Original subtitles

Get your playoff programs! Playoff programs!

Bulls-Charlotte program. Get your program!

- What time is it? - Game time!

[Announced in Chicago, game 7 of round 2.

Pregame with the bulls and homers.

Who '5 gonna win by how many points 7

Lbe/ieve the bulls are going to win by 78 points.

I think the bulls will win by 73.

Blowout city.

Bulls, it's going to be a clean sweep.

- It will be a sweep. - / think they'll sweep.

By then I was playing for Charlotte and...

Look, let's just be honest here.

The bulls were a far superior team, and they knew it.

Now it's Michael.

Spinning, shooting over I/I/es/e y, and there's his first basket

If the hornets don't contain Michael Jordan,

this predicts to be a very short series.

Phil Jackson smiling at game's eno'.

His team now 4-0 in this year's playoffs.

We lost the first one,

but I felt I knew that system as well as anybody.

And I knew how to beat them.

Here is b.J. Armstrong with a jumper.

That was just bad defense.

And b.J. Armstrong, pushing it unguarded by kerr.

And now b.J. Armstrong, the former Chicago bull,

hits a basket to give the hornets a three-point lead

b.j. Armstrong, part of three world championships,

and a teammate of Michael Jordan for the bulls.

Here's Armstrong trying to push it up again, and Armstrong hits.

And now the hornets can't miss as Phil Jackson wants a time-out.

I was excited to face them in the playoffs,

knowing what I knew about the bulls,

what I knew about Michael,

and to see if everything that I had learned would actually work.

Clearly Michael was Michael, but anybody can have a moment.

I just had a moment,

and in that moment I knew what to do.

Out to b.J. With 30 seconds to go.

B.j. Against his former teammate, Michael

here come the hornets with a three-point lead

hornets can hold on to this ball.

Jordan againstarmstrong.

Armstrong backs up to the sideline,

works off a di vac screen to the fight wing.

Pull-up. Score!

B.j. Gives the hornets a five-point lead with 77.8 seconds to go/

time-out, Chicago.

I hit that shot...

And I remember! Let Michael know.

I let Phil Jackson know. I let scottie know.

I let everyone that I knew over there know.

And the Charlotte hornets have evened the series

in a stunning upset over the Chicago Bulls.

Believe me, fans,

no hornet is happier than b.J. Armstrong.

For him, this is not just a ball game.

This is vindication.

This is ”get back in your face ” b/g time.

He just opened up a can of ”I/I/hoop-bulls. ”

I felt like b.J. Should know better.

If you're going to high-five, talk trash,

now I had a bone to pick with you.

You know, I'm supposed to kill this guy.

You know, I'm supposed to dominate this guy.

And from that point, I did.

A spectacular move/

And the game's over/

Chicago stadium is going wild

First of all, there's no backstabbing going on here.

It's time for me to move on.

This will be Phil's last year as the coach of the bulls.

Are the expectations way too h/gh 7

Where do we go from here?

The only question: How long can it last?

Earlier in this show, you saw the vision of how the hornets

shocked the bulls 78-76 in Chicago

to even that best-of-se ven series at one.

And it was a former bull, b.J. Armstrong,

whose jumper with 78 ticks left, sealed the win for Charlotte.

After, the reaction.

Michael holds himself to such a high level.

You know, when you've played as long as he did,

at the level he did,

he constructed reasons to play hard that night.

These little slights were deep indignations to him.

That's all he needs.

I mean, that's like throwing meat to a tiger.

He'd find a game that was in a game to keep him interested.

But it was all in his mind.

The second stra/ght year the bulls have lost game 2

of their second round playoff

do you know labradford Smith's story? Has anybody told you that?

This was back in '93.

At one guard from Louis ville, labradford Smith.

The bullets were terrible.

Labradford Smith was their draft pick.

But this is what I always say: You never know.

It could be your night. You never know.

This night was labradford Smith's night.

Labradford Smith, left wing. Drains it.

Labradford Smith came off the screen, from 76. Wow!

Baseline, Smith. He's hit everything else from there.

Why not another one, huh 7

labradford Smith had a game.

I mean, he had a game of games.

Jordan posting up against Smith.

And for whatever reason, Michael couldn't make a basket.

Spins in the Lane. Couldn't get it.

Labradford Smith with a move.

Michael hits him on the body, and he nails it.

