The Chicago Bulls scraped over the line to reach the 1986 NBA playoffs.
Second-year pro Michael Jordan, the saviour of Chicago basketball, broke his foot in the third game of the year, causing him to miss 64 games of the regular season.
MJ managed to return before the end of the season, but was placed on a minutes restriction so as to not aggravate the injury.
It was a decision that irked the hungry young Bull, who wanted to win at all costs amid speculation the organization was tanking to get a better lottery pick in the following season’s draft.
With Jordan in and out of the lineup, the patched-up Bulls limped into the postseason as the Eastern Conference’s eighth seed after John Paxson hit a game-winning shot against the Indiana Pacers in the final game of the regular season.
Chicago finished the season with a 30–52 record, at the time the fifth-worst record of any team to qualify for the playoffs in NBA history.
And what was their reward? A first-round matchup against Larry Bird‘s all-conquering Boston Celtics.
Bird’s Celtics and Magic Johnson‘s Los Angeles Lakers dominated the 1980s, winning eight championships between them (five Lakers, three Celtics), and reinvigorating the NBA on a global scale.
K.C. Jones’ swashbuckling squad finished with the best record in the league at 67-15, including a 40-1 record at home.
They are considered the best Celtics team ever, boasting all-timer Bird and four other future Hall-of-Famers — Kevin McHale, Dennis Johnson, Robert Parish and Bill Walton.
“All of them were about seven foot tall, that could score, run, defend,” Bird said during episode 2 of The Last Dance.
“We were deep, we were big, and of all the teams I’ve been on, there’s no question that was the best.”
The Celtics beat Chicago six times in the regular season but Air Jordan wasn’t fazed about coming up against a pantheon of Boston greats on the grandest stage of all.
No. 23 was the next face of the league and this was the chance to prove it against one of the game’s greats in Larry Legend.
“Michael just had this supreme confidence about him,” Paxson remembers.
“He loved the big stage.”
“This is the opportunity to play against Larry Bird and the Celtics,” Jordan said.
“Man, this is showtime.”
“They took all the [minutes] limitations off [me] and it was like unleashing a wild dog.”
The offensive phenom, just 23 at the time, lit up the Celtics for 49 points in Game 1 of the best-of-three series — a 123-104 defeat.
“Our whole thing was just, ‘Do what we can to hold Michael down’”, Bird admitted.
“But you don’t hold the great ones down.”
Before Game 2, Jordan played golf with Celtics star Danny Ainge.
Mike lost money to Ainge and reportedly said, “Tell your boy DJ I got something for him tomorrow.”
Jordan went on to drop a playoff record (which still stands to this day) 63 points on Boston in a 2-OT loss.
“He was scoring at will,” said Bird.
“I just never stopped,” Jordan recalled. “I just took advantage of my youth and my energy.”
Jordan stunned Bird and the wider basketball world by averaging 56 points in the first two games of the series.
Three-time MVP Bird was so in awe of Jordan’s scoring prowess that he humorously threatened to retire should the 1985 Rookie of the year drop 77 points on the Celtics in Game 3.
“I couldn’t believe anybody could do that against the Boston Celtics,” Bird said after Game 2. “He won’t get 77 points on Tuesday. I’ll retire if he scores 77.”
Boston’s defense put the clamps on Mike in the pivotal Game 3. They restricted him to 19 points and made him foul out with over five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
Jordan averaged 44.7 points per game in the series, but was unable to prevent the Bulls from being swept, and later admitted Boston’s D was far too formidable for him to overcome.
“They were prepared for me,” Jordan said. “It seemed like every time I got the ball before I could make a move, they would send someone else at me. They played very good defense.”
“Nobody like him,” a victorious Bird told reporters at the time.
“Point blank. I’ve never seen anybody play like he plays, and you can include all of them.”
Magic Johnson echoed Bird’s words.
“Jordan is the most talented player in the NBA… by far,” the Lakers legend admitted in ’86.
MJ may have lost the series, but he won the hearts of fans and contemporaries, many of whom he deeply revered.
His performances during that series left an indelible mark on Bird, something ‘The Hick from French Lick’ remembers to this day.
“We ended up winning the series but it was an incredible performance,” Bird said during The Last Dance.
“I’ve never seen it before and I’ve never seen it after.
“That wasn’t Michael Jordan out there, that was God disguised as Michael Jordan.”
