In the 1990s, Michael Jordan and the Bulls had a myriad of challenges. The Pistons are the most well-known. However, after Detroit fell off, it was Patrick Ewing and the Knicks that stepped off as their new rivals in the East. Being similarly gritty, New York gave Chicago many problems on their way to a championship. However, the most interesting instance is inarguably the 1993 Eastern Conference Finals. Since here, not only did the Bulls go down 0-2 in the series, but also earned a harsh $25,000 fine from the NBA.
Advertisement
Jordan was a lot of things during his time in the league. Unfortunately, ‘a kind man’ wasn’t one of them. Despite being good friends with Ewing, he once called him a ‘black hole’. He did this, regardless of the fact that the Knicks superstar was the best option on his team during the big man era, something that he was. Simply put, ‘His Airness’ seldom had any limits for how he’d try to get in anyone’s head.
Michael Jordan ensured the Chicago Bulls would come back from 0-2 down
Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls may be remembered as something akin to invincible. However, the truth is that there were chinks in the armor that revealed themselves here and there. One of those occasions was the 1993 NBA Eastern Conference Finals. Here, the Bulls conceded the first two games with finals scores of 90-98 and 91-96.
Stuck in a desperate situation, the Bulls needed something to spur them on. And as expected of him, Jordan did something drastic to make it happen. Here is an excerpt from the book ‘Jordan Rules’ to explain what took place next.
“The New York newspapers, as the Bulls left town after Game 2, were filled with theses on how the Bulls had lost their cool, pointing to Pippen’s ejection; how Jordan couldn’t stand the pressure defense; how Horace Grant was folding up, complaining about injuries. So Jordan stopped talking to the media, and the Bulls, as usual, followed. The NBA was not amused by the Bulls’ silent treatment, and fined the club $25,000.”
In the end, Michael and his Bulls ended up winning the series 4-2, winning all the subsequent games after falling behind by 2 games in the series. This later culminated in them winning an NBA championship as well. So, it’s hard to think that the franchise didn’t find the $25,000 fine to be well worth it.
The Bulls-Knicks rivalry
The legendary Pat Riles was head coach of the New York Knicks during the Bulls-Knicks rivalry, and he suffered for it.
The now-Heat general manager has admitted that he wanted to physically hurt Michael Jordan because out of the 5 times they met in the playoffs, the Bulls won 4 times over.
The only time the Knicks did win, was in the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals, back when Jordan was retired. So, as great as he was, Riley could never get one over on MJ’s Bulls sides.
