“Michael Jordan really dropped 36 on Shaq after dropping 64 points”: When the Bulls legend edged out a close one against Shaquille O’Neal and his Magic

Michael Jordan and Shaq combined for 66 points in February of 1993 with the Chicago Bulls winning a close one against the Magic. 

Michael Jordan and Shaq were similar in the sense that both hit the ground running the second they landed in the NBA. Jordan ended up averaging 28+ points per game his rookie season and winning ROTY honors and Shaq win Eastern Conference Player of the Week in his first week in the NBA, eventually snagging ROTY honors as well. 

The 1992-93 NBA season saw Shaquille O’Neal make his debut as a powerful and dominating center out of LSU, someone who was lauded as being a rival to Wilt Chamberlain’s dominance. In merely his second game in the NBA, ‘The Big Aristotle’ dropped 22 points and 15 rebounds in a win over the Bullets.

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The ‘93 season for Michael Jordan on the other hand, was vastly different. Coming off a repeat title and gaining worldwide notoriety from being in Barcelona during the summer, Jordan was the undisputed king of the league. 

While he may have confided in Magic during the Olympics that his love for the game of basketball was starting to fade, he certainly opposed to being a winner. That’s exactly what kept him going that season. The desire to win. 

Michael Jordan and Shaq duke it out in the latter’s rookie season. 

In an earlier meeting between the Magic and the Bulls, Michael Jordan dropped a whopping 64 points on January 16th, 1993. The game went into overtime and despite the near 70 bomb, the Bulls lost. Shaq had 29 points and 22 boards to oppose MJ and this is what led to the Magic sneaking away with a win that night.

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Seems as though Michael wasn’t going to let that happen again. In another game between the two teams, Jordan dropped a casual 36 points by putting on a mid-range clinic of his own. The game went down to the wire with the Bulls prevailing 108-106. 

Shaq ended the game with 30 points and 19 rebounds, including a clutch and-1 poster over Will Purdue but it wasn’t enough to put the eventual champs away.