Michael Jordan doesn’t believe the Chicago Bulls would have won eight NBA titles in a row if he didn’t retire to play baseball.
The Bulls won three straight championships in 1991, 1992 and 1993. Jordan retired in October 1993 following the tragic murder of his father, who was killed in July.
Jordan played baseball during the 1993-94 NBA season.
“People say if I hadn’t played baseball for a year and a half, we would be going for our eighth championship in a row,” Jordan told ESPN in 1998. “But I don’t think so. After our three-peat, the atmosphere on the team wasn’t the same.”
The Bulls went 55-27 in 1993-94 without Jordan. They beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of the 1994 playoffs but lost to the New York Knicks in the second round.
The Houston Rockets won the 1994 championship against the Knicks.
Jordan returned to the NBA near the end of the 1994-95 season. The Bulls finished the campaign 47-35 and defeated the Charlotte Hornets in the first round of the 1995 playoffs.
However, the Orlando Magic eliminated the Bulls in the second round. It was the only postseason series Jordan lost from 1991 to 1998.
The Rockets won the 1995 title versus the Magic.
In the summer of 1995, Jordan transformed his body from a baseball frame back to a basketball build and the rest is history.
Chicago won three consecutive championships in 1996, 1997 and 1998.
“But I don’t think this is our best Bulls team,” Jordan said. “Our first three title teams were more balanced, younger, more agile. And the desire was a lot stronger. It’s strong now, but back then we had a lot of guys who had never won anything. Now it’s easy for complacency to set in. It’s human nature. It happened to me.”
Arguably the greatest player in NBA history, Jordan had two stints with the Bulls. He won the 1984-85 Rookie of the Year Award, the 1987-88 Defensive Player of the Year Award, five MVPs, 10 scoring titles, three steals titles, six championships and six Finals MVPs.
Chicago went undefeated in the NBA Finals in the Jordan era. The team beat the Los Angeles Lakers, Portland Trail Blazers, Phoenix Suns, Seattle SuperSonics and Utah Jazz (twice).
“On this team we love each other,” Jordan said. “No jealousies, no animosities, no nothing. Is there another team like that? Maybe Utah. But after what Karl Malone said about Greg Ostertag [‘When you talk about dominant centers, I look at Ostertag and I don’t think he has the commitment’], I don’t know how long that will last. On our team, everybody gets along with everybody, everybody can go out with everybody. And we’re not afraid to criticize each other.”
Jordan finished his legendary career with averages of 30.1 points, 6.2 rebounds and 5.3 assists in 1,072 games with the Bulls and Washington Wizards. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009.
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