History reminds us there are brighter days ahead for sports fans
Recalling Jordan’s brilliant 1995 return to NBA provides hope in these dark times
These aren’t fun times for sports fans. Perhaps looking back to one of the top pump-your-fist and yell-out-loud periods of the last three decades might help.
Despite the worldwide popularity of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, basketball was an afterthought in Canada in the early 1990s. Sure, you could watch triple-headers on NBC on Sunday, and maybe get a few minutes of highlights a night on a few channels, but it was nothing like today. Few households had the internet or even knew what it was, and the Toronto Raptors and Vancouver Grizzlies were on the way — but not yet members of the NBA lodge.
Despite all that, when Jordan sent a fax on March 18, 1995 saying, “I’m back,” there were thousands of Canadians sports fans who were ecstatic to hear the news.
Everyone has a favourite athlete and Jordan was easily mine. Jordan was the reason I fell in love with and started watching and playing basketball. He was the spark that led to a career covering professional hoops.
You see, I was devastated when Jordan, the most spectacular and dominant athlete on the planet, walked away from the game on Oct. 6, 1993., citing various reasons, including the murder of his father.
The Blue Jays would win a second straight playoff game against the White Sox that night, making it a particularly tough day for supporters of Chicago sports.
The words he spoke that day were seared into my brain as I snuck my Walkman (it was a long time ago) into history class and got caught trying to listen to his news conference. Getting kicked out of class, while unplanned, happily allowed me to hear how things unfolded.
“I’ve always stressed to people that when I lose the sense of motivation, it’s time for me to move on. I’ve reached the pinnacle and I’ve achieved a lot in a short period. I don’t have anything else to prove,” Jordan said then.
“Everyone wants to know if my father’s death has anything to do with this. Well, I was kind of leaning in this direction before, and he knew this. So it didn’t alter my decision, but in some ways, it made it simpler. What my father’s death made me realize is how short life is, and how it can be taken from you in a minute.”
While it was fair to hold out some hope, it sure sounded like Jordan was done.
When he eventually took up baseball, it seemed as though he had found a replacement for basketball, and that was that.
Except it wasn’t. Which is why “I’m back” thrilled so many of us.
When he quit, Jordan had finally broken through as a winner, having already established himself as one of the greatest singular talents of all-time. He led the Bulls to three titles in a row, the NBA’S first three-peat since the 1960s. He had won seven scoring titles in a row and wasn’t even 30 yet. It had a Jim Brown feel for those a generation older.
There was always the dream
Air Jordan would fly again.
But we’d gone so long thinking that was just a fantasy, that even whispers about legendary pickup games during his baseball sojourn just felt like faint hope.
But then Jordan shut down his dreams of playing Major League Baseball on March 10, in large part because he didn’t want to be a replacement player (the MLB strike ended later that month). Hope built that he would save the mediocre Bulls and a league that had dipped significantly in popularity without its top player and salesman.
Not even a full day after his fax, Jordan was in the lineup sporting a new number (No. 45, the same digits he wore as a White Sox minor leaguer). Sure, he looked as rusty as an old locomotive, missing 21 of 28 shots as the Bulls fell in overtime to Indiana, but nobody cared. It isn’t often that a living legend returns after missing 1.5 years of action.
Jordan scored 27 points at Boston in Game 2, nailed the game-winner, and scored 32 against Atlanta soon after that.
He didn’t need a piece of paper to declare he was truly back when, three days after the win over the Hawks, he dropped 55 on the Knicks at Madison Square Garden, the most points by anyone in Gotham since 1965.
Jordan and the once middling Bulls looked great down the stretch, but were upset in Round 2 of the post-season by Shaquille O’neal, Penny Hardaway and the Orlando Magic.
The loss fuelled Jordan and spurred on a second Bulls threepeat.
And it all started with a couple of words that were short and to the point.
A day is going to come soon enough when everybody’s favourite athlete and team returns to action.
That glorious March day a quarter of a century ago reminds me just how sweet it will feel.