DOUBLE NICKEL TURNS 20!
News recalls night Michael returned to Garden with 55-point masterpiece
Looking back at it now, 20 years later, Pat Riley isn’t even sure Michael Jordan cared much whether he beat the Knicks that night. The NBA’s ultimate competitor just had a point to prove − to himself, and to everyone at the Garden.
“That game was surreal,” Riley remembered. “Michael Jordan wanted to use the platform of Madison Square Garden and New York City to show the world and everyone he was back, and still the best. Beating us was secondary.”
Whether or not it was his top priority, Jordan defeated Riley and the Knicks on March 28, 1995, 113-111, producing a masterpiece that Spike Lee would dub the “Double Nickel.” It was a 55-point game, on 21-for-37 shooting, crowned with a game-winning assist to Bill Wennington with 3.1 seconds left. After nearly two years away from basketball, after dabbling fruitlessly and foolishly with baseball’s Birmingham Barons, Jordan’s greatness had not been dimmed.
Many had thought otherwise, which only fueled Jordan’s resolve. Jordan was now 32 years old. This was his fifth game back from an aborted retirement, and he had performed unevenly in previous efforts. He’d scored just 19 points on 7-for-28 shooting at Indiana in his first game, and was 7-for-23 for 21 points in his home debut against Orlando. The Bulls split his first four games. Then the schedule did Jordan a great favor, brought him to his favorite stage, the Garden, on a Tuesday night.
From the moment Jordan announced his return to the sport, the date was circled in red by the city’s basketball fans. The Knicks were still riding high after coming within one win of the championship in 1994. A sellout crowd of 19,763 was assured, along with the A-list celebrities who these days no longer bother with the lowly Knicks. Jordan talked about all this before the game, how he loved playing at the Garden and how the matchup would be a measuring stick for him.
“This game is very important for me from a confidence standpoint,” Jordan said. “In four games, I’ve been struggling. There’s not been much to give me confidence. I’ve got to go to the basket. I’m trying to get my skills back.”
This Knick team was renowned for its defensive prowess, which only made Jordan’s feat more remarkable. Jeff Van Gundy, an assistant under Riley at the time, said the Knicks didn’t do anything extraordinary that night. Only Jordan did.
“Our plan was pretty much the same as a lot of people’s at that point,” Van Gundy said. “We tried to singlecover him as long as we could, then come late to double, try to get him to go to his left. He had seen similar
defenses for a long time. We had (John) Starks on him. We would put (Anthony) Mason on him, try to push Jordan out of the post, make him go out on the perimeter.”
Jordan penetrated anyway, and when he couldn’t do that he hit three-pointers. Single coverage wasn’t working, and yet the Knicks led the Bulls by six at the half. Chicago put together a 12-2 run midway through the fourth quarter, and then Jordan made the difference down the stretch. He buried a short jumper off a pump fake for a 111-109 lead. After Starks converted a pair of free throws to tie the score with 14.6 seconds left, Jordan dribbled downcourt.
Everyone figured that Phil Jackson wanted Jordan to take the final shot, and that Jordan wanted Jordan to take the final shot.
“Michael gets the ball, goes off a screen on the right side,” Wennington recalled. “Patrick (Ewing) was guarding me on the left side. Then Patrick left me for the double-team. I fully expected Michael to shoot the ball. But I was taught well by my high school and college coaches. If you get the ball alone under the basket, you go up and dunk it. Michael gave me the ball and I dunked it. I remember thinking, ‘What was Patrick doing, leaving me?’ ”
Following his jump-pass assist, Jordan pressured a desperate Starks into losing the ball as the clock ran out.
“It wasn’t quite like a seventh game, but pretty close to it,” Jackson said at the time. “It was like the official coronation of his return as the king. It became more of a spectacle. He amazes me.” Van Gundy finds that night more remarkable now than ever. The Knicks had defended Jordan with everything legally possible under the more permissive rules of the 1990s. They held him. They hand-checked. They grabbed. They bumped Jordan on the cut. Nobody did this better than Starks, Mason and Charles Oakley.
“That game, against one of the best defenses, was one of the greatest accomplishments I’ve ever witnessed,” Van Gundy said. “To score that effectively, he had to bring it. The game was officiated so differently. Fiftyfive points then was like 75 now. The game was so much more physical.”
After the game, Jordan was asked what he could do for an encore.
“I don’t know,” he said, smiling. “That’s the fun thing about it. Tomorrow, you don’t know what I can do.”
All he did was win three more NBA championships and two more league MVPs. It turned out the Double Nickel was just another prelude.
That game was surreal. Michael Jordan wanted to use the platform of Madison Square Garden and New York City to show the world and everyone he was back, and still the best. Beating us was secondary.
PAT RILEY