“Bob Costas Must’ve Been In On It”: Michael Jordan ‘Lying’ To Fans About Increased Minutes In ’92 Playoffs To Protect His Image Has NBA Fans Irate

Joseph Galizia | 01/04/2025
Chicago Bulls guard Michael Jordan (23) against the Portland Trail Blazers during the 1992 season at Memorial Coliseum

Michael Jordan is an athlete who is universally beloved due to his massive accomplishments in the NBA. However, the social media age has exposed basketball fans to an endless wormhole of information — and now they’re using it to stock up ammunition against His Airness. An old interview clip between Jordan and legendary Bob Costas has surfaced on X (fka Twitter), and fans are outraged at MJ for a lie he told at that time.

The interview took place amid the 1992 NBA Finals when the Bulls were locked in a 2-2 tie against the Blazers. Costas asked Jordan if he felt like he played “too many minutes” during the season and claimed that MJ’s overall minutes went up for the “first time in four years.”

This included games where the Bulls were “comfortably ahead,” according to Costas. Jordan’s response?

“I don’t think it’s really my minutes, it’s more or less the productivity from other players,” a then 29-year-old Jordan stated.  MJ then revealed that it was head coach Phil Jackson who pushed for him to be on the court more.

“Phil (Jackson) looked at every moment possible to get me more minutes but he felt that with my presence out there we were really reassured of winning a game because of lack of productivity from other players,” he added.

The statement seemingly threw Jordan’s ’92 teammates under the bus. Not to mention, it was untrue. MJ’s minutes that season were the 5th lowest in all of his playoff runs. This led the person who posted the clip, @ProvideContext, to pitch a wild theory about why the question was even asked.

“It’s that Costas must have been in on it,” they wrote. “MJ’s minutes were completely normal compared to previous years,” they added.

The interview does seem odd and out of place considering the numbers and even more so when you break down Jordan’s playoff minutes from his previous seasons.

Jordan averaged the same amount of minutes as he had in previous years, particularly in the playoffs

Between his 13 playoff appearances, Jordan averaged 41.8 minutes per game. In 1992, the year Costas said MJ had “increased minutes,” His Airness played 41.8 minutes per game, slightly up from 1991’s 40.5 MP but down from 1990’s 42.1 MP.

The only real difference is that in the 1992 postseason, the Bulls played 22 games, the most ever of all the Jordan playoff runs. That’s probably why those extra minutes are getting tallied.

The same can be said for MJ’s regular-season numbers. The time differences certainly don’t add up to anything gargantuan, which made Jordan’s statement in the interview even more head-scratching. Perhaps it was a good publicity opportunity for him to gain some sympathy while leading his team to their second NBA Championship win in two years.

While Michael Jordan, Jackson, and the Bulls did get the job done, this newly surfaced interview sheds some more light onto the once-believed “untouchable” talent.

Post Edited By: Sameen Nawathe
Bob Costas Michael Jordan Phil Jackson

About the author

Joseph Galizia

Joseph is a Las Vegas based actor and circus performer. For the last seven years he's had the pleasure of covering sports for multiple outlets, including the Lifestyles section of Sports Illustrated. In that time, he's conducted over 50 interviews with athletes, filmmakers, and company founders to further cement his footprint in the journalism world. He's excited to bring that skillset to the SportsRush, where he'll be covering the NBA news cycle.

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