{"id":9611,"date":"2025-05-05T03:37:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T03:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/9611\/"},"modified":"2025-05-05T03:37:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T03:37:09","slug":"it-was-a-dumb-shot-when-mj-horribly-air-balled-a-game-tying-shot-against-the-new-jersey-nets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/9611\/","title":{"rendered":"“It was a dumb shot” – When MJ horribly air-balled a game-tying shot against the New Jersey Nets"},"content":{"rendered":"

For all his greatness, Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan<\/a> also missed clutch shots. Against the New Jersey Nets<\/a> in March 1997, the “Black Cat” airballed a game-tying shot, which would’ve been added to his expansive highlight reel. Mike broke down what went wrong in that potential game-tying shot from 15 feet.<\/p>\n

“The last shot wasn’t my favorite,” Jordan said<\/a>, per the Los Angeles Times. “I thought I could create a foul, but at the last moment, I took the fadeaway. It was a dumb shot.”<\/p>\n

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The shot could’ve tied the game at 97 all. Xavier McDaniel<\/a> grabbed the defensive rebound and was fouled by Scottie Pippen. “X-Man” knocked down the two free throws, which proved to be the game-winning baskets. Jordan’s 36 points on 16-of-34 shooting went to waste.<\/p>\n

Another botched game-winner<\/p>\n

Another one of Jordan’s lowlights was from 1992 during a regular-season game against the Los Angeles Lakers. Even though Magic Johnson had abruptly retired due to HIV, it was still considered a big game given that the two super teams met in the 1991 NBA Finals, with the Bulls prevailing in five games.<\/p>\n

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MJ showed up prepared and exploded for 54 points. He even knocked down a tough fadeaway that tied the game in overtime. With 5.4 seconds left, a defensive lapse left Vlade Divac wide open, and Michael, the nearest defender, had no choice but to foul. The Serbian center knocked down both shots, which put the Purple & Gold up 120-118.<\/p>\n

With 2.2 seconds left, the Bulls<\/a> had a chance to tie the game and go for the win. The Phil Jackson-led squad opted for the latter, but his ace shooting guard botched the chance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I had a good shot, and that’s all you can ask for. I knew when I released it that it wasn’t going in. I was kind of hoping for a curveball,” Jordan said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Adjustments<\/p>\n

Mike took these heartbreaking failures and turned them into life-changing lessons. As the adage goes, one must fail to succeed. In Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals against the Utah Jazz, the 6’6″ shooting guard combined all the lessons he learned from those sorry misses and integrated them into his shot<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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“Ironically, I have problems going to my right for a stop, pull-up jumper because I have a tendency to come up short,” Jordan wrote<\/a> in his book, “For the Love of the Game: My Story.” “I normally fade a little, but on this shot, I didn’t want to fade because all my jump shots had been short.”<\/p>\n

That little tweak was pivotal. The shot proved to be the game-winning basket, which gave Mike his sixth NBA Championship. It was the perfect ending to Michael’s Bulls career. And it wouldn’t have been possible if he missed game-winning baskets, turned the ball over, misread plays, and committed other errors. MJ needed to make those mistakes to learn how to win. Jordan needed to lose before being a champion.<\/p>\n

Related: “Even the greatest golfers in the world miss a putt now and then” – Michael Jordan’s excuse in a rare game where he could not deliver in the clutch<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For all his greatness, Chicago Bulls legend Michael Jordan also missed clutch shots. Against the New Jersey Nets…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3771],"tags":[7,920,919,329,3824,150,935,6,2337,4247,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-9611","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-los-angeles-lakers","14":"tag-michael-jordan","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-new-jersey-nets","17":"tag-shot","18":"tag-utah-jazz"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114453141567398336","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9611","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=9611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}