“Michael Jordan stared me down because I destroyed him at cards”: Magic Johnson recalled the iconic ‘Shrug’ against Blazers in 1992

Michael Jordan directed his iconic ‘Shrug’ towards Magic Johnson after Magic had destroyed him at cards the night before. 

Michael Jordan was someone who looked to turn quite nearly every activity he indulged in, into a competition. Whether it was tossing coins at a wall with a security guard of his or hitting the green against Chuck Daly at the 1992 Olympics, the Bulls legend wanted to win at everything he did regardless of how menial the activity was. 

Of course, being a professional athlete means you have an innate competitiveness that is hard to contain. Jordan wasn’t the only ‘MJ’ who liked to partake in healthy competition as 5x champ, Magic Johnson, was a competitive guy as well. You don’t get 5 chips in a single decade without being competitive after all.

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The two would clash against one another on the biggest stage of them all, the NBA Finals in 1991. After winning Game 1 by a mere 2 points, the Chicago Bulls showed just how much the Lakers missed a guy like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. 

Michael Jordan averaged 31.2 points that Finals and led the Bulls to 4 straight wins from games 2-5, winning his first FMVP in the process. 

Michael Jordan shrugged at Magic Johnson for a reason. 

One of the most iconic moments of Jordan’s career came in the Finals right after his win over Magic and company a year prior. Going up against a man who was directly compared to him the entirety of that season, MJ had a lot to prove to himself and to the world. He famously ‘took offense’ to the comparisons between him and Clyde Drexler.

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‘His Airness’ came out guns blazing in Game 1 of those 1992 NBA Finals, going off for 6 straight threes, making it a Finals record at the time. The final 3 over Cliff Robinson saw him hit his iconic shrug right afterwards. 

While he was shrugging t show that it wasn’t all too big of a deal to him, he looked over in Magic’s direction who was a color commentator for NBC at the time. He did so because, according to Johnson himself, they had a cards game the night before where Magic took it to MJ the entire time. 

So, while he couldn’t get back at the Lakers legend through cards, he did get to stare down at him in front of thousands of fans.