Article from the Past #1: Jordan Scores 63

I for one really enjoyed reading the article Robby posted a few days ago from MJ's rookie season, so I thought I'd dig around for some more old articles. I've found a lot of them on my copy of Microsoft's Complete Basketball (94/95 Edition), so I thought I'd share them everyone.

This one is also about Michael Jordan, but I'll post some articles about other players and events too.

Jordan Scores 63

In 1993–94 Charles Oakley, one of the NBA’s premier rebounders, was in his ninth professional season, his sixth with the New York Knicks. But during his rookie season, with the Chicago Bulls, he played in one game he will never forget. When Oakley was asked later in his career about the game of April 20, 1986, his recollection began, “Whew, 63 points!”
It was a Sunday afternoon, and the Bulls were at Boston Garden for Game 2 of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series against the Celtics. As he sat by his locker in the visitor’s dressing room, 30 minutes after the Celtics had beaten his team, 135-131, in double overtime, Oakley remembers reading a stat sheet for the day’s game. “I was studying the numbers by Michael Jordan’s name,” said Oakley, who had 10 points and 14 rebounds in 33 minutes of playing time. “Never had the numbers said so much in playoff history. The more I studied them, the more they mesmerized me.”

Playing 53 of a possible 58 minutes, Jordan made 22 of his 41 attempts from the field and 19 of his 21 shots from the free-throw line. He also amassed 6 assists, 3 steals, and 5 rebounds. Of his 63 total points, Jordan scored 23 in the first half, 13 in the third period, 18 in the fourth, and 9 in the two overtimes.

It was Jordan’s coming-out party, the day a 23-year-old, only in his second pro season, showed the world he could dominate the NBA like only Wilt Chamberlain did before him. Jordan went on to win three Most Valuable Player Awards and seven consecutive individual scoring titles while leading the Bulls to three straight championships. He scored 60 or more points five times during his nine-year career, but what may have been his best game ever occurred that afternoon in Beantown.

Bird: “He Was Just God Disguised As Michael Jordan”

“I would never have called him the greatest player I’d ever seen if I didn’t mean it,” said Boston’s Larry Bird after collecting 36 points, 12 assists, and 8 rebounds in the exhausting contest. Then Bird paid Jordan the ultimate tribute: “He was just God disguised as Michael Jordan,” he said. “He is the most awesome player in the NBA. Today, in the Boston Garden, on national television and in the Playoffs, he put on one of the greatest shows.”

Jordan’s 63 points, an NBA Playoff record that still stands, bettered the mark of 61 set by Elgin Baylor of the Los Angeles Lakers on April 14, 1962, in the fifth game of the NBA Finals against the Celtics, also at the Garden.

On April 17, 1986, in the opening game of the series, Jordan had scored 49 points. But it was not enough to beat the Celtics, who won, 123-104. With Jordan’s Game 1 outburst in mind, K. C. Jones, the Celtics’ coach, concentrated his next practice sessions on ways of stopping the 6-foot-6 guard. It made no difference.

“We worked on all kinds of traps, double-teams and fancy defenses against him,” Jones said. “We threw the kitchen sink at him and he still did anything he wanted against us. He was going over the top of guys like [Kevin] McHale and [Robert] Parish to get his shot off. He raised his game to another level. He was incredible.”

In his column in the Boston Globe the next day, Michael Madden wrote: “This was the best team in basketball unable to stop one player, all the Celtic starters at one time or another having to go at Jordan, singly or in a group grope at defense, much of it for naught, Jordan merely going where he pleased. It has never been done better in the history of the NBA Playoffs.

“It starts with a tease, Jordan dribbling the ball, then suddenly a dribble through his legs and next a tornado of a first step that is so quick and so long that Jordan is gone, long gone. By now his tongue is out, signaling the move, but what move and what shot? The Fred Astaire glide to the lane? The Sam Jones pullout jumper? The Elgin Baylor double pump leaner? The elegant Baryshnikov glide to the finale of a slam-bang Darryl Dawkins stuff? The repertoire of so many fine pieces.”

Among those who tried guarding Jordan was defensive standout Dennis Johnson, who later became an assistant coach with the Celtics. “There was nothing anybody could do to stop him that day,” Johnson remembered.

Jordan Misses Potential Game-Winner In First OT

Jordan’s play in Game 2 was unlike the playoff opener. Gone was the Bulls’ strategy of continual Jordan isolations, and he proved what a brilliant player he was by performing even better in the normal context of the offense than he did when 90 percent of the action was directed his way.

The game itself was thrilling. What could have been more exciting than the last act of regulation play? With the Celtics ahead, 116-114, and six seconds remaining, Jordan took the inbounds pass, juked downcourt, and heaved a three-point shot at the buzzer. The shot missed as Jordan fell, but Kevin McHale was called for a foul that even surprised Jordan.
With an incensed McHale waving his arms to incite the noisy Boston Garden crowd, Jordan sank both shots to bring his point total to 54 and send the game into the first overtime.

In OT, Jordan seemed determined to win it. After making all the spinning drives and fallaway jumpers with two or three hands in his face, all he had to do at the end of the first extra session was hit a wide-open 15-footer with the score deadlocked at 125-125. Shockingly, he missed. “It felt good; it just didn’t fall,” Jordan said after the game. “I’ll remember that shot more than the ones I made.” When Bird, who rebounded the miss with two seconds left, missed a three-pointer at the buzzer, it gave Jordan another chance to win it in the second overtime.

Many times during the physical game, Jordan had come up with scintillating baskets that kept the Bulls’ hopes of winning alive. It was no different in the second overtime. A leaning 15-foot side jumper brought the Bulls to within two points, at 131-129. Jordan’s final basket of the game, a gliding cross-court lane jumper, evened the score at 131-131 with 72 seconds left. But in the end Jordan had the record, and the Celtics the victory. It came when Jerry Sichting buried a jumper that put Boston ahead to stay. After Jordan missed a 15-footer, Robert Parish’s jumper with nine seconds left clinched the win.

