'The Last Dance' Chronicles: Those Jordan revenge games
MANILA, Philippines — In Episode Eight of "The Last Dance", we saw a pair of narratives where Michael Jordan sought revenge on opponents.
The episode started with the Chicago Bulls taking on the Charlotte Hornets in the second round of the 1998 Eastern Conference playoffs. BJ Armstrong, who just transferred from the Bulls to the Hornets that year, hit a huge shot very late in the game to help the Hornets even the series at 1-1. Armstrong, who finished with 10 points that Game Two, over-celebrated on the floor of the United Center.
And well, that set off Jordan. Even BJ knew it was a mistake. As author Mark Vancil, who collaborated with Jordan in the groundbreaking coffee table book, "Rare Air and For the Love of the Game", “He’d find a game within the game to keep him interested.”
Before the documentary continued on the Bulls-Hornets series, we saw director Jason Hehir dial back time to a game in 1993 against the Washington Bullets.
Although the Bullets lost that game, 99-104, rookie LaBradford Smith hit 15 of the 20 field goals he attempted that game for 37 points. The Wes Unseld-coached team fell to 18-44 at that point on March 23, 1993. But the story was a Bullets rookie scoring a ton of points on Jordan.
Jordan shot a poor 9-27 for a team-high 25 points. He only reached that because of the sheer volume of shots he put up. However, five Bulls scored in double digits — Scottie Pippen, Armstrong, Will Perdue and Stacey King.
Within Bulls circles, a story made the rounds where Smith told Jordan after the game, “Nice game, Mike.” In the locker room after that game, Chicago coach Phil Jackson made sure to needle Jordan about Smith’s game. If Jordan didn’t already have enough motivation…
In the next game of that back-to-back game with the Bullets this time at the Capital Center in Landover, Maryland, the Bulls riddled the home side, 126-101. Jordan lit up LaBradford Smith for 47 points. Smith finished with 15. Not bad except this time, he shot 5-12.
Chicago, on its way to a third straight title, climbed to 45-20.
Even as I was closely watching the Bulls then (I tried to watch every game that was televised on the American station, FEN), I recall several instances where Jordan took umbrage at comments, plays and digs by not only opposing coaches and players, but also fans.
During the 1987-88 season, Chicago was playing Utah and John Stockton was guarding Jordan. Stockton gambled on a steal and Michael spun in the lane and dunked. As Jordan was making his way up court, a fan running along the sidelines yells loud enough to be heard – “Hey, Jordan… pick on someone your own size.”
Michael looked at the fan and in the very next possession, he dunked on 6’11’ Jazz center Mel Turpin and barks at the fan, “Was he big enough?”
And during the summer of 1988 as the last amateur American team to play in the Olympics was playing a tune-up match against NBA players, Navy’s David Robinson blocked Jordan on a drive. In the next play, Jordan drove and dunked on Robinson. In the next several plays, Jordan scored on a pair of three-point plays… also on Robinson.
And there was the alleged “freeze out” of Jordan in the 1985 All-Star Game. Chicago’s game immediately after the All-Star break was against Detroit at the Chicago Stadium. The Bulls won 139-126 in overtime, and Michael tallied 49 points, 15 points, five assists and four rsteals. Isiah Thomas finished with 19 points, nine assists and three rebounds.
Said Bulls anchor David Baum, "MJ and Isiah just finish slapping hands. Let’s see how cordial it is between the two.” Michael repeatedly blew by Thomas and attacked the Pistons interior for monster dunks.
He never wanted to be shown up. Never. And as Jordan and then-Charlotte Hornet Glen Rice said of Armstrong, “he should have known better.”
Michael shaking his head at the ESPN report on the Hornets’ win... now that is a chilling shot. The icy glare.
He held Armstrong to two measly points the next game, and BJ averaged 7.0 points in the final three games of the series.
And of course, there was Nick Anderson saying after he stole the ball from Jordan late in Game One of the 1995 Eastern Conference semifinals that led to a Horace Grant dunk and a 94-91 Orlando Magic win, “No. 45 doesn’t explode like No. 23 used to. No. 45 is not No. 23. I couldn’t have done that to No. 23.”
In Game Two, Jordan took No. 23 from the mothballs and torched Anderson for 38 points as Chicago won, 104-94. The Bulls though fell in six games, thus setting up the motivation for him and the team to get back to championship form during the 1995-96 season, where they swept the Magic in the Eastern Conference finals.
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