Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls flew to Paris, France, to participate in the 1997 McDonald’s Championship. The three-day tourney served as pre-season tune-ups for the Bulls, who were preparing to defend their title in the 1997-98 NBA season.
Apart from the Bulls, teams that competed in the 8th edition of the tournament were Paris Basket Racing (or PSG Racing) from France, Olympiacos Piraeus from Greece, Atenas de Cordoba from Argentina, Benetton Treviso from Italy, and FC Barcelona from Spain.
Almost an upset
Chicago faced PSG, and many analysts thought it would be a walk in the park. However, the Bulls played the game shorthanded: defensive ace Scottie Pippen was out recovering from surgery, while master rebounder Dennis Rodman was still negotiating a contract with the team. To make matters worse, Jordan played with an infected toe and was in pain for the entire game.
PSG looked good the entire game. They slowed down Jordan for a bit by playing rough and tough defense. But soon, the NBA Champions figured things out. MJ dropped 28 points en route to a 89-82 victory over PSG.
After the game, Jordan expressed his dissatisfaction with his team’s performance but was nevertheless pleased with the victory.
“If we were playing in the league the way we were playing tonight, there is no way we win the ball game. Fortunately, we played a team that seemed to be more nervous than we were,” Jordan said, via nba.com.
Bulls head coach Phil Jackson, too, voiced out his concerns about his team’s performance. He wanted the others to fill in the void left by Pippen and Rodman.
“Someone else is going to have to fill it up, and if Michael has to take it up, it’s going to put a lot of pressure on him to play under duress,” Jackson said.
Starstruck
After escaping PSG, the Bulls booked a ticket to the finals against Greek powerhouse Olympiacos. Chicago looked like Chicago in this one. They cruised to win the tourney by beating Olympiacos, 104-78. Team star Arturas Karnisovas, currently the Bulls’ vice president of basketball operations, recalls facing MJ at the peak of his basketball skill and popularity.
“It wasn’t fun guarding MJ,” said Karnisovas. “Everyone else guarded him but me. I was mainly on Toni. Everyone tried to get in a photo shot with MJ.”
Jordan played just 29 minutes but scored 27 points to lead all scorers. He was pleased they won the entire thing, but was also concerned for the fans.
“I hope the fans have been pleased, even for the little time I was on the court for,” Jordan said. “I hope I made some kind of impact”.
The Bulls’ subpar performance in the 1997 McDonald’s Championship wasn’t a preview of their 1997-98 season. They knew there was a great chance it would be their last season together.
The team was hungrier than ever to win another championship and walk off into the sunset on top of the basketball world. They did just that by beating the Utah Jazz in six games with Jordan nailing one of the greatest clutch baskets in history.