As Michael Jordan won six NBA championships in the 1990s, the New York Knicks were his toughest opponent.
Michael Jordan made an interesting comment during one of the final episodes of ESPN/Netflix’s documentary about his final season with the Chicago Bulls that caught New York Knicks fans’ attention.
In talking about the Bulls’ seven-game Conference Finals against the Indiana Pacers in 1997-98, Jordan said the Pacers, other than Detroit, were his toughest opponent in the East.
Now, who am I, as a random basketball fan and blogger to question who His Airness believes were his greatest challengers? But I will try anyway.
Before Jordan was winning championships in handfuls, the Detroit Pistons were kicking his butt, quite literally. But that was in the eighties, before Chicago had added the necessary pieces to turn them into a dynasty.
In the 1990s, when Jordan was King, the team who challenged #23 and the Bulls the most was the New York Knicks.
Let me explain with three simple reasons.
Forcing a Game 7
Before the Knicks forced a Game 7 against Chicago in the 1992 Eastern Conference Semifinals, the Bulls hadn’t lost more than one game in a series over their previous five series wins, including their first championship in 1991.
In 1991, Jordan led the Bulls to his first Larry O’Brien trophy with an amazing 14-2 playoff record. The 67-15 team in 1991-92 looked just as powerful, sweeping the Miami Heat in the first round before meeting the rugged Knicks.
Facing a 3-2 series deficit, the Knicks rallied behind a charged Madison Square Garden crowd to force a decisive game in Chicago. And they did it with Patrick Ewing in pain for much of the second half after spraining his ankle.
Of course, the Bulls would ultimately prevail in ’92, but that series is the only series, other than the Bulls’ seven-game fight with Indiana in 1997-98, when a Jordan-led Bulls team was forced to play in a do-or-die game during their championship run.
2) Putting Jordan in deficit
As close as the Knicks came to beating the Bulls in 1992, the following postseason is when New York really had their chance to knock out basketball’s emerging heavyweights
During Jordan’s six championship run, no team put him in a larger deficit than the Knicks did in 1993. Of course, the Orlando Magic beat Jordan and the Bulls in 1994-95, but that was during his comeback following his time away from the game playing baseball. It wasn’t Jordan with all of his powers, like he had in 1993.
The Knicks built a 2-0 series lead in the ’93 Eastern Conference Semifinals, punctuated with the now famous John Starks dunk (The Dunk) that gave the Knicks a commanding lead late in the fourth quarter of Game 2.
The series got away when the Knicks somehow lost by twenty points in Game 3 despite Jordan struggling from the field, shooting 3-18.
One of the most overlooked challenges in Jordan’s career, the Knicks put him in his biggest series deficit, and had him locked down in Game 3, but just couldn’t close out the series, losing the final four games.
3) Success during retirement
Tell me if you notice a theme. The first season after Michael Jordan retired from basketball in 1993-94, the Knicks went to the NBA Finals, coming within one game of winning a championship. And then when Jordan retired the second time, before the lockout shortened 1999 season, the Knicks, once again, made it all the way to the NBA Finals.
Oh, and did I mention the Knicks beat the Jordanless Bulls in ’94?
During the 1990s, the Bulls won six of the ten championships awarded. Conveniently, the Knicks made the NBA Finals as the best team in the Eastern Conference in two of the years the Bulls didn’t take the crown.
Without Michael Jordan in the way, the Knicks found themselves on the cusp of a championship twice.
And the same Indiana Pacers team – led by Reggie Miller, Mark Jackson, Rik Smits, and the Davis brothers – that forced a Game 7 against Jordan in 1997-98, was who the Knicks beat in six games to advance to the NBA Finals the following season.
People like to make fun of the Knicks these days, but they weren’t a team you wanted to mess around with in the 1990s. They did everything they could to beat Michael Jordan, but like for the rest of the NBA, he was too good to overcome.