Smith, he has really got that touch going.

No, we 're not talking about that guy.

I/I/e 're talking about labradford Smith.

In Chicago,

labradford Smith scores 37 points against Michael Jordan.

He said that labradford Smith, walking out of the gym,

had said, "nice game, Mike."

And you knew that this wasn't going to go down well.

The next night, they play in Washington.

We played him on a back-to-back. I'll never forget.

So we're flying to Washington.

He said, "tomorrow, in the first half, I'm going to have

what this kid had in the game."

I never seen a man go after another player the way he did.

Uh-oh.

Saw that coming. Uh-oh.

I think he's made his statement.

Jordan scores 36 in the first half.

He's concentrating almost solely on labradford.

He took such umbrage at a guy saying, "nice game, Mike,"

that he torched and humiliated him in front of 20,000 people.

Fast-forward to decades past the incident,

and there's a rumor that this never happened.

Labradford Smith never put his arm around Mike and said, "nice game, Mike."

A couple of writers went up to Michael and said, "did this ever happen?"

And Michael, with a smile, is just like, "no, I made it up."

There's nothing he would not do

to get himself to the place where he's going to beat you.

Uh-uh.

Why? Do you think I should be?

So what? We lost one game.

He okay with it.

It'll be a dogfight tomorrow.

With b.J. Hitting that shot and staring the whole bench down and whatnot,

it just didn't sit well with Michael, and we knew.

When in the locker room, we say, "listen, guys.

We're going to have a dogfight from here on out

because we have woke Michael Jordan up."

Yeah.

Well, that's all right.

Let's see if all that trash-talking starts when it's zero-zero,

instead of five-, six-point lead.

That's where it starts.

That's the sign of a good man,

if you can talk shit when it's even score,

or talk shit when you're behind score.

When you're ahead, it's easy to talk.

Mike does not need anymore gas in his car to get going.

But then when you do that,

you have to expect all hell to break loose from that point on.

And yeah, that's what happened.

Come on, fellas.

- Let's go. - Let's go.

- What time is it? - Game time!

And Armstrong at the top shadowed by Michael.

Gives up his dribble, pressured by Michael.

He came after me in the rest of the series,

especially that next game.

Armstrong, top of the circle. Michael all over him.

Armstrong nowhere to go.

Jordan with a turnaround overarmstrong.

He knew he had him.

So the hornets take Armstrong off of Jordan momentarily.

Armstrong ton/ght only two points on one-of-se ven shooting.

Michael Jordan has 20 and the bulls doing everything right.

J“ let the man go through j“

j“ move aside and let the man go through j“

j“ let the man go through j“

The bulls coming back and winning the game they had to win.

I think b.J. Kind of forgot,

you know, what drives us.

You know, he woke us up if we were in a sleep,

and we'd been able to capitalize on that.

We welcome you to game 4 of this series,

with the hornets, the home club, trailing two games to one.

And here's a steal.

And count the basket.

The bulls win it, 94-80.

I think the bulls ha ve just taken their heart.

And that's what the bulls do to you.

And Jordan getting a step.

Rice stays with him, and Jordan scores anyway.

And the final score, 93-84,

as the bulls knock out the hornets in five

and will now face the Indiana pacers.

Halfway home, the way I look at it.

The fact of the matter is,

in my opinion, if Michael Jordan had stayed with baseball,

he would have gotten to the major leagues.

But when the baseball strike started in '94

and major league baseball came up with what was a really dumb idea

of trying to start the season with replacement players.

Today in spring training camps across the nation,

replacement baseball players facing replacement baseball players.

There was a strike that year,

and they asked him to cross the picket line.

Michael said, "no, I'm not doing it."

Michael Jordan has said all along

that he will not play in replacement games during the strike.

A man of his word,

Jordan today walked out of the white sox camp.

One day he called me and said, "hey, I'm in town.

What are you doing?" I was like, "I'm about to go to practice."

Like, you know the routine.

He was like, "let's meet at baker square." So I was like, "all right."

After breakfast, you know, we eat our little pancakes.

And I was like, "well, I gotta go to practice."

I was like, "why don't you just come over, say hello?

Everybody would like to see you."

So he comes over to practice and I started telling him,

"you old, you've been out of the game, you can't play no more.

I'll kick your ass right now."

More or less.

