Tuesday, May 18, 2010

May 18, 1995: Merely mortal

CHICAGO - When Michael Jordan returned to basketball from his baseball-playing sabbatical, there was a little rust in his game. That was to be expected, as he hadn't played basketball for a year and a half. Wearing the number 45 - his previous number 23 had been retired - he had some good games mixed in with some subpar games, as he was clearly trying to get his basketball legs back underneath him.

That all seemed to change in game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against Orlando when, in the final seconds of a close game, Orlando's Nick Anderson stripped Jordan from behind, leading to a game-winning basket for the Magic. After the game, in which Jordan had scored a rather pedestrian (for him) 19 points, Anderson said, "That didn't look like the old Michael Jordan."

In most years, that was a mistake. You didn't trash talk Michael Jordan. Ever. So Jordan took Anderson's comments under consideration, changed his number back to 23, and took off, scoring 38 in game 2, 40 in game 3, and 39 in game 5. Despite this, though, the Magic had a 3 games to 2 lead in the series as the teams headed to Game 6 in Chicago.

Orlando was a legitimate force that season. With a young Shaquille O'Neal and Penny Hardaway leading the way, they looked like they would be the next NBA dynasty. But Chicago was the old dynasty, and they seemed to be proving their superiority by taking a 102-94 lead with 3:24 left in Game 6. Eight point lead at home, with Jordan and Pippen on their team? They weren't losing that one, right?

Well...

It started with a baby hook from Shaq, a strip on the other end, and a 3-pointer from Anderson. Still, not much to panic about for the Bulls - they still led by 3. But what's this - Pippen missed two near-point blank shots, followed by two Orlando free throws. With 1:01 left came maybe the most shocking sight of all: a Michael Jordan air ball. Anderson made another shot to give Orlando the lead.

OK, then. Still nothing to worry about. Jordan's back, the man with the greatest killer instinct in decades. He'll handle it. Well, the next two times down the floor, he jumped to shoot, saw both Anderson and Shaq get hands in his face, and tried to pass it off. Both possessions resulted in turnovers and Orlando free throws.

Perhaps the most surprising images from this night was the look of shock that came over Jordan over the final minute, like he couldn't believe he was failing. He thought he could come back to the NBA and continue dominating immediately, but Orlando had other thoughts.

By the time Shaq threw down a breakaway dunk to clinch the 108-102 win for Orlando, the wheels had been set in motion. Jordan basically disappeared after the season, spent the entire offseason training like he never had before, and came back the next season in the best shape of his life. The Bulls started the next season 41-3 on their way to a record 72 wins, a season inspired by the previous season's failure where Michael Jordan had, for the first time, seemed merely mortal.

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