{"id":730258,"date":"2026-05-10T02:06:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T02:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/730258\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T02:06:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T02:06:21","slug":"i-just-hope-it-doesnt-hurt-my-golf-game-michael-jordans-legendary-reaction-to-severing-a-finger-tendon-after-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/730258\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI just hope it doesn’t hurt my golf game\u201d – Michael Jordan\u2019s legendary reaction to severing a finger tendon after retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Michael Jordan<\/a> walked away from the NBA in 1999, it felt like a defining moment in the league\u2019s long history. Fresh off a sixth championship with the Chicago Bulls<\/a>, Jordan stood at the peak of basketball immortality.<\/p>\n

But behind his Last Dance was a lesser-known and almost bizarre twist: an offseason accident involving a cigar cutter that left him with a serious finger injury that required surgery.<\/p>\n

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It may sound trivial, but for a 35-year-old superstar whose dominance depended heavily on durability and precision, the setback could have dramatically altered whatever came next in his career.<\/p>\n

Freak injury<\/p>\n

The incident occurred shortly after the Bulls secured their sixth title against the Utah Jazz<\/a> in the 1998 Finals. While cutting a cigar, Jordan accidentally severed a tendon in his right index finger<\/a>.\u00a0The injury had a recovery timeline of roughly two months.<\/p>\n

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For most players, that timeline would already be concerning, but for Jordan, it could have been the first time he ever missed the start of a regular season because of an injury.<\/p>\n

At the time, regaining full feeling in the finger was not guaranteed even after recovery. And for a player as dependent as Jordan is in his durability at his age, the margin for physical setbacks was razor-thin.<\/p>\n

But despite the freak injury, Jordan said that he had decided to retire even before he severed the tendon. And even then, his focus was already away from basketball.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMy decision was reached long before this happened. The doctors said I couldn’t play for about two months,\u201d MJ stated<\/a>. \u201cI just hope it doesn’t hurt my golf game.”<\/p>\n

Had Jordan chosen not to retire, the injury would have almost certainly sidelined him at the start of the season. But while a lockout ultimately shortened that season, the timing still mattered, and it would have been interesting to see how His Airness would have performed after missing training camp and the early games<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Related: Stephen Curry breaks down why NBA players are underpaid: “What the league is doing is probably 10x that”<\/a><\/p>\n

The perfect ending<\/p>\n

Jordan has always maintained that his decision to retire after 1998 was independent of the injury. The breakup of the Bulls\u2019 championship core, along with tensions with the front office, played major roles. Still, the timing of the injury would have been an intriguing what-if.<\/p>\n

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Had he returned, the circumstances would have been far from ideal. The dynasty was already on the verge of collapse, with Scottie Pippen and head coach Phil Jackson leaving the Bulls.<\/p>\n

Even with Jordan healthy, a seventh championship would have been the most difficult thing he could have ever done in his career. Team owner Jerry\u00a0 Reinsdorf later acknowledged that the injury could have significantly hindered any realistic title pursuit.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Jordan’s end to his legendary Bulls career happened at arguably the perfect time. Multiple iconic moments and a perfect 6-0 record in the Finals have made his legacy arguably the best ever.<\/p>\n

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Related: How Magic Johnson convinced Larry Bird and Michael Jordan to join the Dream Team<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Basketball Network<\/a> on May 9, 2026, where it first appeared in the Off The Court<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Michael Jordan walked away from the NBA in 1999, it felt like a defining moment in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":730259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3771],"tags":[7,920,919,329,3824,32924,90514,935,6,90513,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-730258","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-finger-injury","14":"tag-freak-injury","15":"tag-michael-jordan","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-sixth-championship","18":"tag-utah-jazz"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116547838497904631","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730258","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=730258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}