Michael Jordan’s bizarre finger injury would have rendered the Chicago Bulls’ quest for a fourth consecutive championship impossible.
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Throughout Michael Jordan’s final season with the Chicago Bulls in 1997-98, there was much speculation that it would be his last. Jordan was widely expected to retire for the final time even after winning his sixth NBA championship and third in a row.
The Chicago Bulls’ final ring of their second three-peat was an era-defining season. This was highlighted in the Netflix Docu-series The Last Dance. The title comes from Phil Jackson, who dubbed the season ahead of time “The Last Dance” because management had made it clear that it was their final run together.
Krause publicly stated that this would be Jackson’s final year as head coach, and Jordan had stated that if Jackson wasn’t there, he wouldn’t be either. And, as expected, after defeating the Utah Jazz in 1998 to win their sixth championship, all of the key players parted ways.
It’s worth noting, however, that Jordan may have missed the majority of the 1999 lockout-shortened season due to a severed tendon in his finger suffered while attempting to cut a cigar at a casino in the Bahamas.
Michael Jordan’s strange finger injury nearly threatened to derail the Chicago Bulls organization
Prior to the start of the 1997-98 season, there was considerable uncertainty about Jordan’s future with the team. Krause had stated that this would be head coach Phil Jackson’s final season. Jordan’s availability beyond the season was called into question after stating that he would not play for another coach in the future.
Krause details a nasty injury Jordan suffered while playing with a cigar cutter after the 1998 season. In an excerpt from his unfinished and unpublished memoirs, the former GM spoke about the incident.
“To his eternal credit, at the end of his time with the Bulls, he could have completely ruined the franchise, but he didn’t.”
According to a report from 2000, Jordan was “fooling around” with a cigar cutter at the time of the incident. Jordan blamed his injury on the cigar cutter being “cheap” and breaking as he pressed down on it.
Jordan stated that the injury had no bearing on his decision to retire.
The Bulls were doomed to divorce after the 1997-98 season. This was in large part due to tensions between Krause and his stars. No team had the salary cap space to give Jordan a contract commensurate with his stature.
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