Hall of Famer Michael Jordan tormented many teams over the course of his storied NBA career, but no one suffered at his hands more than the New York Knicks. Jordan and the Chicago Bulls knocked the Knicks out of the playoffs five times, and their former president Dave Checkkets spoke about the 1991 matchup during an appearance on the Portfolio Players podcast.
Checkkets recounted that series going so badly for the Knicks that a Jordan playoff game at Madison Square Garden didn’t sell out, as New Yorkers had basically thrown in the towel.
“The Garden now, for many years, has been selling out,” Checketts said. “And look, when I went to the Knicks in 1991, we played the Chicago Bulls in the first round of the playoffs that year. We went to Chicago, we got beat in the first game by 41 points. I had just taken over the Knicks. We get beat by 41, which is still a playoff record in Knicks history. Then we play Game 2. We’re a little more competitive, but we lose.
“And we come home for Game 3,” Checketts continued. “And this is a moment in history, because it’s the only time in history that a Michael Jordan playoff game failed to sell out. The New Yorkers just turned their nose. They just said, ‘You have no chance. You’re not up to the caliber of these guys, so we’re not coming.’
“We sold 6,000 seats in the Garden for Michael Jordan in that playoff series, 1991,” Checketts said. “It was embarrassing.”
For context, MSG’s capacity is over 19,000. As Checketts said, that was embarrassing.
The Bulls had beaten the Knicks 126-85 in Game 1 of that first-round series. That 41-point hammering remains the worst playoff loss in franchise history.
The Knicks looked outmatched after that contest, but they held their own in Game 2. They even led 63-61 entering the fourth quarter, but the Bulls dominated the final period and won 89-79. The series then shifted to New York, but it was already all but over.
Now, the Knicks did get off to a strong start in Game 3, as they led 31-25 at the end of the first quarter. The Bulls would eventually gain control, though, and completed the sweep with a 103-94 win. They’d then go on to win the first of their six titles in the 1990s with Jordan.
The Bulls and Knicks actually faced off in the playoffs again in 1992, this time in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. This series wouldn’t be anywhere near as lopsided, though. The Knicks took it to the distance, but the Bulls triumphed in seven games.
“But of course, the next year we got good,” Checketts said. “It became a seven-game series in the second round. The Garden was crazy. I feel like if Michael had never been born, I’d have four rings. Two with the Jazz and two with the Knicks. At least.”
Now, Checketts was the president and general manager of the Utah Jazz from 1983 to 1990. Jordan and the Bulls did beat the Jazz twice in the NBA Finals, but that was in 1997 and 1998.
It’s unclear why Checketts thinks he’d have two rings with the Jazz. Getting back to the topic at hand, it was brought up to him here that you’d imagine people would anyway want to pay to see Jordan in the flesh. Checketts thinks New Yorkers are just different.
“New York is very sensitive to losing,” Checketts said. “… It’s Michael Jordan coming to play Game 3, and they just yawned and looked the other way. And that’s when I realized what I was up against. That was my first year at the Knicks.”
Checketts became president of the Knicks in 1991 and later advanced to the roles of president and CEO of MSG. He held them until 2001, when he resigned.
Checketts would get to see his Knicks eliminate the Bulls once in his tenure at the helm. They won in seven games in the Eastern Conference Semifinals in 1994.
Notably, though, the Bulls didn’t have Jordan then, as he had retired in 1993. He came out of retirement in 1995, and it was business as usual after that.
Jordan would power the Bulls past the Knicks in six games in the Eastern Conference Semifinals in 1996. Had this one man not existed, New York likely would have been able to celebrate a championship in the 1990s. Knicks legend Patrick Ewing has said he never won a title with them because they played in Jordan’s era.
To go with the three series that we mentioned, the Bulls beat the Knicks in six games in the Conference Semifinals in 1989 and in the Conference Finals in 1993. They were a very good team that just ran into a force of nature time and time again.
In total, Jordan played 27 playoff games against the Knicks. He put up incredible averages of 33.1 points, 6.4 rebounds, 6.0 assists, 2.1 steals, and 0.9 blocks per game in them. There’s no shame in that for the Knicks, as Jordan did this to everybody.
