UnstoppaBulls
Pacers McKey, West reflect on Game 7 against Jordan, ‘Last Dance’ Bulls
Michael Jordan was going to find a way to win. We know about the last-second shot against Cleveland. We know about his willingness to make the right pass against Utah. But it’s all the little things that get overlooked.
Somehow, some way, Jordan had five offensive rebounds and six second-chance points in Chicago’s 88-83 win over the Indiana Pacers in Game 7 of the 1998 Eastern Conference Finals — perhaps the most difficult series of the championship run depicted in the ESPN documentary series “The Last Dance.”
“You know what the crazy thing is?” said Mark West, a reserve on that Pacers squad. “We had a very good defensive team that could rebound the ball, and that was a game where we could not keep them off the offensive boards. … The thing that we did best, we didn’t do well. I think that killed us.”
The Pacers’ Derrick McKey, left, and Reggie Miller, center, try to guard Michael Jordan during Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals on May 31, 1998. AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES, ILLUSTRATION BY MARC JENKINS/USA TODAY NETWORK
“At the end of the day, because they knew that this was ‘The Last Dance,’ they may have reached down just a little bit more than we did. Because they knew this would be the last time they would all be together.”
Derrick McKey
Ex-Pacers SF whose team lost to Bulls in 1998 Eastern Conference Finals
‘You leave yourself vulnerable’
The Bulls had 22 offensive boards that game, led by Scottie Pippen (6) and Jordan (5). It was a series-high total for the team and each player.
Derrick McKey has an idea of what went wrong for his Pacers.
“It happens a lot when you play against really good players,” the defensive-minded forward said. “You just get out of your comfort zone, or you’re doing something different, or you’re focusing more on that guy or those guys; you leave yourself a little vulnerable on the weak side or … you leave yourself vulnerable in other places.
“You can’t say it’s anybody’s fault. But when it happens, it seems like everybody is off a little bit. Your shoulders just drop powerfully.”
There couldn’t have been a more deflating moment than when McKey contested a Jordan jumper from the wing with just about a minute left in the game. The Bulls were up 87-83, and the shot clock was winding down. McKey had denied Jordan from catching post entry passes in his pet spots. Jordan settled for a jumper with the shot clock winding down and the ball hit back iron and bounced to the far side of the court — right to Ron Harper.
“That was just like a nail in the coffin,” West said. “It was like, ‘come on.’ It was like Mr. Murphy (of Murphy’s Law infamy) was right there with us. Ball here. Ball there. Tip here. Tip there.”
West, who also faced Jordan and the Bulls as a member of the ’93 Suns, said he was proud of how his team competed.
“I was kind of like a frontline cheerleader,” West said. “But I think we don’t have any regrets. I think we left it all on the court. It was a great team. Great players.”
‘I think I did the right thing’
Maybe McKey wishes he had a play back.
Maybe.
He took Indiana’s last shot, a three-pointer trailing 87-83 with about 17 second left.
“I think I did the right thing,” he said. “But as I was taking the shot, I saw Reggie (Miller) coming off a screen … he had a good look, but at the time I wasn’t thinking about that.”
In the moment, he didn’t see it. All he saw was the opportunity in front of him. He didn’t even realize that Miller would have been open until he watched a replay of the game recently.
“Normally, I would have waited and made that play,” he said. “Because I don’t think I missed him too many times throughout the years that I was playing with him.”
But it was late in the game and the clock was ticking, and McKey took the shot.
He missed.
Michael Jordan secured the rebound. He finished with 28 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists. But it was his offensive rebounding, especially in the fourth quarter, that carried his team.
McKey wasn’t thinking about the possibility that a win might have sent Jordan into retirement with a rare playoff loss.
“For me, I was more in the moment,” he said.
But he thinks legacy was an added motivation for Chicago.
“At the end of the day,” McKey said, “because they knew that this was ‘The Last Dance,’ they may have reached down just a little bit more than we did. Because they knew this would be the last time they would all be together.”
He regrets it for the people of Indiana as much as anything else.
“It’s true what they say about it,” he said. “Indiana is a basketball state.”
Still, there’s no shame in the loss.
Michael Jordan was going to find a way to win.