First, it was a joke and then, before I knew it,

we were playing a full one-on-one.

I just could feel something different was going on that day.

I mean, you just had a different feeling in that locker room.

And I remember asking harp, "harp, what's going on?"

And harp just turned to me and said, "the man is here."

Super Mike working out yesterday with his old teammates.

Is this a trend, or just scratching his basketball itch?

Just the hint that Michael Jordan might be returning to the NBA

sent newsrooms and reporters scurrying all day today.

Too much speculation.

There are too many ifs and too many things to be worked out.

Trying to guess what Mike will do next has become a full-time hobby for many.

It started to come into my mind, "maybe go back. Maybe go back."

Scottie, actually, on TV with his shoes up, telling me to come back.

Look at it.

Do you see scottie pointing to the air Jordan emblem

on the bottom of his sneaker7

Will the basketball great return to the bulls?

Jordan partic/pated in the bulls practice

for the third time in a week.

So the m.J. Watch continues among fans, the media,

and his possible future teammates.

But even with fingers crossed,

not everyone believes that Michael is really coming back.

I would be very surprised if he came back.

The sports world hangs on the next word of Michael Jordan.

But he isn't talking yet.

But only Jordan knows the answer everyone's looking for.

And it seems he'll share it in his own good time.

So, finally after all this stuff,

he called me and he said, "I think I'm ready to come back."

So I wrote three or four different versions

of a press release for him to announce that he was coming back.

But he just didn't feel comfortable that it captured what he wanted to say.

So I said to him, "why don't you freaking write one?"

So I gave him the pen and paper and he just wrote...

That's all you needed to say.

The s/gn says it all.

Now bulls fans can take a deep breath and relax.

We no longer have to endure life without Michael.

The drought is over. Jordan is back.

I feel we should all bow our heads in a moment of silence,

in recognition of Michael Jordan's return to pro basketball.

Chicago sports fans riding h/gh on air Jordan these days.

A word from the windy city, air Jordan is going back to the bulls.

All seems fight in the world right now because mj. Is back.

He sends the famous fax out, "I'm back,"

and it was shocking, you know.

Given that we were, you know, almost at the end of the season.

That '94-'95 season,

we struggled.

We lost Horace Grant when he went to Orlando.

And that was really upsetting.

Yesterday afternoon,

bulls owner Jerry reinsdorf cut ties with Grant.

They could have extended his contract, and they didn't,

and then Horace Grant goes out and becomes a star with Orlando.

Here's Horace in person/

That year the bulls missed that power forward,

that rebounder, that defensive presence, with the loss of Horace Grant.

It wasn't the previous season where we had the residual effect

of the championships and the foundation and the core group.

We were kind of a mess the next year.

We weren't that good.

So when Michael came back, it gave us new life.

It was like, "wait a second.

We can do this again."

When Michael first came back,

he's like, "Billy, we're finally going to get to play together."

Hesam, "I want you to jump on the cape."

He said, "but you need to hold on."

All right. That set the tone from day one.

After the baseball, he was even more committed.

More goal-orientated.

And the goals were only winning a championship.

Winning a championship.

Today's the day that basketball fans have been waiting for.

After an absence of a year and a half,

superstar Michael Jordan is back in the game,

and he'll play with the bulls later today against the Indiana pacers.

We landed and we got off the airplane

and I was waiting for Michael.

And I waited a few minutes and whatnot,

and I think Michael was just having a quiet emotional time

on the plane by himself,

'cause this was the first time he was gonna play

without his father being around.

And it hit him hard.

And he was kind of teared up a little bit.

And I said "hey!

You got this. You ready to go?"

"Yeah. Just give me a minute. I'll be with you in a minute."

I was nervous 'cause I hadn't played competitive in a long time.

And, you know, I just felt naked, because my father just wasn't there.

So different.

Playing a game without his dad being there,

I think that brought James's death back to light for him.

M.j.'s in town.

Who needs tickets? Four together.

$150 each.

- I'll give you $200. - Give me $225.

I've been offered two grand for these tickets. I said, "no way."

It's about as close to the super bowl I'm ever gonna come.

What Michael Jordan does today,

and what he will attempt to do in the next several months,

and maybe years, is truly unprecedented.

He doesn't want to simply be effective, or even be an all-star.

He wants to be the best again, and he wants to dominate.

Can he? And if he can, are the bulls a championship contender?

