Michael Jordan Once Admitted to Thinking About His Patrick Ewing Dunk Time and Again: “My Most Memorable Dunk”

After the Detroit Pistons, the New York Knicks tried to become the ‘bad boys’ of the NBA. They were successful against most of their opponents except for the Chicago Bulls. By that time, Michael Jordan had already gained muscles to elevate his game on the hardwood against physical players. The Bulls-Knicks rivalry that would transpire in the 90s would mostly be lopsided in favor of the Chicago side, which can very well be anticipated by this dunk from Michael Jordan.

During the Knicks vs Bulls series in the 1991 playoffs, Jordan put Patrick Ewing on a poster in what has been regarded as one of the most ruthless plays in NBA history. MJ would later admit that this dunk is his favorite and he would often rewatch it again and again to cherish and relive the moment.

Patrick Ewing was one of Jordan’s best friends in the league. Ewing was a big man and it was almost impossible to dunk on him. However, there is a reason why Jordan is famously known as Air Jordan. MJ had an excellent vertical and the will of a lion that allowed him to dunk on fierce players like Mutombo and Ewing.

When asked about the most memorable dunk in his career, Jordan had selected his poster on Ewing. “My most memorable dunk, that I think about very, very often, is the Patrick Ewing dunk,” Jordan had said.

On 30th April 1991, in Game 1 of the first round series between Knicks and the Bulls, Jordan put Ewing on a poster by throwing down a hammer on the Knicks legend. The Bulls superstar received the ball outside the three-point line during the play.

He then drove to the basket before stopping on a dime to lose his defenders. After a successful spin move to throw off the double-team, Jordan ran toward the basket and slammed it on Patrick Ewing’s face. The whole arena exploded after the slam.

In the 90s, the Bulls and the Knicks met a total of five times in the postseason. Of these five meetings, Chicago won four. The only time the Bulls lost was during the 1994 playoffs when Jordan had temporarily retired from the NBA. Once Jordan came back from retirement, he restored Chicago’s dominance against New York.

However, Ewing was not the only victim of MJ playing for the Knicks.

Michael Jordan scoffed off Knicks’ John Starks as a difficult opponent

This resurfaced video shows MJ answering questions in a basketball camp. One member of the audience asked him about the hardest player he had to play 1-on-1. Jordan said that small guards like Allen Iverson and Rod Strickland posed problems for him. However, when an audience member took John Starks’ name, Jordan scoffed it off.

This is what MJ said in the camp;

“The hardest opponent for me to play against in terms of one-on-one? Small guys. Iverson, Damon Stoudamire, Rod Strickland. Those little guards like that, it’s tough for me. Muggsy. Starks? No problem with Starks.”

MJ and Starks faced each other 24 times with the former averaging 31.4 against the latter, who averaged 12.8 points. That stat itself is a testament that Black Jesus didn’t have a problem against the 6-foot-3 All-Star.