There were a lot of shining moments of Michael Jordan’s career. From his first title wins to his “flu game,” Jordan knew how to light up a highlight reel.
But perhaps his greatest moment came at the end (the literal end) of his storied career. Dubbed “the shot,” Jordan hit a game-sealing jumper in the closing seconds of Game 6 of the 1998 Finals. There is a lot of controversy over the moment, with many people of the belief that Jordan should have been called for an offensive foul on that play.
But in a chat with The Athletic’s Michael Lee, veteran NBA referee Danny Crawford gave his take on that infamous shot.
I spoke to referee Danny Crawford a few years about if MJ pushed off in ‘98 & he said you can’t blow a whistle on “what you thought you saw” in real time. “It wasn’t an egregious play where you thought, ‘Oh, no. You can’t do that.’ It was a tough play that could go either way.”
— Michael Lee (@MrMichaelLee) May 18, 2020
While Crawford didn’t necessarily confirm it was a legal move, he admitted that the call could’ve gone either way. Obviously, it would’ve been huge for that shot to have been called a foul on Jordan. It might have impacted how it all ended.
Reality, though, decided to weave a different story — and who are we to argue about it?
