The NBA’s attendance was free falling in the 1970s. The league appeared to be headed for a crash, just like the other professional basketball leagues before the association.
- Chicago Bulls vs. Atlanta Hawks, March 27, 1998
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The league had great players, like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, but these players weren’t exactly the flashy type. Just when the league appeared to be closed for business, two star college players entered the league and saved it.
The players I am referring to are, of course, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. Bird and Magic’s rivalry brought fans into arenas and boosted ratings on TV.
This was a great sign for the league, but it would get better. In 1984, the high-flying Michael Jordan flew onto the scene, and the NBA’s attendance records went through the roof.
While there have been many NBA games with great attendance records, one regular season game stands above the rest. The NBA regular season game with the highest attendance in NBA history occurred on March 27, 1998, when the Chicago Bulls played the Atlanta Hawks.
Chicago Bulls vs. Atlanta Hawks, March 27, 1998
The game between the Chicago Bulls and the Atlanta Hawks in March 1998 had an attendance record of 62,046 fans. The only other NBA game to have higher attendance was the 2010 NBA All-Star Game, which was played in Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, Texas.
This game makes sense of why the attendance was so high. For one, it was played in a massive football stadium, and for two, it was an All-Star Game with all the NBA’s brightest stars.
But what would make a regular season game draw 62,046 fans? There were two big reasons why this regular season game brought so many fans to the game.
Official attendance of that Hawks game: 62,046 #TheLastDance https://t.co/Lt9l9zHXGE
— Basketball Reference (@bball_ref) May 4, 2020
The first reason was this regular season game was Michael Jordan’s last regular-season game in Atlanta (as a member of the Chicago Bulls). The second reason was that, like the 2010 NBA All-Star Game, this game was played in a football stadium.
The Atlanta Hawks played their March 27, 1998, regular season game in the Georgia Dome. This is the former home of the Atlanta Falcons. Of course, football stadiums can hold more fans than NBA stadiums.
Then, we had the greatness of Michael Jordan. MJ is the greatest basketball player ever to lace ’em up, and he was finishing up his Last Dance with the Chicago Bulls in 1998. At that time, the Chicago Bulls were the hottest ticket in town.
When Jordan and the Bulls rolled into your town, you paid attention (and paid a lot to see him). Michael Jordan was the equivalent of Michelangelo or Beethoven. He was a once-in-a-lifetime act, and if you had the chance to see him live, you needed to jump all over it.
So, of course, when you look up the regular-season game with the highest attendance in NBA history, it’s only fitting that the game involved Michael Jordan. Now, Michael Jordan certainly played a huge part in the attendance record, but he got a little help from the Atlanta Hawks organization as well.
After the 1996-97 season, the Hawks decided to move out of the Omni, their home stadium, and have a new stadium built. The problem for the 1997-98 regular season was, the new arena wasn’t built yet. So, this is the reason why the Atlanta Hawks played their home games at the Georgia Dome.
This was an exciting moment for Atlanta Hawks fans, but unfortunately for them, their Hawks would lose to the Bulls, 89-74. Jordan had a typical Jordan game scoring 34 points on 13-26 shooting.
The timing of Jordan’s last season with the Bulls and the process of a new stadium being built led to a perfect storm to create the most attended NBA regular-season game in NBA history.