“The points didn’t mean that much to me,” Jordan said after the game. “I’d give all the points back to win the game. I wanted to win the game so badly that the points don’t even signify anything, don’t even mean anything to me. It’s something maybe when I have kids, 15 years down the line, I can look back then and be happy about it.”

Two nights later in Chicago the Celtics closed out the sweep with a 122-104 victory, limiting Jordan to 19 points. He still went into the NBA record book for most points in a three-game playoff series, with 131.

A Bad Break For Jordan And The Bulls

It was a series in which Jordan, at his best, made up for lost time. In the third game of the season, a 111-105 victory over the Golden State Warriors on October 29, 1985, he had either leaped too high or landed too hard. As his left foot landed flat on the court it could not absorb the strain, causing the navicular tarsal bone in front of his ankle to snap; Jordan limped away. “I knew it was serious because of the pain,” he said. “I could barely walk off the court because of the pain.”

Jordan had never before missed a game because of an injury, not at Wilmington (North Carolina) High School, not at the University of North Carolina, and not during his rookie season in the NBA. On December 12 Jordan’s cast was removed when an examination revealed that the bone was healing slowly. He was then fitted for another hard cast, which was removed two weeks later, a day after Christmas. In its place Jordan was presented with a walking cast.

By January 22 he was wearing only a brace. One month later, five days after celebrating his birthday, Jordan began to shoot at his alma mater, first alone, then among friends. Soon he was playing five-on-five and full-court, lifting weights, and then playing every day—“until I was exhausted,” he recalled. A CAT scan back in Chicago revealed that his foot was mending properly, and a Cybex test proved that the muscles in his injured leg were stronger than those in his right. He remained in town to watch the Bulls continue to struggle without him; with his foot feeling fine, he envisioned playing again before the end of the season.

On March 12 he requested a meeting with hesitant Bulls officials and the doctors who had been treating him. The doctors told him that there was a 10- to 20-percent chance that he could reinjure the foot. That was enough for club officials and for Jerry Reinsdorf, the owner, to advise Jordan to sit out the remainder of the season. Jordan wouldn’t hear of it. “Everyone’s talking about the 10 percent risk factor,” he argued. “What about the 80 to 90 percent chance that I won’t reinjure the foot?” Jordan came off the injury list two days later, having agreed to play only a certain number of minutes in each game.

His first game back was on March 15 against the Milwaukee Bucks in Chicago Stadium; the Bulls lost in overtime, 125-116. In one of the next four contests, which the Bulls also lost, Jordan played 51 seconds more than his allotted 14 minutes, leading Reinsdorf to publicly chastise his coach.

With Jordan gradually rounding into form, the Bulls took six victories in their final 10 games. They finished at 32-50, good for the eighth and final Eastern Conference playoff berth. Jordan had averaged 22.7 points in the 18 games since his return, and Bulls management lifted all restrictions and allowed him to play unlimited minutes in the postseason.

Michael Breaks His Own Record In 1992

The first-round matchup at Boston Garden, where the Celtics had posted a 40-1 record, was not an easy task. Boston, with its big, strong front line of Robert Parish, Larry Bird, and Kevin McHale, plus the newfound depth of Bill Walton and Jerry Sichting, had finished the regular season with a 67-15 mark, tops in the NBA and second best in the history of the franchise.

The experts predicted the series would be a romp. Instead, Jordan’s 131 points made it a series to remember, although that particular three-game scoring record no longer stands. In April 1992, as the Bulls swept the Miami Heat, Jordan scored 46, 33, and 56 points for a three-game total of 135 points.

(c)1994 NBA Properties, Inc. and/or Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Hey andrew...are there any interesting articles on Tyronn Bouges?? Thx.

I'll see if I can dig one up.

I didn't know other people were interested in this kind of stuff. I'll look for earlier articles if I can find them.

are there any interesting articles on Tyronn Bouges?? Thx.

Did you have any particular event in mind?

Here's one from 1985:

Traditionally, body worshipers in the Northeast had to trek all the way to Southern California to take part in their favorite pastime. But the National Basketball Association draft last June 28 changed that.

Now, the Northeastern body worshipers go to the Spectrum in Philadelphia, the Garden in New York City or Boston, or the Capital Centre in Washington. And the body they go to worship is the 6-foot-6-inch, 265-pound frame belonging to Philadelphia 76er rookie Charles Barkley.

Though Utah Coach Frank Layden claims, ``They'd worship his body in India,'' Barkley so far has not caught on internationally like Chicago rookie Michael Jordan. While Jordan gained worldwide attention as a member of the United States Olympic basketball team, Barkley was back home, his weight ballooning to 286. He inexplicably was dropped from the Olympic squad by Coach Bobby Knight.

Jordan may lead NBA rookies in headlines. But Barkley, 21, leads them in nicknames: Beast of Broad Street, Boy Gorge, Bread Truck, Crisco Kid, Food World, Human Refrigerator, Pillsbury and the now-antiquated Round Mound of Rebound.

To say Barkley's arrival, via the fifth overall pick in the 1984 draft, shook the very foundations of the City of Brotherly Love is an understatement.

By the time Barkley filed, after his junior season at Auburn, for early entry in the NBA lottery, he already had developed a reputation as a ferocious rebounder and inside scorer. He led the Southeastern Conference in rebounding for three years and averaged 15.1 points, on 63.8-percent shooting, in his junior season.

The Sixers coveted Barkley from the start, figuring he might be their meal ticket back to the NBA championship.

