Michael Jordan knew that to be the best, he had to beat the best.
‘His Airness’ entered the league in 1984 off the back of a national title in college, but the NBA was a different step up and still very much Magic Johnson and Larry Bird‘s world.
Magic and Bird dominated the 1980s, winning eight championships between them (five Lakers, three Celtics), and reinvigorating the NBA on a global scale.
During that time, a hungry young Chicago Bull by the name of Michael Jeffrey Jordan was cutting his basketball teeth and establishing himself as the next man up.
A 23-year-old MJ scored a playoff record 63 points on Bird’s legendary 1986 Celtics in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series.
“God disguised as Michael Jordan” was Bird’s only explanation for Jordan’s otherworldly heroics.
By 1991, Jordan was ‘the man’ while Bird and Magic were in the twilight of their careers.
‘Air Jordan’ had won multiple scoring titles and received one MVP and one Defensive Players of the Year award, but a championship ring still eluded him.
The ‘Bad Boy’ Detroit Pistons made sure of that, but once that challenge was overcome, Jordan’s opportunity for a title was there for the taking.
Magic and Bird may have been on the wane, but Mike wanted to win his first chip while they were still in the league.
Why?
Because he knew that if he were to get the legends’ respect, he had to get it done with them still around.
“There was no way I was going to get into their circle without winning a championship when at least one of them was still on top,” said Jordan.
“Magic and Larry had been the kings of the 1980s in terms of championships.”
Jordan recognized that beating Magic’s Lakers or Bird’s Celtics would give his legacy undeniable legitimacy.
Getting it done in the Finals is one thing, but getting it done against a veritable Hall of Famer and living legend is another.
“By going through the Lakers, there was nothing anyone could say,” added Jordan.
“If both of them had been gone by the time we started winning championships, I’m sure there would have been talk about how I hadn’t been able to beat Magic and Larry in their prime.”
Fortunately for Jordan, he got his wish.
Magic’s Lakers beat the Portland Trail Blazers in the 1991 Western Conference Finals, setting up a mouth-watering championship series against Jordan’s Bulls.
It was Michael Jordan’s first NBA Finals appearance, and Johnson’s last, and there were no doubts about whose league it was once the series was over.
The Bulls would win the series, 4–1. Jordan averaged 31.2 points on 56 percent shooting to go along with 11.4 assists, 6.6 rebounds, 2.8 steals en route to his first NBA Finals MVP Award.
The Holy Trinity of NBA superstars eventually got to team up when suited up for Team USA at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, although co-captain Bird only played a bit part role.
The iconic ‘Dream Team’ captured a gold medal that summer and Bird retired later that year, admitting to Johnson, “Magic, you know, you and I were then, and Michael Jordan is now.”
Jordan always had a deep reverence for Magic and Bird, but in order to eclipse their legacy, he knew he had to do something they never managed — win three championships in a row.
Johnson’s purple and gold managed back-to-back titles in 1987 and 1988, but they could never pull off the three-peat.
In fact, the only team up until that point that had won more than two titles in a row was Bill Russell’s Celtics, who rattled off eight straight titles between 1959 and 1966.
In the end, MJ managed what Magic and Bird couldn’t, not once, but twice.
His Bulls won two separate three-peats in the 1990s — the first between 1991-1993 and the second between 1996-1998.
No. 23 went a perfect 6-0 in NBA Finals, winning six Finals MVPs and cementing his status as the greatest to ever do it.
Even Larry Legend admitted Jordan was a force of nature unlike anything he’d ever been seen before.
“Michael Jordan was and is a completely different type of player from anyone I had seen before,” The Hick from French Lick once said of Jordan.
“He’s literally on a different level. Magic and I do all our stuff on the floor. When I first saw Michael play, I recognized there was a different era coming in.”
Jordan was ultimately able to join Magic and Bird’s winning circle while transcending both, on and off the court.
