April 20 has more meaning than it being the official holiday of the stoners across the world. April 20, 1986 is when God was on Earth playing basketball and his name was Michael Jordan.
“God disguised as Michael Jordan.”
Those were Larry Bird’s exact words after Bird and the Boston Celtics defeated the 23-year-old Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in double overtime on April 20, 1986, 135-131, and took a 2-0 series lead on the Bulls.
(The series would end in three games, as the 67-win Celtics swept the Bulls right out of the Eastern Conference’s first round.)
The rest of Bird’s quote on MJ was pretty good, too:
"He is the most awesome player in the NBA. Today in Boston Garden, on national TV, in the playoffs, he put on one of the greatest shows of all time. I couldn`t believe anybody could do that against the Boston Celtics."
During the 30th anniversary of MJ’s 63 at the old Boston Garden last year, ESPN Stats & Info tracked Jordan’s performance and some of the stats they recorded were just amazing.
Here’s a list of a few, including one I personally noticed on my own at the end:
- Jordan shot 12-of-22 on pull-up jumpers
- MJ made eight of his 14 shot attempts on drives
- Jordan attempted a field goal against seven different defenders, including five Basketball Hall of Fame members
- Only three of Jordan’s 41 shot attempts were uncontested shots (Reminder: Jordan shot 53.7 percent from the field and didn’t shoot a single 3-pointer.)
- Hilarious number: Jordan actually led the Bulls with six assists that night
- The rest of Jordan’s teammates combined to score 68 points in the loss
To this day, Jordan’s 63 points are the most any NBA player has scored in a playoff game in any round. The closest anyone has come to that number recently was Allen Iverson all the way back in 2003 with the Philadelphia 76ers (55). Jordan scored 55+ points in a playoff game five times, including his 63-piece 31 years ago on Thursday.
You can watch the entire historic game here:
Or, if you just want the MJ-related version of the highlights, you can watch those here:
Oh, and one last thing on this: before Jordan dropped 63 points on the C’s in Game 2, he dropped 49 points in the Boston Garden in Game 1.
Next: It's time to hop on the Playoff Rajon Rondo Express
All of this happened after Jordan broke his foot in the third game of the 1985-86 season. It’s safe to say he had a future in this game, right?