“This series is brutal, I want to get done with it”: Michael Jordan uncharacteristically revealed his distaste for playing against Patrick Ewing and the physical Knicks in the Playoffs

Michael Jordan let it be known that he wanted the 1992 series against the Knicks to get over as they were being too physical. 

It took the Chicago Bulls nearly half a decade to get over the Detroit Pistons hump in the Playoffs. Michael Jordan and company had finally broken through in the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals by sweeping the aging Pistons, having successfully defeated a team that relied on physicality just as much as schematic ingenuity. 

However, the Bulls couldn’t rest long as the demise of the Pistons heralded a younger team in the East to take their place: the New York Knicks. Led by Charles Oakley from a physicality standpoint, the former Bull gave Chi-Town hell any time he would match up against them, bringing truth to his nickname of ‘The Enforcer’. 

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The Knicks and the Bulls would face off against one another 5 times in the 1990s, with 4 of them coming in a row from 1991 to 1994. The ‘92 ECSF was undoubtedly the most brutal with newly appointed Knicks head coach, Pat Riley, wanting his squad to be more violent when someone rives into the paint. 

Michael Jordan revealed that he wanted the series to get over. 

With spacing not having been a strong point for teams until the mid-90s Rockets rose to dominance, the Chicago Bulls relied heavily on Michael Jordan driving into the paint. Despite having been through hell with the Pistons, beating the Knicks proved harder than they thought. 

Up 3-2 on the Knicks, Pat Riley infamously was outraged at his team and continuously replayed Michael Jordan dunking over Ewing and company the year prior to help fuel a fire within them. He would then advice his players to knock Jordan to the floor every time he drove in and to stop befriending him as MJ can sense that as a weakness.

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The following Game 6 saw the Knicks win 100-86 but not without MJ admitting prior to the game that he was tired of playing against the Knicks due to their physicality. 

According to Chris Herring, author of ‘Blood in the Garden’, Michael Jordan revealed that the series was brutal and that he just wanted to get it over with. Zach Lowe agreed that this was quite uncharacteristic of him. 

The Chicago Bulls would go on to win Game 7 by a whopping 29 points with Jordan dropping 42 points in 42 minutes.