Deloris Jordan had a near miscarriage while she was pregnant with MJ: "We thought there might be something wrong with him"

Basketball history would have been entirely without Michael Jordan . But as crazy as it sounds, the greatest basketball player in the sport's history almost didn't exist.

While James Sr. 's wife, Deloris, was pregnant with Michael, she nearly had a miscarriage. But as fate would have it, the baby survived, and Mrs. Jordan gave birth to Michael Jeffrey on February 17, 1963. The rest, as they say, is history.

" The near miscarriage was very bad," James Sr. recalled during an interview with the Chicago Tribune .

Jordan was born with a nosebleed

Deloris was five months pregnant with Mike when this happened. She had to juggle working full-time as a bank teller while caring for her three children, so she was already under duress. But when her mother unexpectedly died, Deloris' stress level went through the roof, and she started to feel unwell.

Worried that she might suffer a miscarriage, James had Deloris checked by the family physician. The doctor concluded that Deloris was strained and advised her to go on bed rest for a week to protect her unborn child. Luckily, Mike hung tough.

"When Michael was born, we thought there might be something wrong with him. He was born with a nosebleed. The hospital kept him three days after Deloris was discharged. He'd have nosebleeds for no reason until he was five, and then they just stopped," Jordan Sr. said.

Young MJ was nearly electrocuted to death

Before little Mike's nosebleeds went away, he had another close call. When he was two years old, he accidentally grabbed two wires next to a car that James was repairing. Unfortunately, the wires were live, and with the garage floor still wet because it was raining, little Mike was sent flying three feet backward.

" I've thought to myself since, 'My God, how this world would've been cheated if the cord had gotten tangled up with Michael and not let him go.' He would've been electrocuted," Mike's dad concluded

Once again, MJ escaped his brush with death. There were several more incidents later during his adolescent years, which the Chicago Bulls legend said could've altered his life. But as he said , the Man upstairs has a plan for everybody. His plan for Michael was to become the basketball GOAT.

Related: "Go put salt in your shoes and pray" - What Deloris Jordan told her son, 5-foot-10 Michael Jordan when he wished he was taller