NBA Archives Debunked: The Jordan Saga

Chapter 22 Flying (2)

Once, Jordan was a little injured and didn't participate in the training. He just watched the whole process in the coach's office, including the one-on-one bet at the end.That day, Grant's hand was very smooth, no matter how he shot, he killed the guards first, and then he was unstoppable against Pippen, and he was about to become the big winner of the day.Jordan watched happily, and found that Grant was getting more and more swollen, and when he finished winning Pippen, he was so proud that he couldn't figure out what his last name was.At this time, Jordan strolled out of the office and asked Grant casually: Would you like to play spot-up shooting with me?One-set tiebreaker, winner takes all.Grant replied: Of course.As a result, the injured Jordan quickly grabbed the fruits of Grant's victory.

Jordan is still the same, he wants to win everything, he has to win everything, and the only way to be happy is to win.At that time, the Bulls did not have a special plane, so they had to take a civil aviation plane to play away games. Every time they waited at the airport, the players always gathered in the game room to play "Pac-Man".There was a time when center Dave Corkin always had a bunch of quarters in his pocket because he was the best player on the team at Pac-Man and always won.But soon, Jordan installed a game console at home, and played "Pac-Man" when he had nothing to do. It didn't take long for him to surpass Kerkin.

Similar things have happened before.In the first year of his professional career, Jordan once lost to his teammate Rod Higgins in table tennis. In a fit of anger, he bought a table tennis table and put it at home. invincible hand.Howard White, who was sent by Nike to Jordan, and Oakley, who joined the Bulls a year later than Jordan, also had a higher level of table tennis than Jordan at the beginning. He often beat Jordan at Jordan's home, which made Jordan very angry.But White slowly discovered that it was not worth it to beat Jordan, because he would let you play another set, and another set, until he finally won.

Jordan is not good at all sports, but the one that frustrates him the most is tennis.It stands to reason that with his speed, strength and flexibility, he should be a good tennis player, but perhaps because of the late contact, the truth is that he has never been able to play tennis well.Howard White, who has both knee injuries, has always easily beaten Jordan.Therefore, in Jordan's world, golf quickly replaced tennis as the most frequently played sport in his spare time.

In order to ensure that he can win, Jordan sometimes played tricks.

Once I took a civil aviation flight to Portland, and the plane stopped at the terminal. The porter at the airport heard that Jordan was on the plane and wanted to meet him, so he ran up, found him, shook hands with him, and asked him to sign. Jordan was very polite. agreed one by one.Then, trainer Mark Phil saw Jordan reach into his pocket, pull out a $50 bill, and hand it to one of the bellmen.After the porter left, Phil said, "Michael, you don't have to do this. This is my job, and I should pay the tip." Jordan smiled and said, "Mark, watch it."

After getting off the plane and coming to the luggage claim area, Phil saw the whole team gathered at the exit, and saw Jordan take out a $10 bill from his pocket and put it on the conveyor belt, and soon other players also took out their own bills. Put $0 on the side.It turned out that Jordan made a bet with his teammates again, this time the bet was on whose luggage would come out first.It turned out to be Jordan's, of course.This time, Jordan earned $10. He grinned happily, then walked up to Phil and asked, "Isn't the return not bad for a $0 investment?"

To win irrelevant games and bets, Jordan must win even more when he returns to the basketball court.During the training, the B team composed of substitute players was led by Johnny Bach, and Jordan ran to ask Bach: How are you going to defend me?Bach told him: We had a substitute player who said he would completely strangle you today.Of course it couldn’t be done, Jordan was still imposing, so after the training, Jordan approached Bach with a smile and said, “It didn’t quite follow your plan, did it, Johnny?”

Jordan does not allow others to act wildly in front of him, neither does his teammates, let alone younger juniors.One of the most brutal cases occurred in the 1989 pre-season training camp.

There is a rookie named Matt Brust, who is 6 feet 5 inches (1.96 meters) tall and weighs 220 pounds (100 kilograms). And fierce.He participated in the Bulls training camp because he wanted to fight for a position for himself with a positive and desperate attitude.Once Jordan broke through with the ball, Blaster relentlessly chased after him, and then knocked Jordan down with his body roughly. "Boom!" Jordan fell on the floor and didn't move for a long time. The entire arena was so quiet that only the sound of Klaus choking on a donut was left. The trainers hurried forward to see if Jordan was injured.Jordan got up slowly, without saying anything, without looking at Blaster, and directed everyone to continue.

Soon, Jordan steals a ball and rushes to the basket again, followed by Blaster again.Jordan slowed down to let Blaster catch up, then grabbed the ball with his usual right hand and jumped up for a dunk.But this time was different from usual, Jordan saw Blaster pounced from the right, suddenly swung his right elbow, and hit Blaster hard on the head, causing Blaster to fall to the ground.Jordan was in the air, and the ball was switched from his right hand to his left hand. With a loud "bang", he dunked into the basket angrily.Everyone present was stunned.