The atmosphere in market square was electric.

We ran out onto the floor,

and the air was thick with anticipation and anxiety.

It felt like the finals.

Boy, oh, boy, listen to the reaction here

at market square arena as Michael took the court.

It was an emotional moment.

There he was. He was back.

Twenty-one months after his last appearance in an NBA game,

Michael Jordan has returned, and he's wearing number 45.

I didn't want to go to 23

because I knew my father wasn't there to watch me.

And I felt it was a new beginning.

And 45 was my first number when I played in high school.

The much-heralded return of basketball superstar Michael Jordan

got off to a rocky start.

His shooting touch was missing...

And his shorts were on backwards.

He struggled early, trying to shake off the rust,

and it showed

Michael, outside, inside, couldn't get it to go.

Then the patented drive.

Rik smits gets a piece of it.

Michael 0 for 6 from the floor.

Then the old Jordan would finally emerge.

Mj., the steal from Rick smits and takes it the distance.

The pacers would get the last word, and they looked to Reggie Miller.

Not quite a Disney ending for Michael Jordan, but he's back.

Being away from the game that long,

and just how much the body had changed.

I was very unsure that he could perform

at the level that he's accustomed to performing on a regular basis.

That just added more pressure to prove he's still Michael Jordan.

And that was part of his greatness,

was never being satisfied.

The inbound's to Michael.

Racing the clock.

Jordan for the win. Yes!

He is now back/

holy mackerel/ and it was vintage Jordan.

When he came back, we were at full power again.

Yeah, we're off and running.

Well, the big star plays a big city and that makes for very big news.

The Michael Jordan comeback tour sets down at Madison square garden,

tip-off in about 90 minutes.

Anybody who was everybody,

or everybody who was anybody

on hand to watch Michael's return to the garden.

They would not be disappointed

Jordan, 75-footer. Look out.

Jordan is two for two to start this game.

A double-team. Oakley gets there too late.

Michael is four of five.

Jordan... starts out on fire.

After that long layoff,

he was able to come back and have one of his best games in the garden.

J“ nope, shut him down the king with a crown j“

j“ 'cause all you want to be is d/ggy down j“

it's unfortunate, because I think I had a great game that game as well.

But no one remembers that.

Fourteen ticks left. Tie game, Jordan.

You've got to double-team him.

J“ the king down with the king j“

I/I/e/lington.

Made a pass when he had to.

Bulls win. He's back.

Jordan scores 55 in just his fifth game back.

When he came back

and he scored 55 in the garden,

I'm thinking, "oh, man.

It's going to be crazy if we meet them in the playoffs."

And we 're set for game 7

of the eastern conference semifinal series

between the bulls and the magic.

I felt great about that year.

We had some very good young players in Shaquille O'Neal...

Nice move by Shaquille.

Penny hardaway...

Hardaway, down the Lane to hammer it home.

Nick Anderson.

He 'i/ challenge and get it to the hole/

And I knew Michael.

He was still working himself back into condition.

Horace Grant, the one-time Chicago bull, able to control.

All the world's a stage when your name is Michael Jordan.

So the spotlight that shines brightly on your triumphs

also burns intensely on your mistakes.

On Sunday in Orlando, Jordan had more than a bit part

during the closing scene in game 1, fourth quarter.

Bulls up 91-90, 22 seconds to go.

So the bulls up one.

Michael's got the ball in his hands. Not any longer.

Penny to the former bull, Horace Grant, magic up by one.

When Michael came back from playing baseball

and Nick Anderson stole his rock,

the reason that stood out,

you hadn't seen anybody take Michael's rock in a long time.

It's like watching Muhammad Ali in the second half of his career

when someone lands a punch on him.

It's like, "whoa! You mean you can hit this guy?"

Jordan still had a chance to deliver

one of his patented buzzer-beaters,

but instead he threw it away.

He dropped it/ he dropped it out of bounds/

this just in. Michael Jordan is human.

In crunch time, gives up a steal, throws the ball away, bulls lose.

After the game, Nick Anderson said,

he was like, "45 isn't 23."

Oh, man.

Well, obviously Michael Jordan is superstitious:

45 is in mothballs. 23 is back.

I just felt like 45 wasn't natural.

I wanted to go back to a feeling I had with 23.

When we met them the next game...

M.j. Just went off.

P/ppen finds Michael.

