36 years ago, Michael Jordan meets one of the most iconic throws ever. “The Shot” goes into the NBA story – and introduces the era of successful Chicago Bulls under Jordan.
“Get the ball to Michael, everybody get the fuck out of the way!”. In a nutshell, Doug Collins, then coach of the Chicago Bulls, explained the move, which is still one of the most iconic moments in NBA history more than 35 years later.
It was May 7, 1989 when Michael Jordan let the basketball world take her breath. The evening falls into a time when MJ is already multiple all stars and MVP of the league, but never reached the NBA finals let alone a title. That should not change that season 1988/89, the evening of May 7 was, so to speak, an initial spark for the era, which was to be dominated by Jordan and the Chicago Bulls for the following years. The most important basketball player ever sank “The Shot” that evening.
Jordan lets Cleveland fall silent in the NBA playoffs
After four games, the Eastern Conference’s first round series between the favorite Cleveland Cavaliers and the Chicago Bulls 2: 2, in the best-of-five series this evening in Cleveland was the decisive game five. The winner was supposed to move into the Eastern Conference Semifinals, and the season ended prematurely for the loser.
Three seconds before the end, the Cavs led 100: 99, Jordan had already scored 42 points at that time. Defensive specialist Craig Ehlo had put the home side in the lead by basket, the Richfield Coliseum was in the head. The time -out of the Bulls followed – and a little later the arena in Ohio should fall silent.
Brad Sellers brought the ball into play from the sidelines and of course searched Jordan, who could break away from the double cover by Ehlo and Larry Nance. Jordan picked up the ball, left Ehlo, dribbled twice and climbed up on the freewurfine – the rest is history. MJ sank the ball to victory via buzzer and made sure that the Cavaliers season should end early in the very last second.
An initial spark for the Bulls era in the nineties
A big air jump and absolute joy were the result when MJ saw that he had just thrown his team into the next round. Head coach Collins ran over the floor and fell into his assistant Phil Jackson without knowing that at the end of the season he would replace him as a chief coach and should shape an incredibly successful era with the Bulls.
After the Cleveland series, Jordan and Bulls in the Eastern Conference Semifinals defeated the New York Knicks 4-2 and moved into the finals in the east. There, however, MJ and Co. pulled the shorter ones and lost 2: 4 to the later Champion Detroit Pistons.
The following year, Chicago and Detroit faced each other in the Eastern Conference Finals, again the pistons (4: 3) prevailed and celebrated the next championship. But from 1991 at the latest, the Bulls dominated the action in the NBA and cheered six championships between 1991 and 1998.
To date, Jordan is one of the two largest basketball players ever – also thanks to “The Shot”.