Michael Jordan’s first NBA retirement lasted from 1993 to 1995, but he did actually suit up for one notable basketball game during that time, the Scottie Pippen Ameritech All-Star Classic. Scottie Pippen had organized the game for charity on Sept. 9, 1994, and a host of NBA players were taking part.
John Starks was one of them, and he revealed during an appearance on the 7PM in Brooklyn with Carmelo Anthony podcast that Jordan wasn’t all too happy with Pippen that night.
“He played in Scottie Pippen’s charity game, and this is the first time I got a chance to play with him,” Starks said. “So Scottie had put me and him on the same team, and Scottie had kind of stacked his team a little bit. And I remember Mike coming out of the locker room, he looking at the team, and he said, ‘Just pass me the ball.’
“Mind you, he’s been playing baseball,” Starks continued. “He been playing baseball the whole time. Man, he came out there and scorched Scottie. Him and Scottie was just on the island by themselves and everybody just moved to the side. Oh, man. He scorched Scottie. I think he had like 50-something points. He walked up to Scottie and told him, ‘Don’t you ever stack the team against me again,’ and walked off the court.”
Jordan would score 52 points (24-46 FG) to lead his Team White to a 187-150 win over Pippen’s Team Red. Keep in mind that at that point, he had last played in an NBA game for the Chicago Bulls against the Phoenix Suns on June 20, 1993, in the Finals. That’s almost 15 months during which he was busy playing baseball, and still managed to put on that kind of a show.
Pippen, meanwhile, led his team with 24 points. It was clear who won that matchup.
When you look at some of the players on these teams, though, it’s hard to throw stacking accusations at Pippen.
According to UPI, the White team included Jordan, Starks, Penny Hardaway, Gary Payton, Mitch Richmond, Vernon Maxwell, and Charles Oakley. On the other side were the likes of Pippen, Toni Kukoc, Ron Harper, BJ Armstrong, Nick Anderson, and Antonio Davis. The White team sure looks stronger.
This charity contest was the last game played at the Chicago Stadium. The Bulls moved to the United Center at the start of the 1994-95 season, but the debut campaign wasn’t going quite according to plan.
Pippen’s Bulls were barely above .500 at 34-31 when Jordan announced on March 18, 1995, that he was quitting baseball and coming back. The team would finish 47-35 with him, but would lose to the Orlando Magic in six games in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.
That would prove to be the last playoff series defeat of Jordan’s career. He and the Bulls would three-peat from 1996 to 1998. It was the second time in the decade that they’d pulled that off, having won three in a row from 1991 to 1993.
Jordan then retired for the second time in 1998, but came back again in 2001 to play for the Washington Wizards. He’d spend two seasons with the Wizards and then retire for the third and final time in 2003.
