{"id":352768,"date":"2025-10-20T00:42:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T00:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/352768\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T00:42:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T00:42:10","slug":"michael-jordan-on-why-he-knew-bulls-would-win-1991-title-after-game-1-loss-vs-lakers-they-played-their-a-s-off-we-played-terrible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/352768\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Jordan on why he knew Bulls would win 1991 title after Game 1 loss vs. Lakers: “They played their a\u2014s off, we played terrible”"},"content":{"rendered":"

After three straight postseason exits at the hands of the Detroit “Bad Boys” Pistons, Michael Jordan<\/a> and the Chicago Bulls<\/a> finally got over the hump in 1991. They won their first NBA championship after defeating Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers in five games.<\/p>\n

However, it turns out that the championship series wasn’t a nerve-wracking experience for Jordan, regardless of his team’s previous shortcomings. In fact, he knew early into the finals that the Bulls would be crowned champions.<\/p>\n

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“In the first game against the Lakers,” Jordan said<\/a> in an interview with Playboy Magazine when asked when he knew Chicago would leave the series victorious.<\/p>\n

“They played their a\u2014es off, we played terrible, but we still had a chance to win down the stretch. That’s all we needed from that point on. That gave us our confidence. It was a moral victory for us in the first game. Then in the second game, we went right back and pounded them. Gave us that confidence back that we lost,” he added.<\/p>\n

1991 NBA Finals<\/p>\n

After a 93-91 Game 1 loss, the Bulls dominated the Lakers in Game 2, winning by 21 points \u2014 Jordan led the way with 33 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. The next game in Los Angeles went down to the wire, but the Bulls managed to survive in overtime. They comfortably won the next two contests, securing the first NBA championship in the organization’s history.<\/p>\n

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Jordan averaged 31.2 points, 6.6 rebounds, 11.4 assists, 2.8 steals and 1.4 blocks in his first NBA Finals. He shot 55.8 percent from the field and knocked down 84.8 percent of his free throws and was named NBA Finals MVP for his efforts.<\/p>\n

However, Jordan wasn’t the only person who deserved credit for the Bulls’ success.<\/p>\n

Scottie Pippen played a key two-way role in their victory by defending Johnson and limiting his impact on the Lakers’ offense. The legendary point guard even admitted that Jordan’s foul trouble in Game 2 might’ve won the Bulls a title<\/a> that year.<\/p>\n

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That’s when Phil Jackson decided to put Pippen as Johnson’s primary defender. And according to the Lakers legend, that move changed the series.<\/p>\n

“Pippen did a great job on me,”\u00a0Johnson\u00a0said<\/a>, per the New York Times.\u00a0“Once Michael got into early foul trouble, you had to expect they would make that switch.”<\/p>\n

Horace Grant went so far as to say that Pippen even deserved to win the 1991 Finals MVP<\/a> for his two-way efforts. However, it was Jordan who ultimately took home the award.<\/p>\n

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Related: LeBron James recalls issuing a firm warning to his financial advisor: “If you steal my money, it ain’t going to be good for you”<\/a><\/p>\n

Two three-peats<\/p>\n

After winning his first title in 1991, Jordan and the Bulls completed a three-peat, beating the Portland Trail Blazers in the 1992 Finals and the Phoenix Suns<\/a> in the 1993 Finals.<\/p>\n

The three-peat was something Jordan had his eyes on for years to establish his own legacy separate from Johnson and Larry Bird<\/a>‘s, the guys who dominated the NBA before he arrived.<\/p>\n

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“Personally, it was something that I was looking forward to to separate myself from Magic and Bird,” the Bulls legend told<\/a> Bob Costas of NBC. “They never did it, and I did it, and that makes me feel special, I believe.”<\/p>\n

Johnson won five titles in the 1980s, while Bird took home three. They never completed a three-peat, which became a trademark of Jordan’s run with the Bulls \u2014 they secured another one from 1996 to 1998, cementing themselves as arguably the greatest dynasty in NBA history.<\/p>\n

Related: “Magic, he’s just the greatest” – Michael Jordan admitted the Bulls underestimated the Lakers in the Finals<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Basketball Network<\/a> on Oct 19, 2025, where it first appeared in the Old School<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After three straight postseason exits at the hands of the Detroit “Bad Boys” Pistons, Michael Jordan and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3771],"tags":[12619,7,920,919,329,3824,296,251,150,2682,935,6,7289,472,297,471,3837],"class_list":{"0":"post-352768","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bulls","8":"tag-1991-nba-finals","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-bulls","11":"tag-chicago","12":"tag-chicago-bulls","13":"tag-chicagobulls","14":"tag-detroit","15":"tag-los-angeles","16":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","17":"tag-magic-johnson","18":"tag-michael-jordan","19":"tag-nba","20":"tag-nba-finals-mvp","21":"tag-phoenix-suns","22":"tag-pistons","23":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","24":"tag-scottie-pippen"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115403721521436884","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}