Long-time NBA big man Robert Horry still thinks the Chicago Bulls would’ve fallen short against the Rockets if MJ stuck around in 1994.
Really the only two years where the Chicago Bulls, at what would’ve been the height of their reign in the 1990’s, didn’t win NBA Championships were in 1994 and 1995. And that was a byproduct of the all-time great shooting guard Michael Jordan trying his hand playing baseball with the Chicago White Sox organization for one year. The Bulls were left with a team guided by the likes of the standout forward combination of Hall-of-Famer Scottie Pippen and Toni Kukoc.
During the 1993-94 season, the Bulls were led by Pippen as Jordan took the season off playing baseball. While that was a career year for Pippen, as he finished third in the MVP voting, it wasn’t quite enough to keep the Bulls afloat as NBA Champions. Pippen and the Bulls were ousted in the second round by the New York Knicks in seven games in the 1994 playoffs.
And in 1995, the Bulls still weren’t able to get over the hump after Jordan’s return in the Eastern Conference side of the playoff bracket. The Bulls were beat by the Orlando Magic in the second round of the 1995 playoffs once Jordan returned from his stint playing baseball.
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The team that won the NBA Championships in the two seasons where MJ was not on the Bulls for a full 82 games, or at all, was the Houston Rockets. Those were two really good Rockets teams, but the question is always asked whether they would’ve got past the Bulls if MJ didn’t ever play baseball.
Former Rockets big man and seven-time NBA Champion Robert Horry gave his thoughts on how the Bulls would’ve done with MJ in the lineup against Houston. Alongside fellow former NBA player Quentin Richardson on the “Knuckleheads” podcast earlier this week, Horry gave his opinion that the Rockets would’ve still stopped MJ and the Bulls short of winning a title if he didn’t play baseball.
Is this an accurate take?
It’s hard to know since the Rockets were a really good team, and the Bulls still fell short after MJ’s return to the Magic well before the NBA Finals during the 1995 playoffs. If MJ hadn’t changed his body the way he did to play baseball, the story might’ve been different. But this is all speculation any way you look at it.
The Bulls did get their fourth title of the 1990’s one full year after Jordan’s return from playing baseball when they beat the Seattle SuperSonics to win the 1996 NBA Finals.