{"id":58030,"date":"2025-05-26T19:55:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-26T19:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/58030\/"},"modified":"2025-05-26T19:55:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-26T19:55:12","slug":"how-michael-jordans-foul-trouble-was-beneficial-to-chicago-bulls-in-1991-nba-finals-reveals-magic-johnson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/58030\/","title":{"rendered":"How Michael Jordan’s ‘foul trouble’ was beneficial to Chicago Bulls in 1991 NBA Finals, reveals Magic Johnson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Magic Johnson reveals how Michael Jordan\u2019s foul trouble was a blessing in disguise for the Chicago Bulls.<\/p>\n

During the 1980s, the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> were the most dominant team in the NBA. After all, they won five NBA Championships during the \u2018Showtime\u2019 era.<\/p>\n

Led by the ever-so-charismatic Magic Johnson<\/a> and the brilliant Kareem Abdul-Jabbar<\/a>, the Lakers were a force to be reckoned with.<\/p>\n

However, during the 1991 NBA Finals, the Lakers met their match in the form of Michael Jordan<\/a> and the Chicago Bulls<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"ChicagoPhoto by Steve Dykes\/Getty ImagesMagic Johnson says Michael Jordan\u2019s Game 1 \u2018foul trouble\u2019 unlocked a special weapon for Bulls<\/p>\n

At the time, the Lakers were still viewed as a strong contender despite Abdul-Jabbar already being retired and Johnson entering the 30s.<\/p>\n

As for the Bulls, they had finally overcome their archrivals \u2013 the \u2018Bad Boys\u2019 Detroit Pistons<\/a>. According to Magic, the 1991 NBA Finals were already settled in Game 1 of the series.<\/p>\n

How? Well, legendary head coach Phil Jackson<\/a> was given a blessing in disguise in the form of Jordan\u2019s early foul trouble.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Scottie] Pippen did a great job on me. Once Michael got into early foul trouble [MJ committed five fouls in total], you had to expect they would make that switch,\u201d Johnson said, via New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were trying to wear me out or take the ball out of my hands, take your pick. Scottie is more physical than Michael so the matchup was a little different,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

While Johnson finished Game 1 with 19 points, 10 rebounds, and 11 assists, Scottie Pippen\u2019s<\/a> physical defense certainly did a number on him as he shot 4-of-5 from the field and relied more on free throws.<\/p>\n

Bulls won four straight after Game 1 defeat<\/p>\n

Despite suffering a 93-91 defeat in Game 1, coach Jackson knew Pippen defending Magic was the key to winning over the Lakers.<\/p>\n

It was initially supposed to be a secret, but in the next four games, the Bulls used the strategy to register a 4-1 series win over the Lakers.<\/p>\n

The 1991 NBA Finals victory officially marked the end of the Lakers dynasty as the Bulls would go on to win five more titles in the 1990s.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Magic Johnson reveals how Michael Jordan\u2019s foul trouble was a blessing in disguise for the Chicago Bulls. During…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3771],"tags":[7,920,919,329,3824,1409,150,2682,935,6,4106,3837,574],"class_list":{"0":"post-58030","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bulls","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bulls","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-bulls","12":"tag-chicagobulls","13":"tag-eastern-conference","14":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","15":"tag-magic-johnson","16":"tag-michael-jordan","17":"tag-nba","18":"tag-nba-legends","19":"tag-scottie-pippen","20":"tag-western-conference"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114575895786193201","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58030","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=58030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}