It’s June 2003.
Just last month, in the real world, the most famous basketball player of all time, Michael Jordan, said goodbye to professional sports for the third and final (as of this writing) time. He was in Philadelphia, no longer wearing the Chicago Bulls’ famous No. 23 jersey, but he still got a lengthy standing ovation from everyone in the building.
Yet nearly a decade after the stadium was demolished, playoff spectators packed into Chicago Stadium were left feeling sick. Paul Pierce’s three-pointer with 38 seconds left in Game 7 meant nothing. The New York Knicks lead by double digits. The Bulls have no time to comeback, and they won’t have a second chance.
This wouldn’t sting as much if Chicago’s NBA franchise was shaking off nearly a decade of absolute dominance, but it does, because it doesn’t. To figure out why, we have to ask a very important question.
Why do so many people still wear shorts?
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I’ll take you back to 1998 to begin my answer. The Seattle SuperSonics, with a plethora of point guards — including Jason Kidd and Penny Hardaway — are cruising past the Milwaukee Bucks to solidify themselves as the league’s top team. . Only 22 teams (instead of 28) had their seasons all end in defeat and disappointment. The Bulls are one of them, finishing as the third-worst team in the league with a 26-56 record.
In a season that was supposed to win 62 games, they ended up with the consolation prize of drafting Pierce with the third overall pick, and they didn’t have the chance to luck into one of the top two picks that would have provided them with more. multiple choice. Come choose one of the most highly regarded candidates in the country. As it stands, their performance isn’t too bad, as the man nicknamed “Truth” is a bona fide star. He would have praised Sharif-Abdur-Rahim, the new player waiting for Chicago at the end of a 32-50 season in 1996 that should have been a 72-10 record, a record that could last forever. Holding up until 2016, pretty good.
The NBA landscape surrounding this growing young group is filled with other familiar faces from the 1990s NBA. Among them are “Diesel” Shaquille O’Neal in a rainbow-striped Denver jersey, “Dream” Hakeem Olajuwon in a black and crimson jersey with the Portland Trail Blazers, and the current Portland Trail Blazers. Karl “The Mailman” Malone of the Portland Trail Blazers. Delivering mail in New York. Kobe “The Black Mamba” Bryant and “The Answer” Allen Iverson both arrived and began weaving their legacies into basketball folklore, jerseys exchanged notwithstanding.
The sport’s all-star lineup is arguably designed more than any other team-based game to allow and embrace the concept of a single star, who rhythmically enters and exits the stage, just as they should. But something feels wrong. I can pinpoint exactly when I first noticed it.
October 28, 1988. The Bulls, coming off a 27-55 season, are hoping the addition of fourth-overall pick Rod Strickland can help them advance in a league still dominated by Magic Johnson’s Lakers, Larry · Bird’s Celtics and Moses Malone’s Celtics dominated. 76ers.
I can’t find Michael Jordan.
He was here a minute ago, averaging over 30 points per game for Chicago in the 1987/88 season, leading the NBA in scoring for the second straight year. I’ve looked everywhere. I even looked up his last name, but there are only two Jordans left in basketball, and neither of them is him. One of them is named Jeff, but for Pete’s sake, that’s simply not true.
I don’t know where Mike is, but he’s definitely no longer in the NBA.
I think I might know why. Since the NBA 2K My NBA Era mode launched in 1984, I’ve been preventing the inexorable passage of time itself from affecting the league. Sure, a few years have passed and nothing has changed, no new expansion teams have arrived, none of the rule changes that occurred in the real world have been applied, and none of the uniforms or stadiums used by existing teams have been changed. updated.
It’s forever 1984, to the extent that George Orwell would wet his pants if he played basketball.
That’s why in 2003, many teams were still wearing ’80s-style shorts instead of the iconic and/or trendy ’90s or early ’00s styles they should be. I think it’s what scared away the greatest NBA star of all time, Michael Jordan, and it’s what helped the NBA grow into a global cultural force and a global sport. He saw that things were never going to move forward and no matter how hard he tried to drag the League toward what we know today in real life, he simply decided not to bother continuing to be a puppet for this version of reality. Jordan era.
I really don’t blame him.
To be fair, life goes on. Champions rise and fall, and while they don’t have an absolute force of nature in front of them, he will one day be the subject of a Netflix series that some of his former teammates will think focuses a little too much on him. The Knicks have won three championships since ’88, ensuring that Karl Malone won’t retire as a ring-less star in a reign of terror that hasn’t happened yet. The aforementioned Sonics have won three championship trophies and were the only team to successfully defend their titles in the 1990s. In 1993, the San Antonio Spurs, led by one of Jordan’s most famous foes, Patrick Ewing, and No. 23’s most famous partner, Scottie Pippen, won it all.
All the time, due to the lack of new teams to join, the stagnant league has accumulated more high-quality talents to deal with, resulting in an overall number of about 80 high-quality starting players having to sign a one-year minimum salary agreement after the end of the season. . With a bench filled with veteran players, some rookies have to wait years before actually making their NBA debut. This also affected some veterans who retired early because they could not find a spot on the 23-player roster.
It’s a sad situation, and one in which the Jordan-less Bulls staged their own last dance. Their goal was to win the franchise’s first championship before the real Jordan hung them forever in 2003.
You already know how it ends.
