Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant’s former teammate John Salley appeared on Vlad TV, where an interesting question was posed to him. Salley was asked whom between them he’d pass the ball to with 10 seconds left, and while he went with Jordan, he stated that the Chicago Bulls icon missed a lot of clutch shots and that he’d admit that, too.
“You throw the ball to Michael,” Salley said. “… Michael missed a lot of those shots, too. The NBA was building a brand new brand, so you’re never going to see those shots that Michael missed in the last couple [of seconds]. You’re not going to see them. You can look all day, you ain’t going to see them.”
“And he’ll tell you, ‘I missed a lot of shots to win a game…,'” Salley continued. “You’ll never see them. You only see the ones that go in.”
At the end of the day, Jordan is only human. Just like anyone else, he, too, came up short in some big moments during his career. Here’s a look at all the game-tying/winning shots he missed in the NBA Finals.
Jordan has never really shied away from the fact that he missed some big shots either. He spoke about how coming up short on numerous occasions is why he has gone on to have success in his “Failure” commercial from 1997.
“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career,” Jordan said. “I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
While Jordan missed a lot of clutch shots, there might only be a handful of players who made more than he did in his 15-year NBA career. He still holds the record for the most game-winning buzzer-beaters in league history with nine.
The very first one is arguably the most famous of the bunch. We’re, of course, talking about Jordan’s shot over Craig Ehlo in the deciding Game 5 between the Bulls and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of the 1989 NBA playoffs.
Jordan also hit a game-winning buzzer-beater in Game 1 of the 1997 NBA Finals against the Utah Jazz. He might not have always come through, but there probably isn’t another player you’d want with the ball with time running down on the clock.
Add these iconic clutch moments to an incredible resume, and you see why Jordan is still widely regarded as the greatest player of all time. He won six titles, six Finals MVPs, five MVPs, one DPOY, and 10 scoring titles in his career.
Jordan never lost in the Finals, going a perfect 6-0. His Bulls teams were never forced to play a Game 7 in any of those series either.
Getting back to the original question posed to Salley, Bryant wouldn’t be a bad option either in this situation. He made eight game-winning buzzer-beaters in his career, tied for the second-most in NBA history with LeBron James and Joe Johnson.
