It’s crazy to think that there was a point in time where the Chicago Bulls‘ front office could’ve even considered parting ways with the all-time great shooting guard Michael Jordan during his playing days in the 1990s. The Bulls did let Jordan walk following the conclusion of the 1997-98 title-winning season, and that still doesn’t look like a great move in hindsight.
This does appear to be the case, though, that Jordan could’ve landed with another big market storied franchise in the Eastern Conference during the 1990s. According to a report from NBC Sports Boston from 2020, there was an idea going around that the Boston Celtics could make a push to land Jordan after the first of three retirements from him in the NBA.
And a recent interview on SiriusXM NBA Radio with the former Celtics general manager and coach M.L. Carr, it was noted that Boston really tried to talk Jordan into coming to the team in the mid-1990s.
Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan was reportedly a target of the Celtics in the mid-1990s
Michael Jordan was almost a Boston Celtic?
— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) November 14, 2021
Former Celtics player, coach, and general manager M.L. Carr tells @DarthAmin and @adaniels33 he tried to convince the Bulls to let him talk to MJ after Michael retired. pic.twitter.com/8PQcDymTmc
The exact timeline of when the Celtics looked to try to convince Jordan to play for them was around the time when he tried his hand at playing baseball in the Chicago White Sox organization. Upon his return to the NBA, it sounds like the Celtics really courted him to come to Boston instead of coming back to Chicago.
Obviously, nothing came of this in reality. The only other team Jordan would play for other than the Bulls during his NBA career was the Washington Wizards in the early 2000s. He played from 2001-2003 with the Wizards, but he was already an executive with that franchise before his final stretch of actually playing in the NBA in his career.
Jordan did face some very tough competition from the Celtics early in his NBA career in the 1980s. But it was definitely not the brightest of days for the Celtics in the mid-to-late 1990s. After the 1992-93 season, the Celtics didn’t have a single winning campaign throughout the rest of the decade. That’s likely one of the major reasons that led them to push to sign Jordan after he ended his baseball career.
After Jordan returned to the Bulls after his run playing baseball ended, he would win three more titles and get roughly a half-dozen more All-Star selections. Returning with the Bulls looked to be the right move for Jordan in hindsight.