Michael Jordan is one of the greatest players of all time, but there was concern over whether he would be able to fulfill that potential in the early ’90s. He had failed to win a title in the ’80s despite his herculean individual statistics. He would lose to powerhouses like the Boston Celtics and the Detroit Pistons until 1991, when everything changed.
Jordan gave an interview to Playboy Magazine’s Mark Vancil in 1992 when he went in-depth over his fierce rivalry with the Detroit Pistons and what it took to overcome the losses from the previous years to finally break through and eliminate them from the 1991 Playoffs en route to MJ’s first title for the Bulls.
Playboy: Was there a particular moment in the year when you thought, Maybe we can go all the way?
Jordan: When we beat Detroit before the All-Star game.
Playboy: That early?
Jordan: We beat them in Detroit. We hadn’t beaten them in Detroit for about ten games, and once we did, it gave us confidence. We needed to know that we could beat them on their court. In the conference championship series the year before, we had defended our home court well. But we went up there and got stomped in game seven. (h/t Ball Is Life)
Jordan isn’t lying, the Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals in 1990 was a rough one for the Bulls. While Jordan put up a strong individual performance, his teammates had a nightmarishly bad night. Scottie Pippen was 1-for-10, Horace Grant was 3-17, and Craig Hodges was 3-for-13.
The Bulls lost 74-93 and were eliminated. But they rebounded the next year and got their revenge in 1991. MJ knew that the Bulls were ready to beat the Pistons in the playoffs after instilling fear in them over the regular season.
Chicago Bulls destroyed the Detroit Pistons and swept them 4-0 in the 1991 NBA playoffs. They were a better team and they finally beat the Bad Boys Pistons.
Detroit Pistons tried to physically beat Michael Jordan and the Bulls, but this time the Bulls were ready for the fight. They returned to their venue, they beat them, they swept them and the Bad Boys were so pissed off that most of them didn’t want to shake hands with Michael Jordan and the Bulls after their elimination.
Playboy: Let’s talk about the Detroit series in last year’s play-offs. You blew through New York and Philadelphia, and then came the Pistons.
Jordan: We were waiting for this. We had the home-court advantage. And we defended our home court the last six or seven times. The first game was a key because you knew they were going to throw shit at us. Pippen knew what Dennis Rodman was going to do. He couldn’t let him get into his head. Just play, turn your face and keep going. We won both games in Chicago, so we went up to Detroit and said, Let’s sweep them.
Playboy: Could you see the fear in their eyes?
Jordan: Yeah. They couldn’t rattle us. They tried everything to rattle our confidence. (h/t Ball Is Life)
Bill Laimbeer, Dennis Rodman and others tried to beat them hard, but the Chicago Bulls knew all those tricks from before. It was time for a change of management in the East and the entire NBA and MJ was ready to take over.
Nothing would faze Michael Jordan, and one of the fiercest competitors of his generation got one over his biggest rivals through pure preparation and endurance.
Michael Jordan’s Career In The 1990s
For many, MJ’s career is in 2 separate chapters. The first chapter was his first 6 years in the league when he was basically unstoppable individually, but his Bulls team just wasn’t ready to beat the best in their conference. The second chapter comes with MJ’s first title win in the 1990-91 season and the historic highs he’d reach in the next 8 years.
Jordan would win 6 titles from 1991 to his second retirement from the Chicago Bulls in 1998. In that time, MJ lost just 1 playoff series on the court, and that came against the Shaquille O’Neal-led Orlando Magic in 1995, after MJ came back from his first retirement to go play baseball.
MJ won 4 of his 5 career MVPs in the 1990s and all 6 of his Finals MVPs. This 8-year stretch is arguably the greatest prime in basketball history. No player has been able to replicate what MJ achieved in this stretch, as these years are what solidified him as the greatest of all time for so many fans. This perception wouldn’t have been cultivated if Jordan and the Bulls didn’t get past the Pistons in the 1991 playoffs.