The pull-up. It's down for three.

That first quick step, that jump stop, the lean-in,

that's a tough shot.

A veraged 77 field goal attempts during the regular season.

Jordan with a block of Shaquille o'neal/

0/7, baby/

Bulls back. Jordan looking to go to the basket.

How about on cue 7

that's a b/g play.

Oh, my/ Scott had it blocked by Jordan.

Over the back. This could be entertaining.

Chicago gets the win, 704-94.

Jordan UN-retires number 23, shocks the world

bulls win game 2.

The Chicago Bulls pulled even with the Orlando magic.

But does Jordan have the legs to last throughout the playoffs 7

he was not 100% of himself that year.

He was 80-something percent of himself.

You're looking at an exhausted Michael Jordan.

And obviously, he's not in great shape.

He's in "I've been playing baseball for 21 months" shape.

He didn't have time to get his legs underneath him,

and I think that was reflected in some of the postseason games that year.

The magic are one win away

from eliminating Michael Jordan and the bulls from the playoffs.

There are a couple of things that are wrong with Chicago right now.

Number one, they didn't have Michael for the course of the season.

So, while other players are in great shape and can go game in and game out,

Michael has not been able to sustain the effort over the course of a game.

Looking back, I didn't have enough time

to get my body back to a basketball body.

So I was a little nervous going into that playoff.

As the bulls teeter on the brink of elimination,

ton/ght the magic will try to give them a little push.

It is a one-point bulls lead,

but Orlando has reeled off seven stra/ght points.

Tough shot by Michael. Air ball.

A chance for Orlando to take the lead

I don't remember seeing Michael Jordan this tired.

This is unbelievable.

E/ght seconds on the shot clock.

Letanderson go against k ukoc.

He can take him to the basket.

Oh, my goodness. What a shot by Nick Anderson!

It's all over. The bulls' season comes to an end

here at the united center, and the Orlando magic gets the victory.

Look at Horace.

They're booing him, up on the shoulders, Bob.

That was one of Michael's lowest points,

is when he came back and they didn't win.

He hated the fact that Horace was on the other team

when they beat him.

And just to watch all the celebrating that they were doing.

I think that's what he took to heart.

He used that for that next year.

After the season,

usually there's a time period where Michael takes some time off.

The night they lost to Orlando,

I said, "Michael, you know, I'm about to get out of here.

Let me know when you want me to see you."

He goes, "I'll see you tomorrow."

Michael had an obligation to himself,

the fans, his teammates,

the organization, his family, everybody.

He said, "if you're going to sit down

and take three hours out of your day...

To watch me on TV,

I have an obligation to give you my best.

To give you my best all the time."

- Action! - Action!

Cut!

The summer after Michael came back,

he was filming the movie space jam.

NBA superstar Michael Jordan starts filming his movie this summer,

with longtime screen veteran bugs bunny.

Really, this is the truth. The movie's called space jam.

Here's the premise.

A bunch of aliens want to kidnap bugs.

Soon there's a basketball game and Michael Jordan joins the team.

He knew that space jam was not as important

as getting back and playing basketball at the level he wanted to play at.

And while they were filming, he went back to work.

I said, "I need to practice.

I need a facility where I can work out."

“Oh, don't worry about it. We will build you that."

And sure enough, when we came out there to do the film, it was all set up.

We had the Jordan dome.

It was like a professional facility, fabulous, beautiful floor,

big dome, weights.

Grover was there, his workout guy.

The days would be Monday through Saturday.

Start off at 7:00.

And I would get a two-hour break and I would go work out with Tim.

I had the whole program designed up.

Working all the muscles for going back to basketball.

I spent 15 months turning my body into a baseball body.

Basketball is a little bit more shoulders, chest.

So I had to reconstruct my whole body,

which was hard.

And then after we'd finish, which is usually around 7:00,

we would invite people and we'd play pickup games.

We had the idea if we invited

the best players in the league out here,

he would get a chance to see everybody before the season started.

And then it became like a thing.

Everyone had to come out to Warner Bros. Studio

to play against Michael Jordan.

And this was his opportunity for him to see everybody.

And we would do scouting reports.

This is what Chris mullin would do.

This is what Reggie Miller would do.

Got Reggie Miller.

Patrick ewing today.

Shawn Bradley.

It was some of the best games.

