Michael Jordan’s Shrug Game Turns 25 Years Old

By
Zach Cronin
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In 1992, Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls were playing in their second-straight Finals and delivered a moment we’ll never forget. 

From 1985 to 1992, Jordan was just a 28.4 percent three-point shooter. Over the 589 games that he played, there were just 206 made threes — yes, in eight seasons, Jordan barely made 200 threes. For perspective, this season alone saw 11 guys bury more than 200 triples, and eight of them surpassed 206.

Times have changed since then, and Jordan was never a player to heavily incorporate a three-point shot. He was too quick and too athletic to settle for long jumpers. However, on June 3, 1992, Jordan shocked everybody by making six threes in the first half of Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Portland Trail Blazers.

It was just one of those nights. Jordan could do no wrong, and there was nothing that the Blazers could’ve done to stop him. He was left open a bunch of times, and superstars aren’t going to miss open jumpers.

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He finished with 39 points on 16-of-27 shooting, and the Bulls won in commanding fashion, 122-89. They went on to win the series in six games with MJ averaging 35.8 points, 6.5 assists and 4.8 rebounds. After hitting six triples in the first meeting, His Airness went on to make just six more over the final five. It was a perfect case of giving what the defense gave you — actually, scratch that: it was a perfect case of taking whatever you wanted and not letting the defense do anything about it.

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