It was 25 years ago on Saturday that Michael Jordan dropped 35 points in one half of play during Game 1 of the 1992 NBA Finals against Clyde Drexler and the Portland Trail Blazers.
Believe it or not, there was a hot debate before Game 1 of the 1992 NBA Finals between Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls and Clyde Drexler and the Portland Trail Blazers as to which team had the best player.
It didn’t take Jordan long to show who was the better player. Actually, it took about 24 minutes to show the world that Jordan was the best player in the series and in the world.
Jordan hit six (!) 3-pointers in the first half and dropped 35 points on Drexler and the Blazers, as the Bulls took a 15-point lead into the break, 66-51. Things got even uglier in the second half, as the Bulls scored 38 points in the third quarter after Jordan’s onslaught and went on to take a 1-0 series lead with a 122-89 thrashing of the Western Conference’s best team.
Of course the story of the night was Michael Jordan and the famous shrug after his sixth 3 of the half.
Jordan only scored four points in the second half, but the damage was done in the first two quarters of the series. Despite not being known as a guy that could hit the outside shot in his first eight seasons where he shot 28.4 percent from 3-point range, Jordan set Portland ablaze during the opening half of the series. It’s still seen today as one of the greatest performances in the history of the NBA Finals.
The Bulls would fall in Game 2, but took three of the next four games and won their second consecutive title in six games.
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The title won in 1992 was one of three titles that the Bulls won at home and it was lone title clinched by the Bulls at the old Chicago Stadium, one of the loudest buildings in all of sports before it was torn down in 1994.