There's no officials. You're calling your own fouls.

So it's a little bit more rugged and raw.

I don't know how he did it.

I don't know how he filmed all day,

and then still had the energy to play three hours.

I mean, we would play until like 9:00 or 10:00 at night,

and he still had to get weight lifting in.

And then his call time was like at 6:00 or 7:00 in the morning,

so I don't know how... I mean, this dude was like a vampire, for real.

Playing against the young talent,

they were full of energy

and I had to help excel my talent, get my talents back.

I honestly think one of the best things that could have possibly happened,

as much as everyone hates losing,

is that we lost to Orlando

because Michael came back with a vengeance.

When Michael came back,

it was a new team.

Michael hadn't played with Luc longley yet.

He hadn't played with jud buechler and Steve kerr yet,

bill wennington and all those guys.

That preseason training camp was unbelievable.

You could tell he was on a mission.

By the time camp started, he was in incredible shape,

but he was also, like, frothing at the mouth.

That's how angry he was from losing.

So every day at training camp was just a war. Every day was a battle.

And he talked a lot of shit.

I wanted them to understand what it felt like to be in the trenches.

And if you don't understand,

then you're not going to respond when the war starts.

Steve, Luc, all those guys,

they come in riding high

on the three championships that we won in '91, '92.

And they had no fucking... You know, anything to do with it.

But yet now they play for the bulls, and they...

No, dude. It's... it's...

So we were shit when I got there,

and we elevate to being a championship-quality team.

There's certain standards that you have to live by.

You don't come pussyfooting around.

You don't come in joking and kidding around.

You got to come here ready to play.

So one day at practice,

Phil puts Steve kerr guarding me.

We're on opposite sides in a scrimmage, and he's talking all kinds of trash.

And I'm pissed because, you know, we're getting our ass kicked.

Phil sensed my aggression, but he was trying to tone me down

and he starts calling these ticky-tack fouls.

Now I'm getting mad because for you to be protecting this guy,

that's not going to help us when we play New York.

It's not going to help us when we play these teams that are very physical.

Next time he did it, I just hauled off and fucking let it...

I said, when I foul Steve kerr, I said, "now, that's a fucking foul."

I have a lot of Patience as a human being,

but I tend to snap at some point.

'Cause I'm extremely competitive too.

Just not really good enough to back it up usually.

But I'm going... I'm going... I'm going to fight.

He hauls off and hits me in the chest.

And I just haul off and hit him right in the fucking eye.

And Phil just throws me out of practice.

So I go down the locker room and Michael says,

"I know.

You know, I lost it for a second."

I'm in the shower and I'm saying,

"I just beat up the littlest guy on the fucking court.

And I felt about this small."

So, I get in the car, I called, went back to the berto center and said,

"please give me Steve kerr's number."

I call Steve and I apologize.

"Hey, look, man, it had nothing to do with you." You know, “I feel bad.“

we talked it out and it was probably, in a weird way,

the best thing that I ever did was stand up for myself with him

because he tested everybody he played with, and I stood up to him.

He earned my respect, you know,

because he wasn't willing to back down to be a pawn in this whole process.

From that point on, our relationship dramatically improved,

and our trust in each other, everything.

It was like, "all right, we got that out of the way.

We're going to war together."

And that season has to be the best team I've ever been a part of.

Dennis rodman had just arrived in Chicago.

Dominant defensive player.

He was a new character, but I knew Dennis,

and I knew what he could do basketballwise.

J“ step into a world j“

j“ where there's no one left j“

J“ but the very best j“

that year, they were on it from jump.

Look out.

Rodman has restored the rebounding presence that disappeared

when Horace Grant left for Orlando.

I loved being in Chicago.

I loved it you know, Michael is Michael.

Scottie is scottie, Dennis, Dennis.

So it was, like, great.

When we come together, we feed off each other.

Michael can count on me. I can count on Michael.

And blocked by Dennis rodman.

What a great play.

The bulls rattled off an amazing 23 wins in their first 25 games.

It became apparent this team had a shot to be the greatest of all time.

The bulls have been superb.

Everybody knew we were witnessing the best season

in NBA history to that point.

J“ I'm sorry / lied j“

j“ I'm number one, two, three four and five j“

j“ stop wastin' your money on marketing schemes... j“

I'm sitting on a plane with Steve and scottie pippen

and we're looking at the schedule, and scottie's like, "hmm.

