SN Archive (2003): Michael Jordan's wasn't viewed as a winner... until this game

"We talked about how, when you get to a championship series and haven't had that opportunity before, you really don't want to mess it up," recalls Jackson, who had played on the Knicks' 1973 title team and now is coach of the Lakers. "It's something you have to take advantage of because nobody knows when you'll ever get back to it again."

Chicago took advantage, all right, routing the Lakers, 107-86. With that win, the momentum shifted and the Bulls went on to win the next three games and their first of six titles. It was that second game, however, that was Jordan's coming-out party. In 36 amazing minutes, he totaled 33 points, 13 assists, seven rebounds, two steals and one block and executed one of the most acrobatic layups ever seen. Just as importantly, he displayed for the first time on such a grand stage the characteristics that would come to define his greatness.

Michael Jordan on the April 7, 2003 cover of The Sporting News

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Leadership

The Windy City media blasted the Bulls for their one-dimensional attack in Game 1, in which Jordan was responsible for nearly 40 percent of Chicago’s scoring and he and Scottie Pippen were the only two Bulls with more than six points.

"In the first game, Michael had tried to carry too much of the load," says guard John Paxson, today a Bulls radio analyst. "In Game 2, he had it in his mind to right things. He got everybody involved early, making passes he didn't in Game 1. Horace Grant. He hadn't distributed the ball all year the way he did that night."

Says guard B.J. Armstrong, who now works in the Bulls' front office: "Michael came into that game with a mindset that he had come too far to fail in his mission. We saw he was willing to do whatever it would take."

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With all that ball movement, the Bulls shot 61.7 percent from the floor, still a record for The Finals, with the starters hitting on an incredible 73.4 percent of their attempts.

Playing with Jordan made the rest of the Bulls better, but it took Jordan a while to understand that. When he came to the conclusion that he couldn't win a title by himself, he began recognizing the value of his teammates' contributions. That explains why, in subsequent runs to the title, the usually impatient perfectionist was able to tolerate Pippen's moodiness, Dennis Rodman's eccentricities and the offensive limitations of lumbering big man Luc Longley.

I would have to say that game served notice Michael was moving into his own as a championship player.

• Phil Jackson

Poise

Entering the '91 NBA Finals, the Bulls had won 11 of 12 playoff games. But after the Game 1 setback, they found themselves in a must-win situation. Jordan never had faced this kind of pressure as a pro before, but he quickly discovered that he loved every bit of it. This was the first example of how he could raise his level of play at the most crucial times. After taking just three shots in the first 20 minutes of Game 2, Jordan caught fire in the third quarter. He made 13 of 18 shots in the game and 10 of 11 in the second half. At one point he made 13 in a row.

"When he was on that streak, he was doing it in every way," says Paxson. "Fadeaway jumpers, pull-ups, taking it all the way to the rim."

Says Timberwolves radio analyst Mychal Thompson, who played center for the Lakers in that game, "I remember him looking over at our bench as if to say, 'Well, what are you guys going to do about this? You have no answer for it.' It wasn't a show-them-up type of look. It was just that he knew there was nothing we could do to stop him."

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In the 12 years since, Jordan has proved unshakeable. Down by a point with 5.2 seconds remaining, he drilled the series winner against the Jazz in Game 6 of the '98 Finals and looked so calm doing it that you'd have thought he was shooting jumpers in an empty gym. Can anyone recall a situation that ever rattled him? Not falling behind, 2-0, to New York in the '93 Eastern Conference finals. Not trailing Indiana late in the seventh game of the '98 conference finals. Not even trying to cope with a queasy stomach in Utah in '97 with the Finals tied at two games apiece.

Must-win situation? To M.J., that was no cause for concern. It was a reason for being.

