Michael Jordan is widely regarded as the greatest player of all time, and his incredible career just had so many memorable moments. There was that 63-point game against the Celtics in the 1986 playoffs, the double-nickel game in 1995 against the Knicks, the “Flu Game” in 1997 against the Jazz, and then the game-winner against the Jazz in 1998, to name just a few.
Another one that always tends to be brought up when we talk about MJ is the shrug game in 1992. Coming off his first NBA championship in 1991, Jordan was out to defend his title, and he led the Bulls to a 67-win season while winning his second straight MVP. They would make it back to the Finals, where they would take on the Clyde Drexler-led Portland Trail Blazers.
Magic Johnson Revealed What Michael Jordan Told Him At 1 AM The Night Before Game 1
At the time, the media was hyping up the clash with talk of a potential rivalry between Jordan and Drexler as the next two superstars of the league. Jordan, however, was keen to show that he was far superior to Drexler, and Magic Johnson revealed during an appearance on The Jimmy Kimmel Show what Jordan told him the night before Game 1.
(starts at 5:28 mark):
“I’m on NBC calling the games. So I’m at his house the night before. He called me, ‘Come on out.’ so I went to his house (and) we played cards. We’re playing cards, and it got to be about 1 am in the morning, now the game is the next night. So I said, ‘Man let me go so you can get some rest.’ He said, ‘No, you stay here because I’m gonna tear Clyde Drexler up tomorrow.’ and I was like ‘Oh wow’ and he got this look on his face like he wanted to play him right then.”
“So I’m thinking, okay, maybe he just said that. We get to the game, and he hits that first three, the second three, and the third three. Remember, he is hitting them in a row. He hits six threes. So the last one he hit, he turned and looked at me (and shrugged). It was to me, ‘what did I tell you I was going to do.'”
It just speaks to Jordan’s confidence in his abilities and he knew there was no one playing at the time who was really a match for him. He hit 6 three-pointers in the first half and finished with 39 points on the night as the Bulls took a 1-0 lead. They would go on to win the series in 6 games, and the following year, they won it all once again to complete the three-peat.
The Bulls became the first team since those dynastic Celtics to achieve that, and they did it once again from 1996 to 1998. Only one other team has done that since, which was, of course, the Lakers led by Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant.