Wow, I don't think we're going to lose a game for three months."

The bulls are trying to break the record

for most wins in a single season.

And the team they are trying to beat for that record is the '77 - '72 Lakers team.

And that team had 69 wins and 73 losses for the year.

If the bulls win 70 tonight,

they go down in history as possibly the best team of all time.

There it isl

seventy has become a reality for the Chicago bulls/

the Chicago Bulls ton/ght ha ve made history.

The debate will now rage

about whether they are the best team ever.

This year's Chicago Bulls squad

just may go down as the greatest team of all time.

The bulls finished this season with a record of 72-70,

but they said, ”it don't mean a thing without the ring. ”

This one's in the books. Chicago goes to the second round

and Phil Jackson, the NBA coach of the year,

has his team in the eastern conference finals.

If you know m.J., as I do very well,

the only thing he was doing during the summer,

is having Orlando magic on his mind. That's all.

Today's game 7 of the eastern conference finals

is between the Orlando magic and your Chicago Bulls.

They needed a rebounder.

They needed a defensive stopper.

And rodman with his ninth rebound

And that's what Dennis did.

Pass to p/ppen. Scottie p/ppen going all the way/

we didn't have a chance.

The bulls have swept the magic.

Jordan finishes with 45 points.

The bulls do it 706-707,

as the Orlando magic have been swept.

Because of last year and the number change,

and "45 didn't look like 23," and whatever.

But we all were disappointed last year,

and we came back to redeem ourselves as a unit,

and I think we did that effectively.

From the united center in Chicago, Illinois,

welcome to the 7996 NBA finals.

- Bulls! Number one! - Yeah.

Bulls-Seattle program! Playoff program!

Hi again, everybody. I'm Bob costas,

and welcome to these NBA finals.

I/I/ith due respect to the Seattle supersonics,

and apologies to their fans,

the prevailing attitude in Chicago, and through most of the country really,

is that these NBA finals loom not so much as a competition,

as a coronation.

This is viewed as the greatest mismatch in NBA finals history.

That team was a good team.

They won 72 games.

But we was a pretty goddamn good team too.

And we had beat them in the regular season.

During the regular season, that '96 Seattle team

had been the best team in the western conference.

They had Gary Payton,

the great point guard, all-defensive player.

And he had a great alley-oop partner in Shawn kemp.

He will go to get it with the fight hand/

And they had a good coach in George Karl.

Kick their ass and be proud of what you've done!

- Now go out there and be big! - Let's go!

- Go! - Sonics!

During the finals, we go out to dinner one night.

George Karl's over on the other side, having dinner.

"Hey, there's George Karl over there."

And George Karl does not come over and speak to him.

He walked right past me.

I look at Ahmad, I said, "really? Oh, so that's how he's gonna play it."

You know, he just kind of went by, and I went "uh-oh.

Should have never done that."

I said, "that's a crock of shit."

We went to Carolina. We know Dean Smith. I see him in the sermon. We play golf.

You going to do this? Okay, fine.

That's all I needed. That's all I needed for him to do that.

And it became personal with me.

Jordan's being guarded by I/I/ingate.

Jordan.

Jordan... yes!

That's just an impossible matchup.

He's always finding some place to find something to get him all fired up.

Now Jordan going against Payton.

Goes to the fadea way.

Oh, he wanted that shot. He wanted Gary Payton.

As soon as he had him one-on-one, he waved everybody out of there.

He used that for every single game, every game.

"I'm gonna show him. He won't come and speak to me?"

The bulls over the sonics, 92-88.

Here is Jordan for three.

The bulls win game 3, 708-86.

The first three games Mike ripped us, ripped a hole in us.

Ripped a hole in our ass really.

The sonics lose the first three,

but George Karl didn't play his best card,

which was putting Gary Payton on Michael Jordan.

I had just won defensive player of the year. Made all-league.

But me and George had a meet.

He said, "look, I don't care about your defense right now.

I know that you can do that." He said, "I need you to score."

So he didn't want to sacrifice me on both ends of the floor.

But we got down 3-0.

I was mad.

I said, "fuck what you're talking about, George.

I'm guarding, whatever you say."

I said, "you can't control this no more."

Lots of changes,

with the supersonic defensive player of the year Gary Payton

will start the game guarding Michael Jordan.

