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“Michael Jordan & The Bulls Drew A Record 62,046 Fans”: When MJ Drew A Record Number Of Fans Against The Atlanta Hawks In The Georgia Dome

Ashish Priyadarshi
Published

Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan drew crowds wherever he went, but nothing could compare to the time a record setting 60,000+ fans filed in to watch him play.

The date was March 27th, 1998 and the Chicago Bulls were all set to take on the Atlanta Hawks in regular season matchup.

The Atlanta Hawks played games in ‘The Omni’ up until the 1997-98 season which could hold around 16,378 fans for a basketball game.

However, the arena was demolished in the 1997 offseason, meaning that the Hawks had to play their games elsewhere. Their new home became the ‘Georgia Dome’, the home stadium of the Atlanta Falcons NFL team which could seat around 71,000 fans for a basketball game.

This meant that a much larger number of fans could file in to watch any game due to the increased capacity. However, nothing could match the record number of fans that Jordan drew in that day.

The reason this many fans poured in to watch Jordan this time? Well, rumors were heating up that Jordan would retire after this season, and so this would mark the last time he’d play in Atlanta ever.Jordan

Also Read: “Michael Jordan and Wayne Gretzky invested in this streaming app”: NBA and NHL GOATs invest in ‘Buzzr’ alongside Patrick Mahomes, DeAndre Hopkins, LaMelo Ball and Devin Booker

Michael Jordan And The Bulls Dominate The Hawks In Front Of 62,000 Fans

The Bulls had themselves a good day playing in front of the absurd number of fans. Chicago would walk off with a comfortable win.

They never Atlanta get comfortable in front of their ‘home crowd’ as they walked off with an 89-74 victory. Jordan had himself an exceptional game, scoring 34 points to go along with 4 assists and 5 rebounds.

He was singlehandedly responsible for more than 40% of the Bulls’ point total that day. The win would bump Chicago up to 54-17 on the year.

The 1997-98 season culminated with an historic third championship as Michael Jordan completed his second three peat and moved to 6-0 in the Finals.

His iconic game winner in game 6 against the Utah Jazz would go down as one of the most legendary moments in NBA history as it solidified Jordan’s status as the NBA GOAT at the time.

Also Read: “Michael Jordan kept ripping the Velcro on his golf gloves”: When the ‘GOAT’ displayed his competitive vigor by trying distract Michael Douglas while playing golf

About the author

Ashish Priyadarshi

Ashish Priyadarshi

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Ashish Priyadarshi is The SportsRush's content manager and editor. Ashish freelanced for 1 year in the NFL division before taking on an editorial role in the company. He then tacked on managing content while adding on a writing role in the NBA division. Ashish has been closely following the NFL and NBA since the 2012 season when the Patriots lost the Super Bowl and Derrick Rose was at the height of his powers. Since then, Ashish has focused on honing his knowledge for both leagues in, even writing crossover pieces. In his free time, Ashish is an avid basketball player, he loves to watch movies and TV shows, immersing himself in the cinematic world. Ashish studies computer science and data science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and would love to mesh his love for sports with his technical skills.

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