Adaptability

The Jordan who returned in 1995 from a brief flirtation with baseball was a different player from the one who had left. The new version had lost some of his explosiveness and zest for aerial maneuvers but soon perfected an unstoppable midrange jumper and improved his repertoire of post-up moves. The fact that Jordan could make major adjustments in his game and still be as dangerous came as no surprise to anyone who'd watched him against the Lakers on that spring night in '91.

He played much of that game at the point after getting into foul trouble, though he briefly even guarded center Vlade Divac, who held a 7-inch height advantage. Part of Jackson's strategy was to use Pippen, not Jordan, to defend Magic Johnson. The move worked. Pippen pressured Johnson and disrupted his rhythm, and Jordan was able to conserve energy on defense and focus more on his scoring and play-making.

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When you talk about Jordan, you're talking about a guy who didn't have a position," says Thompson. "He was a basketball player. He could excel at any position. He could do anything he wanted on that floor."

Confidence

"Coming into Game 2, Jordan was as positive as I ever saw him about winning a game easily," says Smith. "He felt like they were too nervous in Game 1 but still almost won. He was saying, 'It'll be 1-1 after tonight, then we've got them.' Despite being down, 0-1, and despite the Lakers mystique, Jordan came into that game like the Bulls were up, 3-0."

Adds Paxson, "The confidence he had that night was infectious."

During that first championship run, Jordan's moxie stemmed from his belief in himself. As the banner collection grew and more of his fingers sported rings, Jordan grew secure in the knowledge that his ability, Pippen's talent and experience and Jackson's game plans gave the Bulls the edge in every matchup they encountered. That's why Jordan saw nothing strange about traveling all the way to Atlantic City, N.J., in the early-morning hours before a '93 playoff game in New York. And only a guy certain of the series outcome could joke to reporters after missing a potential tying shot at the end of Game 5 of the '98 Finals, even though it meant the Bulls had to return to Utah's hostile Delta Center for a sixth and possibly a seventh game.

Flair for the dramatic

Jordan's floating shot in Game 2 has, with the passage of time, taken on a special mythology. No, it wasn't a turning point in the game. The truth is, it came in the fourth quarter with the Bulls leading by 24. Jordan took a pass from Cliff Levingston, drove the lane, hung in the sky, transferred the ball from his right hand to his left and laid it in off the glass. How spectacular was it? Let's put it this way: That shot is probably one of the big reasons ESPN invented the Classic Sports Network. Former referee Mike Mathis, who worked that game, says, "Running back down the court the other way, I said to myself, 'Wow! Did I just see what I think I saw?'"

"When you think of incredible shots, you think of Julius Erving against the Lakers (1980 NBA Finals), when he had no room along the baseline, went past the backboard and flipped the ball up with a reverse move," says Marv Albert, who worked the '91 Finals for NBC. "Jordan's move wasn't quite that, but it was probably in the top five of all-time."

He'd hit great shots before, but to do it in that setting told everyone he was a legend in the making. He was actually flying. To hang like that was amazing.

It may have been at that moment, in fact, that the story of Jordan becomes the Legend.

Lakers forward Sam Perkins was at the basket, and he couldn't jump 3 inches off the ground," says Smith. "Jordan could have easily dunked on him. My view has always been that Jordan was sending a message: Not only can we beat you, but I can do something really special just to show how much better we are. I think it was symbolic. He was trying to say that the rest of the series wasn't going to be hard."

And it wasn't. The Bulls won the final four games of the series by an average of almost 15 points, but the turning point—for the series and for the winner within Michael Jordan—was in Game 2.

"I would have to say that game served notice Michael was moving into his own as a championship player," says Jackson, "and the teams that he was going to play on now were going to be contenders."

Jordan went on to six MVP awards in The Finals and left a generation of athletes dwarfed by his shadow. Fans, of course, didn't know that as they settled into their seats in Chicago Stadium or tuned in to NBC on that June night 12 years ago. But they were about to watch a dam burst. From that point on, the Bulls' offense, broadcasters' superlatives and the river of champagne never stopped flowing.

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