Scottie Pippen Was ‘Mesmerized’ Watching Michael Jordan Score 39 Points And Hit 6 Straight 3-Pointers Against Clyde Drexler In Game 1 Of ’92 Finals: ‘He Was Always Coming Up With Something We Hadn’t Seen Before’

Scottie Pippen was “mesmerized” watching Michael Jordan score 39 points and hit six 3-pointers in the first half against Clyde Drexler in Game 1 of the 1992 NBA Finals. 

Jordan began the game 6-of-6 from beyond the arc. 

“Michael wasted no time in proving his point,” Pippen wrote in his book. “Watching him knock down one three-pointer after another against Clyde, I was mesmerized. He was always coming up with something we hadn’t seen before. He finished with 39 points, including 6 threes, in our 122-89 triumph.”

During “The Last Dance” docuseries, Jordan admitted he was offended when pundits compared Drexler to him.

MJ was so angry that Drexler was being compared to him that he attacked the Blazers guard for the entire 1992 NBA Finals. 

“Clyde was a threat,” Jordan said in The Last Dance doc. “I’m not saying he wasn’t a threat. But me being compared to him, I took offense to that. Based on the way I was playing at that time, it wasn’t even close. So I attacked him every night.”

Jordan told Magic Johnson the night before Game 1 of the 1992 NBA Finals between the Chicago Bulls and Portland Trail Blazers that he would destroy Drexler. 

“I’m working for NBC,” Johnson said in The Last Dance. “I’m covering the Finals. So the night before Game 1, we’re at Michael’s house playing cards. And he said, ‘You know what’s gonna happen tomorrow. I’m gonna give it to this dude.'”

The Bulls defeated the Blazers in the 1992 NBA Finals in six games. 

Jordan averaged 35.8 points, 4.8 rebounds, 6.5 assists, 1.7 steals and 0.3 blocks and won Finals MVP for the second consecutive season.

Meanwhile, Drexler put up 24.8 points, 7.8 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.0 blocks per game.

Jordan and Drexler were teammates on the 1992 United States Men’s Olympic basketball team. It must have been awkward for Drexler to play with the guy who had torched him a few months prior.

Pippen didn’t enjoy playing with Drexler on “The Dream Team.”

Occasionally, certain individuals tried to do too much,” Pippen wrote in his book. “The person who comes to mind is Clyde Drexler. Clyde, still hurting from losing to the Bulls in the Finals, was out to prove he belonged on the same level as Michael. As if the six games the teams had just played hadn’t proven the exact opposite.

“Here is what someone should have told him: ‘Clyde, you should feel fortunate. You are one of the best basketball players in the world. You’re just not Michael Jordan and that’s no crime. No one is.’

“His energy was terrible. He always had his head down and acted as if Michael and I were his adversaries, not his teammates. Clyde didn’t fit in with the whole team, and it was a shame.”

Jordan and Pippen won six rings on the Bulls, while Drexler won his lone championship in 1995 as a member of the Houston Rockets.