``If he's 6-9, instead of 6-6,'' said Sixer General Manager Pat Williams, ``he's probably the first pick, not the fifth.''

Still, all they could think about in Philly was Barkley's physique.

Take Barkley's four-year deal with the Sixers. It's worth about $2 million but includes a clause allowing the Sixers to subject Barkley to occasional weigh-ins. If Barkley fails to meet a prescribed range of an estimated 255-265 pounds, he can be fined what is believed to be as much as $12,000.

The contract does not stipulate that Barkley must endure the verbal abuses to which he has been subjected.

``That all pretty much started in college,'' Barkley says. ``I don't really worry about what everybody says. I don't get too caught up in the nicknames.''

But he has proved to have been too easy - or rather, too big - a target.

``Charles stepped on the scale the other day and a little card popped out of the slot,'' chuckled Williams shortly after the draft. ``And it said, `One at a time, please.'''

When he first came to Philadelphia, Barkley had dinner with the Sixer GM's family. Afterward, Williams took Barkley and the six Williams children to the New Jersey seashore. There, according to Williams, the following conversation took place.

The Williams kids: ``Dad, is it OK if we go in the ocean now?''

Williams: ``Sorry guys, you'll have to wait. Charles is using it now.''

Later an apologetic Williams, sensing he had gone too far with his weighty one-liners, said, ``When we first drafted him, I used a bunch of one-liners and Charles wasn't too pleased. I apologized to him and was proud of the way he responded - by turning the other chin.''

See? It's too easy.

The nicknames are even easier: Boy Wonderbread? Kid Cuisine? The Galloping Gourmet?

Say what you want. Barkley has been a marketing director's dream.

On Dec. 21, for example, the Sixers held a Charles Barkley Christmas Party promotion for a game against the Milwaukee Bucks. Customers tipping the scales at 260 pounds or more got in the game free; those under 260 got in for half price. At halftime, 132 members of the 260-or-over set got their pictures taken with Barkley, dressed up as Santa Claus. A ton of fun that promotion was. It was estimated the halftime contingent weighed in excess of 3,400 pounds.

Even so, Barkley has not yet commanded the kind of attention Jordan has in the endorsement department. Like Jordan, he has a shoe contract with Nike. His agent, Lance Luchnik of Houston, is negotiating with Pizza Hut.

Hefty garbage bags, Philadelphia Cream Cheese and Dunkin' Donuts are missing out on the fun. How about Charles Barkley dolls? They'd be a natural hit with the youngsters; they'd be lovable, pliable, and indestructible. But imagine the production problems - if the Barkley dolls were made to scale, a two-foot model would weigh 81 1/2 pounds.

But Barkley's huge physical dimensions have not completely overshadowed his rookie NBA accomplishments. He has started to make an impact, so to speak, on the NBA hardwoods, and people have started to take notice.

Since Barkley was inserted in the 76ers' starting lineup Nov. 30, Philadelphia has won 14 of 17 games.

In fact, time may make Barkley out to be a prototype for a new breed of NBA player. Despite his body mass, Barkley runs the court like a bullet train and hovers in the air like a helicopter - the U.S. Army's Jolly Green Giant variety, of course.

Boston's Cedric Maxwell says Barkley ``is like a tractor.'' Layden warns playing against Barkley is hazardous to one's health: ``Those guards who come flying down the lane? They come in 6-2 and are liable to come out 5-10.''

After watching Barkley gobble up 20 points and 10 rebounds (seven offensive) in a 118-96 Sixer win in New Jersey Oct. 30, Julius Erving, who has a Ph.D. in hang time, observed, ``Charles made things happen on the boards. He looked just like Moses (Malone, All-Star Sixer center). In fact, when he catches the ball, he's more of a power player than Moses. He double clutches more under control.''

``I see catlike quickness - a phenomenon in his own right,'' the Doctor continued. ``The last player I saw who reminded me of things like that was Darryl Dawkins when I first came to Philadelphia. With his size, when he jumped, it was like a building exploding in the air. Then he came down so soft. Charles seems to do that even more so, given his size.''

Barkley even strikes many as the second coming of enforcer types such as Phoenix's Maurice Lucas. But he prefers to be known as a jolly giant.

``I don't get into that kind of stuff,'' he explains.

For example, Barkley was horrified by films of a Nov. 9 Philly-Celtic brawl showing him clutching Larry Bird in a headlock while Erving wailed away at the Boston forward. Before the fines were announced - Barkley was hit up for $1,000 - the rookie called the NBA offices to say things weren't as they appeared. He asked for Commissioner David Stern but got general counsel Gary Bettman.

NBA officials were stunned at the gesture.

Now, little Barkley does comes as much of a surprise. Erving, for one, can't wait until the night Barkley puts it all together.

``Some night, everything Charles throws up is going to go in,'' he says. ``One night, he's going to be out there for 35 minutes and when he comes out, he'll leave everybody with their mouths drooling.''

Until then, you know what everyone will be thinking, where Charles Barkley is concerned: Just weight. Charles Barkley profile

Philadelphia 76ers rookie forward

How acquired: Early entry, fifth overall pick, out of Auburn, in 1984 NBA draft.

Age: 21.

Height: 6 feet 6.

Weight: ``Whatever I weigh when it's time to play, that's my playing weight;'' listed at 263 pounds.

Aliases: Beast of Broad Street, Boy Gorge, Bread Truck, Crisco Kid, Food World, Human Refrigerator, Pillsbury, Round Mound of Rebound.

They finished at 32-50, good for the eighth and final Eastern Conference playoff berth.