Poor Blaster, lying on the ground unconscious for several minutes with a mild concussion.His training camp is over.His NBA career will never start.

In February 1988, the NBA All-Star Game was held in Chicago, which was Jordan's home court.

Jordan at this time is not the same as Jordan who was calculated, isolated, and "frozen" three years ago. In 1985, Jordan was a rookie, a rookie, and an uninvited guest who broke in suddenly; and in 1988, he was a first-line star, he was a pillar of the league, and he was the king of popularity most sought after by fans—NBA All-Star starts voted by fans Election, since the previous year, Jordan has become the league's "vote king", and the support rate among fans is higher than that of "Magic" and Bird.

Coming to Jordan's territory this time, all the stars know how to give Jordan face, so in this Chicago All-Star Game, Jordan took 23 shots, 17 shots, scored 40 points, and was undisputedly elected as the All-Star MVP.His 40 points set the second-highest single-game scoring record in NBA All-Star Game history, just one goal away from Wilt Chamberlain's 1962 points in 42.

And that's not counting Jordan's most inspiring All-Star performance.

The 1988 Slam Dunk Contest, Michael Jordan vs. Dominique Wilkins, Flying Man vs. Human movie essence, is the all-star classic that is truly recorded in history.

The date between Jordan and Wilkins was two years late.As early as 1985 in the slam dunk contest, the two had competed together. That time Wilkins defeated Jordan, who was still a rookie, and won the championship.In the next two seasons, fans never expected them to fight again. In 1986, Jordan was injured, and in 1987, Wilkins was injured.In the absence of Wilkins in the 1987 Slam Dunk Contest, Jordan won the championship for the first time.

In the 1988 All-Star Game, Jordan and Wilkins finally met again in the dunk contest.They did not disappoint, both dunked at a high level, entered the final hand in hand, and started the ultimate showdown.In the finals, the duo had a total of six dunks and dunked four perfect 50 points.Wilkins is known for his strength and took a tough approach. He scored full marks for the first two dunks in the final.Jordan, on the other hand, won with skill and belonged to the smart school. In the second dunk in the final, he only scored 47 points.In this way, before the last dunk of both sides, Wilkins led 10 0 to 9 7, which has a great chance of winning.

Wilkins' last dunk was a two-handed windmill dunk, which was done quite well, but unexpectedly, the referees only awarded 45 points.Even Jordan said after the game: "I was surprised, I thought I would give him 49 to 50 points." Kings wins.

Jordan walked to the other side of the court, and the arena erupted immediately, and Chicago fans knew what was going to happen next.I saw Jordan start, dribble, and speed up.He ran across the halfway line, ran to the free-throw line, and popped into the air.He was flying, flying forward, flying a long distance, and when his body was about to fall, he dunked the ball in the basket with his right hand.

The signature one-handed dunk from the free throw line.A perfect 50 points.

In this way, Jordan scored a total of 147 points in three dunks in the final, and Wilkins only scored 145 points. Jordan won and won the All-Star Slam Dunk Championship.Wilkins was unconvinced by the loss. He believed that Jordan's home court advantage influenced the result.But no one denies that this is the most classic slam dunk contest in NBA history. It was not until Vince Carter (Vince Carter) was born in Oakland in 2000 that the NBA had a more exciting slam dunk contest than this. More than 20 years later, Jordan's dunk in 1988 is still talked about.

Jumping and dunking from the free throw line, without any additional fancy moves, people can hardly resist its pure charm.Such a dunk, Jordan's aerial posture, satisfies the original desire of human beings to fly to the greatest extent.

During that period, Jordan was always asked the same question: Michael, can you fly?

Jordan replied, "Yes. A little while."

Jordan said that watching replays of some of his movements later on, he felt like he was watching someone else live in his body.Once, he saw one of his early dunks in slow motion, and it felt like the Apollo spaceship lifted off in slow motion, going up, up, up.Jordan looked at himself in the picture and thought, "When did jumping turn into flying?"

In the 1988 playoffs, the Bulls had home court advantage in the first round, which was the first time in Jordan's career.The opponent in the first round was the Cleveland Cavaliers. Some outsiders thought that Cavaliers coach Lenny Wilkens had found a way to contain Jordan, because just the week before, in the penultimate regular season game of the Bulls, Jordan was defended by the Cavaliers with only 26 points. It took 26 shots.The basic concept of Wilkens is to drive Jordan into the encirclement of Larry Nance, John Williams and Brad Doherty, and let several shot blockers combine. Destroy him.Is this really the magic weapon to strangle Jordan?

