Michael Jordan is one of the greatest basketball players of all time and was a sensational winner on the court. Jordan won 6 championships in his NBA career, 3-peating twice in those runs. These championships were won between 1991 and 1998 in one of the greatest runs in modern professional sports.
MJ achieved this through a meticulous approach to the game of basketball. He focused solely on winning and made sure every person in the locker room with him was aligned on the same goal. Those 8 years are still considered iconic and will be forever because of the stature of what MJ and the Bulls achieved.
The Bulls, with Jordan, lost just 1 playoff series out of the 26 they competed in during this era. That 1 loss came in 1995 after Jordan had returned from his 1-year hiatus from basketball. The Shaquille O’Neal and Penny Hardaway-led Orlando Magic were the ones that bested MJ 4-2. Outside of them, there is no team that can claim to have won over Jordan in his glory days.
MJ and the Bulls got their win back over Orlando, sweeping them in the 1996 Playoffs. That run solidified Jordan as the legend that everyone knows him as. Those 8 years wrote the passage of who many people consider the single greatest basketball player of all time.
There were many common fixtures during this run, primarily Scottie Pippen. Jordan’s success wouldn’t have been possible without Pippen and coach Phil Jackson, who revolutionized the triangle offense and applied it to great effect in Chicago.
During this run, Jordan averaged 32.5 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 5.3 assists in 126 games in the playoffs. He set an incredible winning precedent that modern NBA players like LeBron James have been compared to. Outside the Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant-led Lakers, no other team has 3-peated since.