I find this funny, because everybody is complaining about how weak the east is now, but none of the playoff teams in the east this year will be 18 games under .500

Thanks Robby, another great read there. As a follow up to that Barkley story, one from a little later in his career:

Excerpt from The New York Times, June 18, 1992
Bright Day for Suns: They Get Barkley
By Clifton Brown
The New York Times

In a bold move that will have a drastic impact on the franchise, the Philadelphia 76ers traded All-Star forward Charles Barkley to the Phoenix Suns yesterday. In exchange, the 76ers received guard Jeff Hornacek, forward Tim Perry and center Andrew Lang.

It was a risky deal for the 76ers, who parted with one of the top players in the National Basketball Association. Barkley, who is 29 years old, is a six-time All-Star who averaged 23.1 points and 11.1 rebounds per game last season. He is a unique impact player—a ferocious rebounder, a superb inside scorer and an excellent ballhandler whose uncanny combination of strength and agility make him one of the league’s most effective and intimidating players.

The 76ers acknowledged they were trading a superstar, but they are gambling that acquiring three quality players from Phoenix will make them a better team. Most N.B.A. people thought that in order to acquire Charles Barkley, the Suns would have to give up All-Star guard Kevin Johnson. But the Suns kept Johnson, and now they have Barkley, and the sun is shining brightly in Phoenix.

“We had to make a change in personnel to get to the next level,” said Cotton Fitzsimmons, the Suns’ director of player personnel, at a news conference to announce the deal. “I can’t think of another player, other than a few centers, who might be able to take us to another level better than Charles can.”

Charles Barkley had been on the trading block for weeks for a number of reasons, among them:
· The 76ers finished 35-47 last season, the poorest record in Barkley’s eight years with the team.
· Barkley’s playing style did not mesh with the passing-game offense that will be implemented by the new 76ers coach, Doug Moe.
· Barkley’s outspokenness and behavior were a constant concern to the 76ers.

Only hours before the trade, Charles Barkley was acquitted in a Milwaukee court of disorderly conduct and battery charges stemming from a fight he had outside a Milwaukee bar last winter, in which Barkley broke the nose of a man who had heckled him.

Such controversy has followed Barkley throughout this career. On various occasions, he has criticized 76ers management, criticized his teammates and clashed with Philadelphia reporters.

During a game against the Nets in New Jersey two seasons ago, Barkley mistakenly spat upon a girl who was sitting near a fan who was heckling him. Charles Barkley said he had intended to spit on the fan, but his aim was not as accurate as his jump shot.

Nevertheless, no one doubts what Barkley can do on the court. And many fans in Philadelphia were already questioning whether the 76ers had gotten enough in return for Barkley.

At a news conference to announce the deal, Jim Lynam, the 76ers general manager, said it was the best offer the team had received for Barkley. The 76ers preferred to trade Barkley to a Western Conference team like Phoenix, rather than to one of their Eastern Conference rivals. And while Lynam admitted that Johnson had been discussed in his trade talks with Phoenix, he indicated that the salary cap made it difficult for Philadelphia to fit Johnson into its payroll.

The Suns managed to squeeze Charles Barkley under the $14 million salary cap by cutting guard Steve Burtt and forward Ian Lockhart.
Lynam insisted that once Phoenix offered Hornacek, Lang, and Perry, he thought the deal was good for Philadelphia.

“We were looking for a package, and once those names were there, we felt it was the package that would get it done,” Lynam said. “Charles has said he wants to be on a contender, and in all honesty, if we had kept Charles, I’m not sure we could strike that posture. We had to make changes. No one in our organization felt we could come back with the same team.”

Certainly, the trade addressed some of Philadelphia’s needs. Hornacek, who is 29, led Phoenix in scoring last season (20.1 points per game) and can play both guard positions. He is one of the league’s best shooters. He not only has 3-point range, but is equally accurate shooting from a standstill or off the dribble.

Perry, who is 27, is 6 feet 9 inches and one of the league’s most athletic power forwards. He is from Temple University and broke into Phoenix’s starting lineup last season, averaging 12.2 points and 6.9 rebounds per game. He should blossom in Moe’s open-court system.

Lang, who is 25 and 6-foot-11, is not much of a scoring threat at center, but he blocks shots and rebounds well. Center was Philadelphia’s weakest position last season, with Charles Shackleford, Manute Bol and the often-injured Jeff Ruland failing to contribute consistently. The 76ers should also get a quality player with the ninth pick in next week’s draft.

But while the 76ers still have questions to answer, Phoenix looks like a top contender on paper. They have three All-Stars in Barkley, Johnson and forward Dan Majerle, plus Tom Chambers, Mark West and a young and deep bench. Paul Westphal, the new coach, will have talent to work with, and Barkley may be rejuvenated by the change in scenery.
“Phoenix is not a bad place,” he told The Associated Press last night. “I could play golf every day.”

Barkley, whose next stop is with the United States Olympic basketball team, added: “I’m a little nervous. I’m not sure. I’ve got to sit back and see how it goes. In shock? I just don’t know how I feel. I don’t know if I’m happy or sad. I have to pick up my family and move them across the country. It’s been a great eight years in Philadelphia and now I play for Phoenix. Whatever happens I will deal with it.”

© The New York Times
(c)1994 NBA Properties, Inc. and/or Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

During a game against the Nets in New Jersey two seasons ago, Barkley mistakenly spat upon a girl who was sitting near a fan who was heckling him. Charles Barkley said he had intended to spit on the fan, but his aim was not as accurate as his jump shot.

LOL! That's one of the funniest things I've read

Somehow this escaped my attention when I posted the Barkley article from 1992:

The Suns managed to squeeze Charles Barkley under the $14 million salary cap by cutting guard Steve Burtt and forward Ian Lockhart.

Times have certainly changed. These days we have a salary cap in excess of $40 million, and there are players making around $14 million per year. Imagine the kind of money they'd be throwing around if the NBA hadn't adopted a salary cap back in 1984.

one after the first bull title, and...........