In Game 35 of the playoffs, Jordan slapped the doubters loudly.He made 19 of 12 shots and 50 free throws, scoring [-] points.Cavaliers guard Craig Ehlo chased Jordan all over the court, but only caused Jordan one real problem: a Bulls fast break with just over seven minutes left in the game, and Ehlo fouled Jordan. Jordan suffered a sharp pain in his right knee when he landed, and then fell to the ground in pain.The hearts of the Chicago fans were in their throats. They booed and cursed Ilo, worrying that the season of Jordan and the Bulls would be ruined by Ilo.After a few minutes, Jordan stood up and walked back to the bench by himself, and people were relieved.Jordan excused Ilo after the game: "I felt a little push from behind, but it wasn't enough to cause injury. As soon as I calmed down, I told Mark Phil that I just wanted to rest for a while."

At 1 minute and 40 seconds before the end of the game, Jordan broke through to the basket and scored "2+1" in the confrontation with Nance, basically securing the victory.The Bulls won 104-93.Coach Wilkens said: "Playing against Michael, you have to have a good defensive position. He is too good. If you relax on him, he will suddenly appear beside you while you are not paying attention. Then he hangs In the air, doing whatever he wants."

Wilkens was one of the best point guards in the NBA when he was young. After retiring, he coached for many years and directed the Seattle SuperSonics to win the NBA championship in 1979.So well-informed, Wilkens commented on Jordan and said: "I have never seen any player do it at this level (in a game) with such intensity. I have never seen him stay in the air for so long. Yeah. Elgin Baylor [the all-time Lakers star], he can hang in the air like that, but he's not as fast as Michael."

The Cavaliers, ravaged by Jordan, had an excuse: Their best perimeter defender, Ron Harper, was out due to injury.Harper was anxious when he saw that Jordan scored 50 points under Ilo's defense. Jordan also told the media that he thought Ilo's defense was better than Harper's, which surprised Harper.Harper was not very happy. After all, he and Jordan had a good personal relationship. The two just had dinner together a week ago. Why is Jordan telling the outside world that my defensive skills are not as good as others?Harper made up his mind that he must play in the second game.

"Well, Michael never got 50 on me," Harper said.

"There's a first time for everything," Jordan responded on the other side.

Sure enough, by the end of the second game, Harper's face was turning green.From a numerical point of view, Yiluo's defense is better than him, because Jordan scored 55 points in this battle, 5 points more than the previous game.The Bulls won 10-6. Jordan made 101 of 45 shots and made all 24 free throws.

This is the sixth time Jordan scored 1987 points in a single game in the 1988-50 season, and he hit 24 goals, tying the NBA playoff singles maintained by Wilt Chamberlain and John Havlicek. goal record.In the first two games of this series, Jordan scored a total of 105 points.It is a rare spectacle in NBA history to score 50 points in two consecutive playoff games.

In fact, in this second game, it was not easy for the Bulls to win.Jordan entered the attack mode shortly after the opening, but the Cavaliers shot no worse than him. After the first quarter, the Bulls trailed 23 to 36.In the fourth quarter, the two sides were still entangled. At the critical moment, it was Jordan who took over the game. Almost every score the Bulls scored in the last half of the quarter was directly related to him.With less than 2 minutes left, it was tied at 98. Jordan broke through the bottom line to the basket, scored with a backhand in the encirclement of the three Cavaliers, and the Bulls took the lead.With 1 minute left, the Bulls trailed 10 to 0, and Jordan succeeded in a mid-range jumper again, allowing the team to regain the initiative.101 seconds before the end, Jordan walked to the free throw line and made two free throws steadily, and the Bulls sealed the victory.

Some people accused Jordan of playing one-to-five on the court, but Jordan said that his personal offense is just a way to win. He is seeking victory, not personal data.Jordan believes that guards can also dominate the game like centers. He said: "I don't live by other people's judgment, I live by my own efforts. No one has done it before (guards dominate the game), this is for me. It's a challenge. Before, no one thought we could finish second in the division."

White Cavaliers point guard Mark Price (Mark Price) felt helpless: "They gave him the ball at every critical moment, and we had to find a way to limit him." The problem is, all NBA teams Looking for such a way.

Cavaliers are tenacious.After two straight losses, they returned to Cleveland to tie the series with two straight wins on their own turf.The fifth game was in Chicago, where Jordan scored another 39 points, and the Bulls beat the Cavaliers 107-101 to advance with a total score of 3-2.For the first time in his career, Jordan broke through the first round of the playoffs and tasted the taste of winning the entire series.In five games against the Cavaliers, Jordan averaged 45.2 points and shot 55.9 percent from the field.

1987-1988 season
Regular season: 82 games, 35.0 points, 5.5 rebounds, 5.9 assists, 3.2 steals, shooting 53.5%
Playoffs: 10 games, 36.3 points, 7.1 rebounds, 4.7 assists, 2.4 steals, 53.1% shooting
NBA MVP of the Year
NBA Defensive Player of the Year

NBA All-NBA First Team

NBA Defensive First Team of the Year

NBA scoring champion

NBA steals leader

NBA All-Star Game MVP
(End of this chapter)