{"id":94362,"date":"2025-06-12T20:12:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T20:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/94362\/"},"modified":"2025-06-12T20:12:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T20:12:14","slug":"i-wasnt-ready-michael-jordan-lost-confidence-and-was-angry-last-time-he-ever-lost-nba-playoff-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/94362\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I wasn’t ready’ – Michael Jordan lost confidence and was ‘angry’ last time he ever lost NBA playoff series"},"content":{"rendered":"

Believe it or not, Michael Jordan did lose in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

All anyone remembers is the six championships that Jordan won with the Chicago Bulls<\/a>, and the two separate three-peats.<\/p>\n

\"ORLANDO,<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Jordan wore #45 upon his initial returnCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

From 1991-1993 and 1996-1998, the NBA<\/a> was owned by Jordan and the Bulls.<\/p>\n

But what happened when his Airness momentarily retired after his first three-peat?<\/p>\n

He tried his luck at baseball<\/a>, which didn’t pan out for him, and subsequently returned to the Bulls in the middle of the 1995 season<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By then it was almost time for the postseason to begin.<\/p>\n

Being away from the court for a year and a half, doesn’t exactly lend itself to playing shape, as even Jordan found out.<\/p>\n

The last playoff series he ever lost in his career came a few months later.<\/p>\n

Jordan and the Bulls would fall to a young Shaquille O’Neal<\/a> and Orlando Magic<\/a> team in six games.<\/p>\n

However, despite his 18-month hiatus from the NBA, Jordan still averaged 31 points per game in the postseason that year.<\/p>\n

And the next three years after that?<\/p>\n

Three more championships, three more Finals MVPs and two more regular season MVPs.<\/p>\n

\"CHICAGO<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Jordan and the Bulls fell to O’Neal, who led the Magic all the way to the FinalsCredit: Getty\"Jordan<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Jordan let the 1995 playoff loss fuel him to three more titlesCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

Safe to say, Jordan was back like he had never left.<\/p>\n

But it did take him some time, something to which he admitted a few years after his return.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Ahmad Rashad in 1998, Jordan himself said he wasn’t ready.<\/p>\n

“Everyone questioned my ability because I basically took it all myself,” Jordan explained.<\/p>\n

“Come back to the game, physically I wasn\u2019t ready.”<\/p>\n

Even though he averaged 31 points per game that postseason, it was still clear that Jordan wasn’t in ‘Jordan-shape.’<\/p>\n

Humble superstar’ – Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will be bigger than Durant and Westbrook if OKC makes NBA history<\/p>\n

NBA’s Greatest<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

However, if you ask O’Neal about that series, he doesn’t want to hear excuses.<\/p>\n

During an episode of the Full Send Podcast back in 2021, O’Neal explained his stance.<\/p>\n

“I take pride in being the last guy to beat Michael Jordan<\/a> in a playoff situation,” O’Neal said.<\/p>\n

“Everybody\u2019s gonna say, \u2018Oh he came back from baseball.\u2019<\/p>\n

“But my thing is, and I know he has the same mentality, if you\u2019re on that court, that means you\u2019re ready to go.”<\/p>\n

It may have taken him a moment (or playoff series), but ask Bulls fans how the rest of the 90s unfolded and if they ever wondered whether Jordan would be Jordan again?<\/p>\n

Look at the trophy case and you’ll find your answer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Believe it or not, Michael Jordan did lose in the playoffs. All anyone remembers is the six championships…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94363,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3771],"tags":[20514,328,7,75,920,366,919,329,3824,1501,126,364,150,935,152,18148,6,191,179,76,279,1714,209,1302,278,18150,18149],"class_list":{"0":"post-94362","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bulls","8":"tag-20514","9":"tag-alex-caruso","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-boston-celtics","12":"tag-bulls","13":"tag-chet-holmgren","14":"tag-chicago","15":"tag-chicago-bulls","16":"tag-chicagobulls","17":"tag-finals","18":"tag-indiana-pacers","19":"tag-jalen-williams","20":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","21":"tag-michael-jordan","22":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","23":"tag-myles-tuner","24":"tag-nba","25":"tag-new-york-knicks","26":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","27":"tag-orlando-magic","28":"tag-pascal-siakam","29":"tag-rick-carlisle","30":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","31":"tag-shaquille-oneal","32":"tag-tyrese-haliburton","33":"tag-what-channel-is-the-nba-finals-on","34":"tag-what-time-is-the-nba-finals-on"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94362","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=94362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}