Michael Jordan is todayhui still seen as being untouchable in the playoffs. It must be said that with 6 rings in 6 Finals, he has known very little defeat during his prime… In fact, there is only one man who managed to bring down the Bulls after their first title ! And he is very proud of it.
Michael Jordan has long struggled in the playoffs, especially because of Bad Boys from Detroit, a rough team and two-time champion who stood in their way with panache… But from the moment the No. 23 managed to break the lock , he was simply unstoppable. The proof, he won 6 rings in 6 participations in the Finals, and still today he is the best scorer in the history of the postseason with 33.5 points average!
What we often tend to forget, however, is that during his reign with the Bulls, MJ suffered an elimination in the playoffs against a legendary team of the 90s: the Magic of Shaquille O’Neal and Penny Hardway! It was during the 1994-1995 campaign, when he had just returned from his baseball interlude. In the Full Send Podcast, Diesel returned to this series with great pride.
I am very proud to be the last to beat Michael Jordan in the playoffs. I know everyone is going to say he was coming back right after his baseball stint, but for me if you step on the field, and I know he shares that mindset, you’re ready to play and give everything. The next season he came back, tore us apart, and did everything he could so that we didn’t win a single game in the series.
I’m sure he was rusty when he came back, but he wasn’t bad. I sincerely think we should have won the title that year. The problem is that in Orlando we were young and dumb, and most of the time we were fighting for titles that were useless. With Penny Hardaway, we both wanted to be # 1 in the locker room.
Shaquille O’Neal can be proud of him because he had been excellent in this famous conference semi-final, with 24.3 points, 13.2 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 blocks on average! He was clearly the driving force behind the Magic, and Michael Jordan’s 31 points per game were not enough to destabilize him! Unfortunately for Diesel and his teammates, after a victory in the conference final against Indiana, they suffered a terrible sweep against the Rockets of Hakeem Olajuwon …
Shaquille O’Neal had to wait to leave Orlando to taste the title… But he didn’t leave without accomplish great things, since few of them have eliminated MJ!
