Chicago Bulls: Michael Jordan learned to play piano in 1998 NBA Finals

Apparently Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan spent some of his off time during the 1998 NBA Finals teaching himself to play the piano.

Interesting tidbits about Chicago Bulls legends like Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen have come out from various stories during a slow news cycle in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic-induced NBA season hiatus. One of the most recent to come about is from Bulls reporter K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago. A video from Fanatics View emerged of Johnson earlier this week detailing how the Bulls biggest star in franchise history learned how to play the piano in the midst of the 1998 NBA Finals.

A lot of focus and energy is being put into the Jordan years, especially that last title run in 1997-97. Due to the ESPN documentary that is about to release, stories like this one about Jordan learning to play the piano during the 1998 NBA Finals in a bit of a different way will continue to pour in.

There will be a lot of tidbits that should surface regarding the likes of Jordan, Pippen, and those dynasty Bulls teams from the 1990’s when ESPN’s documentary ‘The Last Dance’ premiers this coming weekend on April 19. The Last Dance is one of the most anticipated shows for sports fans of the year, if not the most anticipated overall.

However, this is a very interesting tidbit from Johnson when he was covering the Bulls beat as a writer for the Chicago Tribune in the late 1990’s. He stated that Jordan “wheeled a grand piano” into his room in the 1998 NBA Finals to give himself a new challenge that would also help him mellow out.

This is just another set of evidence that Jordan enjoyed whatever challenge he could get his hands on. He went this far out of his way to get a piano to his room in the midst of the last run he had to the NBA Finals, and the Bulls still won the title that year.

In the 1998 NBA Finals, Jordan and the Bulls downed John Stockton, Karl Malone and the Utah Jazz in six games. That was not only the final run that Jordan and the Bulls would make to the NBA Finals with all those great dynasty teams of the 1990’s, but it would be the last of his playing career.

Jordan would take his talents to join the Washington Wizards front office, and then play two more years there. He was an All-Star selection twice more, but didn’t get close to making another NBA Championship run in the nation’s capital in the early 2000’s.