“First of all, there’s no backstabbing going on here,” Jerry Krause stated in a pre-1998 NBA Playoff interview.
James Jordan was killed in his home state of North Carolina.
“One of the things that he always taught me is that, you gotta take a negative, and turn it into a positive,” Jordan said about his dad.
People blamed Michael Jordan for his father’s death, because of Michael’s gambling problem.
MJ was outraged at these claims, saying that people we’re putting ‘salt in his open wound.’
Was Jordan’s first retirement a secret suspension?
With Michael Jordan’s gambling problem, his father’s death, and his ‘retirement’, it is a conspiracy that David Stern suspended Michael for 18 months, but Jordan and Stern both said that was false.
Where did Michael go? Well the Chicago White Sox system of course, specifically, their Double-A team, the Birmingham Barons.
Meanwhile, the Bulls, led by All-Stars Scottie Pippen, BJ Armstrong, and Horace Grant, lost in 7 games in the second round of the playoffs to the New York Knicks.
Baseball strike. The MLB attempted replacement games. Michael said that he was not going to play in these games and walked out of the White Sox camp.
Michael came back to the game of basketball during the end of the 94-95 season, and that was much needed.
The Chicago Bulls lost Horace Grant to Orlando, and Chicago was barely above the .500 mark.
Michael led his team to the playoffs, but an unconditioned Michael could not make a deep playoff run, losing to the Magic in the second round.
Jordan had an obligation to give his best, and that drove him the next season.
Michael was a solid actor, too. He was one of the main characters in the movie Space Jam. While he was filming the movie, Jordan also worked on his game.
Hard work pays off. The 1995-96 Chicago Bulls would go on to win 72 games, the record at the time.
Bulls. Magic. Rematch. Clean Sweep.
Chicago beat the SuperSonics in the Finals that year, who were led by defensive lockdown Gary Payton and electric finisher Shawn Kemp, winning Game 6 on Father’s Day.
Photo Credit: Chicago Sun-Times