1991: Stampede to first title
by Paul Attner
The Sporting News

Because Michael Jordan is a better player than a general manager, because John Paxson is content with doing one thing very well, because Scottie Pippen got a second chance and because Phil Jackson is a better coach than a player -- because of all these reasons -- the Chicago Bulls are the NBA champions.

Jordan has the title he always wanted, and the city can go wild over a championship that took 25 years to materialize. And all this craziness about Jordan being a one-man team, which was always ludicrous, can be shelved, exorcising him of a self-created nightmare.

But while Jordan spends his summer enjoying welcomed peace, he also should be thanking a front office that proved it knew a bit more than he did about the intricacies of putting together the fragile pieces of a championship team. On the strength of being the best player in the game, Jordan figured that made him smart enough to dictate trades and second-guess the personnel moves of General Manager Jerry Krause. Guess what, Michael? Krause, a former scout and administrative gym rat, had a most difficult task, and he ultimately performed it magnificently.

After all, how many title squads have been built from scratch around a shooting guard? But that is what Krause did. He took the finest talent any general manager could want in Jordan and reworked the rest of the roster, slowly surrounding him with complementary players. Forget trying to get a dominant center. You don’t need one to win in the NBA anymore, as witnessed by the fact that the Bulls’ center, Bill Cartwright, averaged just 9.6 points in the championship round, the lowest average of any victorious pivotman since Washington’s Wes Unseld in 1978. Instead, Krause brought in quick, athletic players and sprinkled in specialists like Paxson, whose world revolves around making 18-foot jump shots. If you have a thoroughbred like Jordan, it makes no sense to slow him down with a bunch of plodding Clydesdales.

Krause particularly took advantage of favorable drafting positions to make some solid choices, especially Pippen, who will be among the 10 best players in the league within two years, and forward Horace Grant, whose rebounding and defensive abilities strengthened the Bulls’ inside game. Not even Krause could have predicted Pippen would become this good; he is, in essence, the "other" star needed to give opponents someone besides Jordan to worry about. But luck is always an element in building a squad. The bottom line is that Krause made the moves needed to allow Jordan to flourish within a team concept and use his considerable abilities to elevate the Bulls into champions.

Jordan should have learned a lesson from all this. In midseason, he complained when Krause passed on picking up veteran Walter Davis, who wound up in Portland. What looked like a bold move by the Trail Blazers turned out to be a bust; Davis contributed nothing to Portland’s playoff, efforts while a Krause offseason acquisition, free agent Cliff Levingston, emerged as a significant factor in the Bulls’ five-game romp past Los Angeles in the finals. Jordan suffered from the impatience of greatness. He wanted immediate results in a league in which some franchises have spent years constructing perennial losers.

In the process, Jordan tormented himself with the idea that he needed to squash all this one-man team nonsense. Only fools could have thought Jordan would be able to win championships with the teammates he inherited when he joined the Bulls as a rookie in the 1984-85 season. After all, Chicago hadn’t been in the playoffs for three years. No matter how great his gifts, an individual can’t win a title alone, something Wilt Chamberlain learned painfully. Indeed, Jordan became the first scoring champion since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1971 to win a league crown in the same season. But just as many good teams choose to believe they get "no respect" -- one of the most overdone and outrageously inaccurate charges in sports -- Jordan chose to use the label of a one-man team as his motivation, which soon grew to an obsession.

As a result, he showed that he is no goody two-shoes when it comes to dealing with teammates. He is a bona fide decent human with an infectious personality and a quick sense of humor. But he isn’t out to make friends with every Bull. "A challenge kind of guy," is what Jackson calls him. Simply put, Jordan will be in your face if you don’t produce. He is outspoken and can be very angry and aggressive. When management found that some of his teammates couldn’t take his competitiveness and lack of patience, they had to be shipped out. Remember, Jordan calls his fellow Bulls "my supporting cast."

"When I came here, we started from scratch," Jordan said after winning the title, which he can add to his 1982 NCAA crown at North Carolina and his gold medal as member of the victorious U.S. basketball team in the 1984 Olympics. "The stigma of being a one-man team is gone."

It was difficult for him to elaborate. He was as emotional and as overcome with delight as any athlete of his stature has ever been in this situation. It was a moving scene: An hour after the final victory, Jordan still had tears in his eyes and still was unable to say what the title really meant to him. This was a man who had been on a crusade, and now that he no longer had a cross to bear, the release of pent-up frustration was too difficult to handle. On the court, he may play like someone from another universe -- he was a unanimous choice as MVP of the finals -- but he showed he is very human once the game is over.

Maybe Jordan should have heard what the Lakers had to say about the final game, which they lost, 108-101, while playing without injured James Worthy (sprained ankle) and Byron Scott (sore shoulder). It was Los Angeles’ third straight defeat at home, crushing hopes that had been built on an opening victory in Chicago. The ultimate compliment to the Bulls was the fact the Lakers were lauding Paxson after Game 5 before getting around to Jordan. This is a one-man team?

"Does Paxson ever miss?" Lakers forward Sam Perkins asked. "Every time he got the ball, he put it in. It killed us."

During the series, Paxson played within himself as well as any player could. He didn’t try to be a driving whiz or a fancy passer. For the Bulls, he needed to fill just one role: Be the outlet man when Jordan blasts to the basket and picks up a double team. Jordan then can pass outside, where Paxson inevitably was open. All Paxson did was make 29 of his last 42 shots and score eight points during a 10-3 run late in the fourth quarter that broke Game 5 open.

Just as symbolically, Pippen’s 32 points in the same contest marked the first time during the playoffs that anyone other than Jordan had led the team in scoring. See, Jordan didn’t have to do it on his own after all. But just to make sure, he performed at a breathtaking level during the entire finals, easily outplaying the Lakers’ Magic Johnson. But with these Bulls, he could afford to miss some shots and his team still could win. That’s the significant jump Chicago has made during his time with the franchise.