That's a matchup many have wanted to see this entire series.

Jordan is not like he used to be.

You know, he got a little aged. He was off of basketball.

I think my best bet is to really get him tired.

The call against Chicago.

Offensive foul on Michael Jordan.

Gary really got into him, was talking shit to him too.

Gary did about as good a job as you can expect guarding Michael.

Fourth quarter. Here is Jordan.

I/I/hoa, it's one of those n/ghts for Michael.

He is now 6 for 79 from the field

the sonics will not be swept.

This will go to a fifth game.

Oh, Jordan beat badly backdoor defensively.

Everyone thought the bulls were gonna sweep.

You know, the 72-10 season was going to be capped off

by a sweep in the finals, and this was gonna be the greatest team ever.

And the sonics said, "not so fast."

Gary Payton feeling it. Nobody guarding him.

Everybody backing off

not afraid at all to launch.

And that will do it.

The sonics with a 89-78 win over the bulls.

It's been a complete and remarkable turnaround for Seattle.

Gary Payton outplayed Michael Jordan the last two games.

A lot of people backed down to Mike.

I didn't.

I made it a point. I said, “just tire him out."

Tire the fuck out of him. You just got to tire him out.

And I kept hitting him and banging him...

And hitting him and banging him. It took a toll on Mike.

/t took a toll, and then...

Resting him a little bit, and then the series changed

and / wish / could have did it earlier.

I don't know if the outcome would have been different.

But it was a difference with...

And beating him down a little bit.

The glove!

I had no problem with the glove.

I had no problem with Gary Payton.

I had a lot of other things on my mind.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,

and a happy father's day to dads all around the world

one of the main things I saw really that affected him was father's day.

That championship game was on father's day.

The importance of his father to him, it was huge.

James was always there in those moments.

If you see some of the highlights of Michael celebrating,

where's his dad?

Right next to him.

His dad was always right next to him,

so a piece of Michael's heart was missing.

He thought back to when he won his first championship,

and he was crying on the Larry o'brien trophy,

and his father was right there over his shoulder.

And now they're back in the finals,

and his father wasn't there to share it with him.

J“ nine n/ghts of matter!“

The opening up is hauled by the bulls.

Michael Jordan.

Yes! Oh, he knew on the release.

He began to walk back down court.

Scottie p/ppen continues to play perfect basketball.

Rebound to Jordan!

J“ black fio wers blossom j“

Michael has always been pretty close to the vest with his feelings.

But he was holding it together for the entire family.

He was so strong for the rest of us.

He won't allow you to see the emptiness.

He said, "mom, I know he's there. He's watching. He sees."

J“ water is my eye j“

Se ven-year-old Jeffrey Jordan

holding up the happy father's day s/gn.

The bulls have a 75-point lead Jordan!

This has just become a clinic for Chicago.

George k ar/ forced to call a time-out.

Things falling apart for Seattle.

87-75.. We 're in the final seconds.

The Chicago Bulls have won

the 95-96 NBA championsh/p!

Make it four in six years!

Michael, I know that the first one was sweet,

but how much sweeter was this?

Well, you know, I can't even put it in words.

On father's day, what it means to me.

Mvp! Mvp!

I know he's watching.

To my wife, to my kids, to my mother, my brothers and sisters,

this is for daddy. I'm very happy for him.

J“ you're stumbling into all j“

j“ you're stumbling into all j“

We 're just over 40 minutes from the t/p-off

of the eastern conference finals between Indiana and Chicago.

Can the pacers end the Jordan era 7

such b/g-picture questions loom

as the conference finals begin in Chicago.

Could be another awe-inspiring exhibition.

Could be the end of an era.

If the Jordan era is going to end and one day it will,

a loss to Indiana in the eastern conference final

in front of the home folks is not what the bulls m/ght consider

the most optimum way to wrap it up.

Got to get out of the blocks quick. Don't let them come in here.

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome once again to bulls basketball,

playoff basketball, as we move to the eastern conference finals,

the bulls and the Indiana pacers.

We all looked at the bulls as the standard model of success.

They were considered the best at that time.

But we felt, I feel to this day, we were the better team.

You know, the whole thing is,

there was whispers that this was going to be Mike's last year.

So I think a perfect storm was brewing.

And in my mind I was thinking, "all right, this is it.

You know, you're going to retire Michael Jordan."