know and there isn't consensus but... one man's opinion: 1990-91 season = Jordan's APEX. But then, the fact it's taken 30 years of closely watching the man play ball to land on _my_ answer to the question says A LOT about his greatness at b-ball. But, yeah, 90-91 I'm settled on that now. EDIT: go pull up individual season montages and really think about what you're watching. His 91 play has a distinct sharpness to it that's a bit different than any season before or after m coupled with HUNGER plus he'd developed the leadership you'd see later years... yeah, he later gained in some aspects, but he also dropped in some. He is human after all (believe it or not). 1991: I challenge you to _honestly_ top that.
***** While you might be right that it is TECHNICALLY a travel if you're being super anal, it would never be called in an actual game because it happens way too fast. In slo-mo it's easy to say "oh look, his foot moved a fraction of a second before the ball." But in real-time it's so fast that the interval is basically imperceptible, and way too close to call. Watch any NBA game - players do this on every possession, nearly every time they drive to the basket from a stand-still. It's never called a travel, nor should it be. They'd have to call traveling on every possession, which would ruin the game to be honest. It has to be more blatant than that to be called in the NBA.
no its not a travel. traveling has nothing to do with steps. It's all about the pivot foot. you can lift your pivot foot but the ball must leave your hand for a shot/pass/dribble b4 your pivot foot touches the ground again. jordan's move is nowhere near a travel. his left foot is his pivot foot. he lifts it: no travel. the ball comes out of his hands before his left foot touches the ground again. therefore his move is legal.