In reality, Pippen had a much bigger label to overcome than Jordan. When he couldn’t play at full strength in Game 7 of last year’s Eastern Conference finals against Detroit because of a migraine headache, he took an awful beating in the press. Anyone who has ever experienced a migraine can understand Pippen’s dilemma. But in the macho world of sports, you play with pain. Pippen didn’t, and he couldn’t get that rap off his mind until the fifth and deciding game against the Lakers had ended. That’s why he was sporting a smile the size of Lake Michigan.

"I thought about it all summer," Pippen said of last year’s migraine. "I failed to produce last season. I wanted to be in this position again."

And what have the Bulls proven?

"That if you try to shoot down Michael Jordan, there are other guys who can step up," Pippen said. "We are a team. We just don't shine as much as he does."

Neither does Jackson. He is a gangly sort, an Ikabod crane clothed in an uncomfortable coat and tie. "The last piece in the puzzle," owner Jerry Reinsdorf said of Jackson, who was promoted from assistant coach two years after Doug Collins was fired.

"(Management) has done a lot of gutsy moves before, but this time it paid off," Jordan said with a touch of irony in his voice. Jackson is a liberal in a conservative profession, a motivator who leaves a lot of the X's and O's to his assistants, mostly the ancient pair of Tex Winter and John Bach. He brought calmness and stability to the Bulls after the volatile Collins era. He also put greater emphasis on defense, which became a showcase of the Bulls during the playoffs. He preached teamwork and unselfishness and put the onus on Jordan to relinquish some of the offensive load for the sake of unity. As a reserve, Jackson won a championship ring with the 1973 Knicks, but he had a much more prominent role in earning this second piece of prized jewelry.

Chicago becomes only the fifth franchise in 12 years to win the NBA title. The Bulls now have the burden of being asked to repeat. Krause took the first step by signing Pippen to a new five-year, $18 million contract, but he still has to sign Paxson and Cartwright to new contracts and pick up the options on Levingston's deal. Chicago will have to pay big bucks as a result of the championship, but isn't winning something this precious worth the cost?

...........another after the 98:

1998: Sixth title is a bittersweet one for Bulls
From The Sporting News of June 15, 1998
by Jeff Ryan
For The Sporting News


The crush was expected, but no less frightening. Michael Jordan tried to maneuver through the throng of reporters jammed into a corridor of Salt Lake City's Delta Center, a body-on-body experience that made the Jazz's bruising double-teams seem like an herbal massage by comparison. Panic was evident on so many faces -- but not on Jordan's.

As frightened people shrieked and bulky television cameras came dangerously close to whacking the most famous shaven head on the planet, Jordan just kept on smiling.

Moments earlier he had made three marvelous plays in a 32-second span and lifted the Bulls to an incredibly dramatic -- even by Jordanian standards -- 87-86 win over the Jazz for a third straight NBA title and sixth in eight years. Now we know why Jordan was so surprisingly upbeat after Chicago tossed Game 5 into a United Center dumpster that was supposed to haul away the streamers and confetti. It was as though Jordan could sense what would happen two nights later. His sixth sense isn't for the basket. That's sense 5A. The sixth sense is knowing how to build on his legend.

"He's a real-life hero," Bulls coach Phil Jackson said. "I think that was the best performance I've ever seen from Michael Jordan."

Just when it appeared the Jazz had regained the momentum after Game 5, and a zany series might have a chance at becoming a classic, or at least a seven-gamer, the Bulls jammed on the brakes faster than John Stockton with his lane closed off and dug their heels into the floor like Scottie Pippen preparing to draw a charge. Close game. Jordan on the floor having to come up even bigger than usual because a painful back was limiting Pippen. You could smell how this one might end. And sure enough, any hope of Utah's first title in its 24-year history was knocked away like another deflected Jazz pass.

But afterward, the Bulls' collective sigh of relief packed more power than El Nino.

"It's bittersweet in the sense that this is the toughest challenge we had in the six championships," Jordan said. "Some people didn't expect us to fulfill it. That was part of the challenge. I was more competitive this year than I ever was because of the bumps in the road."

It was a rough one, all right. Which is fitting, for throughout the season, whenever there wasn't an obstacle positioned between the Bulls and a three-peat repeat, they created one. A conspiracy theorist would swear the calculating Jordan planned all these minefields -- maybe during those thrice-weekly workouts at his home gym with Pippen and Ron Harper -- to maintain his team's interest and make what could prove to be its farewell tour of this Bulls' nucleus much more impressive.

Because, let's face it, the Greatest Show on Hardwood had lost much of its sexiness. The Bulls were always part-basketball and part-soap opera, but the act was short on new material. Dennis Rodman had run out of ways to reinvent himself. The emotionally fragile Toni Kukoc had become more basketballer than basket case. Jordan hadn't punched anybody in practice in a long time, and the heavier Jackson got into his Zen philosophy for the microphones, the heavier our eyelids got.

So this season, Chicago acted vulnerable. It won only nine of its first 16 games. Before he returned in midseason from foot surgery, Pippen vowed that he had played his last game for Chicago. Distractions?

Jackson's rumored replacement, Iowa State coach Tim Floyd was said to already be choosing a staff. The Bulls lost 20 games and, with them, home-court advantage. They went the limit with the Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals. Then, before the Utah series, one of the greatest winners in sports history left mouths agape when he uncharacteristically mentioned the possibility of losing.

"You can't win every time," Jordan said. "I can deal with losing. I just don't want to lose."

If we haven't learned by now, whatever Jordan wants, he gets. He averaged 33.5 points for the Finals and, along with Pippen, Harper and Rodman, played hellacious defense.

