The “Triangle” offense is widely regarded as one of the greatest strategies in basketball history, playing a pivotal role in the Chicago Bulls’ dominance and their six championships during the 1990s. However, before the system proved to be successful, Michael Jordan was initially hesitant to adopt this approach.
Advertisement
During an appearance on Stacey King’s podcast, Gimme The Hot Sauce, Craig Hodges discussed Jordan‘s initial reluctance to embrace the “Triangle” offense due to his lack of trust in his teammates. Hodges, who played from 1988-1992 in the Bulls side, explained that Jordan resisted the system, particularly by avoiding passing the ball to Bill Cartwright.
“We would lose games early in Triangle that we probably could have won just because MJ would bark against the system and not want to give it to Bill,” Hodges said.
According to Craig Hodges and Stacey King, Cartwright played a crucial role in the Bulls’ success from 1991 to 1993, making His Airness’ reluctance to pass him the ball seem unjustified. Despite this, Jordan maintained his stance, claiming he wouldn’t give the ball to Cartwright with the clock winding down.
“I didn’t want Bill Cartwright to have the ball with 5 seconds left… that’s not equal opportunity offense, that’s f**king bullsh*t,” Jordan once said.
Jordan believed Tex Winter’s strategy would take the ball out of his hands and ultimately lead to the team losing. However, Hodges emphasized that the Bulls didn’t need MJ to have scoring outbursts every game to secure victories.
Per Hodges, the Bulls would win even without Jordan not scoring 30 PPG
During the Chicago Bulls’ first three-peat, Michael Jordan averaged an impressive 31.4 points per game during the regular season and 33.7 points per game in the playoffs. While his prolific scoring was a major factor in the team’s dominance, Craig Hodges believes the team could have thrived even without it.
“The mental aspect of what we brought as a unit was so strong that MJ didn’t have to get 30 for us to win,” Hodges said.
The Bulls would have needed significant scoring increases from players like Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant to compensate for the absence of Michael Jordan’s consistent 30-point performances.
However, if Jordan’s scoring output had dropped, it might have led to losses against high-scoring teams such as Clyde Drexler’s Trail Blazers, Charles Barkley’s Suns, and Larry Bird’s Celtics. Ultimately, Jordan’s scoring dominance was crucial for securing victories.
