It was Luc’s night in his return to Pit
18,000 cheer him on in exhibition
Editor’s note: The following report on the Oct. 11, 1996, exhibition game in the Pit between the Chicago Bulls and the Seattle SuperSonics appeared in the following day’s Journal.
The chant started in the rafters and slowly made its way down to the court.
“We want Luc. We want Luc. We want Luc.”
Chicago Bulls center Luc Longley pretended to take off his warmup jacket and the crowd went wild. Then Bulls coach Phil Jackson walked over to Longley, whispered something, and the fans got even crazier.
“Coach was just playing around,” Longley said. “I wasn’t going back in. My knees already were iced.”
Longley, a former University of New Mexico star, had already given his fans plenty to cheer about. He scored 10 points, grabbed four rebounds and handed out five assists as the Bulls defeated the Seattle SuperSonics 120-113 Friday night in a preseason game at the Pit.
Bulls star Michael Jordan may
have received the louder ovation in introductions, but even he said, “This was Luc’s night.”
With the exception of the SuperSonics and the handful of the 18,018 fans who were cheering for them, everybody went home happy. It didn’t seem to matter that Bulls forward Scottie Pippen was a late scratch because of a sore left ankle.
Jordan, making his muchawaited Pit debut after skipping the Bulls’ 1992 exhibition here, scored 22 points. Bulls forward Dennis Rodman, his hair dyed magenta, threw two towels and his jersey into the crowd.
Even an exAggie found happiness in the Pit. Bulls guard Randy Brown scored eight points, the final two on a dunk after a steal with 16 seconds left that clinched the game.
As for the other team on this night, NBA Western Conference champion Seattle, there was a bit of indifference from the crowd. When the SuperSonics ran down the Pit ramp, there were just a few innocent claps. When the Bulls entered the arena, there was pandemonium.
During the pre-game introductions, the Bulls must have thought they were in Chicago as the Bulls theme song, by the Alan Parsons Project, blared out of the loadspeakers.
Longley didn’t bust out of the gates very fast, but, after all, he is a laid-back Aussie. It takes those mates a few minutes to get going. Longley’s first shot was blocked by Sonics center Jim McIlvaine.
“That was embarrassing,” Jackson said. “But then Luc got going. He played well. He didn’t try to do too much. He’s an unselfish player (read: five assists), and that’s why we got him.”
Longley made 5 of 10 shots from the field. He thrilled the fans with two 10-foot jumpers, a short hook and a finger roll.
“It’s really great to play here in front of this crowd,” Longley said. “I told my teammates how great this crowd is.”
Jordan never had seen a Pit crowd, although he has had chances. In 1983, his North Carolina Tar Heels lost to Georgia, one game short of the Final Four in Albuquerque. In 1992, Jordan was supposed to be here for a preseason game, but he never made it after having testified in a trial in Charlotte, N.C., the previous day.
“It was good to finally get here,” Jordan said. “The fans treated me really well. I’ll have to come back. I hear they’ve got some great golf courses here.”
The crowd cheered Jordan each time he touched the ball, but he showed that, at 33, he is a different type of player than he was when he was in his 20s. Jordan didn’t have a single dunk and once he opted for a layup on a solo trip to the hoop.
But Jordan’s jump shot was devastating. He made three jumpers and a pair of free throws in the final three minutes of the first half as the Bulls turned a 50-39 deficit into a 61-58 halftime lead.
Early in the second half, Jordan scored 11 points in a span of 5:24. All but two points came on jumpers.
Jordan, who played 22 minutes, checked out with 3:38 left in the third period and didn’t return. Longley, who played 19 minutes, said goodbye for the night with 2:41 left in the third.
Even though the score remained close in the fourth period, with no stars in the game, the crowd quieted down considerably. In fact, one could practically hear Robert Parish’s 43-year-old knees creak as he ran down the court.
But soon the cheers started for Longley, who sat at the far end of the bench with a huge smile on his face.
“Luc. Luc. Luc.”
There would be no encore for Longley. He had made his final, and maybe his last pro appearance at the Pit. Jackson seems to be in no hurry to bring the Bulls back to town.
“Probably not,” he said. “They’re just too crazy in Albuquerque. They’re not used to the show the Bulls bring.”