Michael Jordan stopped trusting Chicago Bulls ownership and management in his second NBA season after they put a time restriction on him following his return from a broken left foot.
In the third game of the 1985-86 NBA season, Jordan broke his left foot against the Golden State Warriors on October 29, 1985. The superstar went up for a lob and landed flat-footed. He missed 64 games.
Jordan played the final 15 games of the 1985-86 NBA season. However, Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf and general manager Jerry Krause only let him play seven minutes each half, which made Jordan angry.
“The thing was, at the time, we were going through a rebuilding process, and I was practicing two hours a day, and that was the thing that bothered me more than anything,” Jordan told ESPN in 2012. “If I can go through two-hour practices, as intense as I practice, then when the game came, they gave me a seven-minute window (in each half) to play. That’s when I felt more frustrated than anything. I felt more than anything they were positioning themselves for the draft, and I didn’t feel good being part of that. I felt I was an all-out player who didn’t half-ass anything, and they wanted to move up (in the draft). I was a player. I wanted to play.”
On April 3, 1986, the Bulls faced the Indiana Pacers. It was a critical game for Chicago for the team to make the playoffs. Jordan had 26 points in 28 minutes, but he was benched for the game’s final play because his time limit was up.
John Paxson hit a game-winning shot to save the day. Jordan and his teammates went to the locker room to celebrate and Bulls head coach Stan Albeck wouldn’t let Krause in.
“The mistrust Michael had with management, specifically Jerry Krause was he believed that they violated the most fundamental aspect of sport, of I would argue the most fundamental aspect of the way Michael conducted his life: you do it at the highest level and you do it to win, all the time,” Mark Vancil, author of Rare Air, said in The Last Dance doc. “From that moment on, Michael’s relationship with the ownership and management was deeply soured. That never went away.”
Jordan had two stints with the Bulls. He averaged 31.5 points, 6.3 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 2.5 steals and 0.9 blocks and won five MVPs, six championships, six Finals MVPs, three steals titles, 10 scoring titles and one Defensive Player of the Year Award.
Jordan also won the 1985 Rookie of the Year Award.
The Bulls went 6-0 in the NBA Finals and three-peated twice during the Jordan era. Chicago never played in a Game 7 in the NBA Finals with Jordan leading the way.
Jordan is first in NBA history in points per game, fourth in steals, fifth in field goals and second in player efficiency rating. He holds the NBA record for most points (63) scored in a playoff game.
A Hall of Famer, Jordan finished his pro career with averages of 30.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 2.3 steals and 0.8 blocks with the Bulls and Washington Wizards. His Airness played two seasons with the Wizards in 2001-02 and 2002-03.
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