This is not how he had envisioned it. Michael Jordan’s legacy is one of dramatic moments, both self-imposed and otherwise, strung together in a seemingly never-ending supply of heroics.
This was a night for Steve Kerr and Dennis Rodman and Ron Harper and Luc Longley. A night for the Bulls as a team and as a franchise. It was a night for Chicagoans to watch television and to dream of another June.
And so, too, when all was said and done, was it so for Jordan.
“This is going to take some time to sink in,” he said after the Bulls’ historic 70th victory of the season Tuesday night, a night in which he shot 9 for 27 for 22 points. “After so many things I’ve done, after the national championships and NBA titles and gold medals, it’s too early to compare this.”
Jordan tipped the Bucks’ last shot by Johnny Newman with 13 seconds remaining. Steve Kerr hung on tight and the Bulls had a nerve-racking 86-80 decision and a conclusion to the biggest pregame hype since the last Super Bowl.
In the middle of it all, as always, was Jordan.
Clearly, he was trying too hard. You could see it in his face. Read it in his shot. Maybe the occasion was bigger than even he acknowledged. Or maybe he was simply trying to get it over with, something they all wanted more than anything.
Whatever the case, after shooting 6 for 10 in the first quarter for 12 points, he went 0 for 5 in the second and 3 for 8 in the third and 0 for 4 in the fourth. He would grab nine rebounds and get four assists.
“We put a lot of pressure on ourselves,” Jordan said. “We had a big sigh of relief afterward. Believe me, we were not disappointed at all.”
Jordan has always found a way to create his own challenges. And during a long regular season, an expanse of games and of time that he has often found difficult to fight through, he said the Bulls required more than a simple goal of 70 victories.
“Seventy was out there somewhere,” he said, “but we had to look in closer to find the motivation each and every night.”
The victory only adds to a career with enough accomplishments to cover a statue.
“Everybody already knows he’s going to go down as one of the greatest players of all time,” Ron Harper said of Jordan. “That’s not a problem. This just adds to what he’s done on the basketball floor.
“He loves to win. That means more to him than to go down in history. The way he trains, the way he comes to the gym every day to compete in every drill. I never saw him close up before (I came to the Bulls) but I always heard. Now I know.”
Jordan had avoided placing too much importance on winning 70 and breaking the NBA record set by the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers. But at the same time, it is clear that he considers it a major accomplishment.
“You don’t know about the pressure we have to deal with every night to play the game of basketball,” he said. “As much as you might say we have too many expansion teams and the league is diluted, you can also say there’s a lot of distractions around now. The way we look at is that we went out and put forth the effort and got 70 wins.”
And some day, when he really is retired, he may even be able to look back on one night in Milwaukee and savor this latest accomplishment.
“My focus is still to win the championship,” Jordan said. “It’s something that you can look back on after everything you’ve achieved, and you say, hey, that’s great and that ranks here or there or wherever it may be.”