Though he altered his offensive game -- grounding his aerial attack in favor of an almost unstoppable midrange fadeaway jumper -- as a concession to age, Jordan hasn't changed his defensive mind-set. He was tenacious during the Finals, a remarkable testament to a player who has won every honor there is but still pushes himself to the physical limit as though he's a rookie trying to crack the starting five. And nothing short of heroics was required on defense because the Bulls shot poorly from the floor (37 percent in Game 4 and 38.7 in Game 5).

Before the charges he took from Karl Malone finally caught up to his back last Sunday night, Pippen was playing a defensive series for the ages, doing everything from harassing the bulkier Malone to enveloping the smaller Stockton. Still, the Jazz eked out an 83-81 win in Game 5 in Chicago and showed they could win even when their offense couldn't run its pick-and-roll with precision.

The Chicago Police Department took precautions to prevent any out-of-control celebrating on the night of Game 5, and so did the Jazz. While the cops sealed off the downtown area, Bryon Russell and Shandon Anderson sealed off Jordan's route to the basket. The men in blue let it be known that nobody would be running around with a champagne bottle in his hand in the middle of Rush Street, and the men in purple made it clear that nobody would be partying like that in the Bulls' locker room, either.

The Jazz turned on that extra burst of speed chasing loose balls and crashed the boards with more attitude and altitude than they had in the first four games. Utah was determined to sneak a win out the doors of United Center before the security guards realized it was missing. By the time it dawned on MJ and the fellas what had happened, they'd be hearing their last boarding call for the flight back to Salt Lake City.

Just get it back to Utah. That was the mantra. The Jazz viewed a return home to 19,111 delirious Delta Center diehards as a situation where anything was possible. The Bulls took it as yet another challenge. It's hard to recall an NBA Finals that suffered from multiple personality disorder the way this one did. Sometimes, the series looked like the exclamation point on a Chicago dynasty, and other times it has appeared certain to be a behind-the-back passing of the torch.

The Bulls were in trouble. No, wait, the Jazz were on their deathbed. Say what? Utah woke up and pulled the intravenous tube out of its arm? And now Chicago just put them back in a coma?

The level of play was often so ugly that it was hard to believe Chicago and Utah were the NBA's elite. We were quickly reminded, though, when the Jazz's offense finally ran with its advertised precision or the Bulls' defense displayed a sustained excellence the league had never before seen.

"I knew the Bulls were a great defensive team, but they've exceeded my expectations," said Hall of Fame coach and ESPN analyst Dr. Jack Ramsay. "They're so versatile. I can't think of any team in history that has defended as well as them. All that talk about this possibly being the Bulls' last dance was in the forefront of their minds and you saw it in the defensive intensity."

Said former NBA player and Washington Wizards TV analyst Phil Chenier, "When the Bulls decide to turn up the defense, everyone is on the same page. There are no weak leaks. And the Bulls have more versatile players. Utah didn't have people who can create on the fly like Jordan and Pippen."

No, but it did have the Mailman, the superstar who was supposed to lift Utah, even singlehandedly if nothing else was working. Return to sender. Although Chicago occasionally showed its crow's feet, Malone started the series displaying feet of clay. He finished strongly, scoring 39 and 31 points in the last two games, but averaged only 20 in the first four games, well below his season average of 27 and the 30 points per game he hung on the Lakers in the Western Conference finals.

"Malone's problem was that he's a dependent player," says Quinn Buckner, ESPN analyst and former player and coach. "It's hard for a dependent guy to take a team on his shoulders.

"The Bulls also did a good job making John Stockton ineffective. Stockton likes to pass on a dime to Malone on the blocks. The passing angles weren't there, and Karl had to work harder to get in position for the ball."

"Malone should have taken more shots in the series," Ramsay says. "Everybody said he was choking, but he was playing within the team game the Jazz use. It just didn't work."

"This Bulls' championship was impressive," says Hall of Famer and NBC analyst Bill Walton, "because the same intangibles that have separated them from the rest of the league for so many years were now the same factors that described the Jazz: team chemistry, mental toughness, physical defense, versatility, and home-court advantage. The Bulls have had to play a lot of games this decade to win those titles. That's what wears down championship teams. You never know at what point they're going to break down, but the Bulls held up."

Special teams do extraordinary things. In addition to their NBA Finals record-setting 42-point win in Game 3, the Bulls bucked several trends.

Among them:

Winning a best-of-seven playoff series after dropping the first game. Entering the Finals, that had occurred only 21.5 percent of the time in the NBA.

Capturing a best-of-seven series without enjoying home-court advantage. That had been done only 24.7-percent of the time.

Avoiding the rematch jinx. The previous five times that teams had matched up in the Finals two years in a row, the loser of the initial meeting gained revenge in the sequel.

"I think that was a plus, not a minus," Jordan said of the gruelling series with Indiana. Could we have expected him to think otherwise? Of course it was a plus. Champions don't get softened by combat. They get sharpened. When all seemed lost in the final minute of Game 6, Jordan drove in for a layup to cut the Jazz lead to one, stole a pass to Malone 18 seconds later, then nailed the jump shot he'll forever be remembered for with 5.2 seconds remaining.

As for the Jazz, well, they have bad haircuts, a couple of them wear short shorts that went out of style in the 1980s, their team name makes no sense and their mascot is even more annoying than their pregame fireworks display. But they gave Chicago the fight of their dynasty.

The Jazz never imploded following the Game 3 debacle, the most humiliating night anyone has had in Chicago since Geraldo Rivera opened Al Capone's vault. And Utah made the Bulls strain themselves and Jordan work particularly hard to create his shots. Before the Bulls could extend their index fingers triumphantly toward the sky, they had had to get their hands very dirty. Their bodies will feel this series for a long time to come.

