Absence did not erase volume. Michael Jordan became Chicago's franchise scoring leader because his Bulls career compressed extraordinary production into fewer games, while retirement removed seasons rather than the points he had already piled up. You can miss nearly two full campaigns and still own the ledger when you score at an unmatched rate.
The arithmetic is merciless. Jordan scored 29,277 regular-season points for the Bulls across 1,072 games, an average of 27.3 per night, so the gap between him and every teammate grew long before his departure. His absence consumed one full season and almost all of another. He then returned for 17 regular-season games, limiting the damage.
Longevity gets too much credit. Jordan had thirteen Bulls seasons, won ten scoring titles, and produced seven straight campaigns above 30 points per game, a run that made ordinary durability look almost irrelevant. His later Bulls teams also kept putting the ball in his hands when possessions tightened. You can call the missed time costly, but who else had enough scoring force to make that cost look small?