Some Utah fans tossed coins at the Bulls as they left the court at halftime and at the conclusion of Game 2. Will Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and vice president of basketball operations Jerry Krause now throw bills at them? When the mood struck them during the season, Jordan and Pippen liked to shout at Krause on the team bus, breaking the monotony of another long ride -- and the VP's chops at the same time.

Now, they can yell down at him from the throne. And about three million Chicagoans have already chosen sides in these negotiations.

Six rings. Six Finals MVP Awards. And Jordan acknowledges that he has set yet another standard by fighting off all the pesky challengers once more. He says an NBA title won by some other franchise after he is retired will be instantly devalued because "they didn't beat Michael."

From a celebration standpoint, the Bulls' failure to clinch at home, where courtside seats were being scalped for $15,000, was a huge disappointment. Jordan, however, hadn't played anything like the greatest player in the world in Game 5. Even in victory, the perfectionist would have felt a bit unfulfilled. He needed Game 6. He walked through that corridor beaming afterward because if this was indeed his finale, he exited knowing he had been Michael Jordan at the end and had even created what probably will be remembered as his defining moment.

In this most demanding and draining of seasons, when the threats even came from unexpected directions, there was probably another reason the Bulls were meant to win the crown on the road. Clad in red, they could hide the bloodstains.

In 1999, during the time of Wilt Chamberlain's death, the Associated Press posted the article of his 100 point game in 1962.

http://espn.go.com/nba/news/1999/1012/110634.html

March 2, 1962: The night Wilt scored 100

The following is The Associated Press story filed March 2, 1962, the night Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a game against the New York Knicks.

HERSHEY, Pa. -- Wilt Chamberlain set a National Basketball Association scoring record of 100 points tonight as the Philadelphia Warriors defeated the New York Knickerbockers, 169-147. The combined score was an association record, too.

Chamberlain toppled many records with his awesome display. The 7-foot-1-inch Warrior center set a league record for field goals (36), free throws (28 of 32), most points for a quarter (31), and most points for a half (59).

The 316 points by the two teams surpassed the record of 312 made in Boston's victory over Minneapolis on Feb. 27, 1959, at Boston. The Celtics set a single-team record in that game, when they beat the Lakers, 173-139.

The crowd of 4,124 shrieked, "Give it to Wilt, give it to Wilt," as the Philadelphian scored again and again on his fallaway shots.

The Warriors realized early that Chamberlain was hot. So they fed him the ball repeatedly. The Knicks tried to stall and then tried to mob Chamberlain with defense in an effort to slow his scoring.

In the final period, Darrall Imhoff, who had been assigned to guard Chamberlain most of the night, fouled out.

When Wilt hit 100, a few seconds before the end, the fans swarmed onto the court. The game was held up until they were removed.

The Warriors seemed determined to run away with the game, scrambling to a 19-3 advantage. However, with Richie Guerin hitting, the Knicks drew closer, and it was 79-68 at the half. But Guerin, with 39 points, Cleveland Buckner (33), and Willie Naulls (31) couldn't overcome the lift given the Warriors by Wilt Chamberlain, who had 25 rebounds.

Chamberlain's effort broke the league scoring record of 78 points, a mark he had set earlier this season.

The recognized collegiate scoring record also is 100 set by Frank Selvy for Furman against Newberry in 1954. Selvy now plays for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Two over-100 efforts by Paul Arizin of Villanova and Bevo Francis of Rio Grande (Ohio) College are not recognized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association because they were made against junior-college teams.

Among the records set tonight was one by the Knickerbockers. Their 147 points was the most ever scored by a losing team, topping the previous mark of 139 by Minneapolis against Boston in 1959.

Wilt said, "I wasn't even thinking of hitting 100, but after putting in nine straight free throws I was thinking about a foul-shooting record. It was my greatest game."

He credited his teammates with helping him set the record.

"It would have been impossible to score this many if they hadn't kept feeding me," he said.

Robby, in that article from 1985 you posted, it mentioned that he already had a deal with Nike. I've always been curious when Charles started his relationship with Nike... didn't he and Moses Malone endorse the Air Force 1s? Do you have any background articles on this??

Robby, in that article from 1985 you posted, it mentioned that he already had a deal with Nike. I've always been curious when Charles started his relationship with Nike... didn't he and Moses Malone endorse the Air Force 1s? Do you have any background articles on this??

Robby posted that three years ago. He is not around anymore.

I'm glad this thread was bumped though. There's some nice reads in here.

This has got to be the biggest random bump of all time. Has there ever been one over three years?

Yeah, I figured it was a long shot. If anybody has anything on Charles and his early days with NIKE, I'd love to hear it. Thanks!

I'm still around Nick, though not nearly as much as the time when I posted the article and I think you're one of the few people left around here who actually remembers me. Anyways, thanks for bumping this qbertitis as it brought back a lot of good memories. Unfortunately I don't have an answer for your question but you may want to try searching for it via Google. I believe I used Proquest to find these articles so you may want to try that if it's available to you. There is a very small chance I could have access to the old articles in the next few days and if I find something, I'll post here but I can't promise anything.

Wow Robby, it's nice to see you again. Why you're not posting as much as you did a couple years ago?

This has got to be the biggest random bump of all time. Has there ever been one over three years?

A couple, but those have generally been trolls looking to spam rather than making a serious post as qbertitis did.

Good to see you still lurk from time to time, Robby.

If nothing else, the "63 points" article helps putting in perspective Kobe Bryant's accolades in the last few days, bringing up as well some of the same prejudiced perceptions that he shares with the "early" Jordan, like the "one man team" status.

Of course, scoring 60 against the Memphis Grizzlies is somewhat different of doing the same against one of the all-time best teams, loaded with hall -of-famers and two all time greats, under playoff pressure, in the Garden...