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How Michael Jordan got his revenge against the Orlando Magic
Michael Jordan retired for the first time in 1993 and announced his return to the NBA on March 18, 1995, with just a few weeks left in the regular season.
Jordan was away from the league for 21 months; his conditioning wasn’t adequate back then.
The Chicago Bulls made the playoffs and eliminated the Hornets in four games in the first round, but they faced a young, talented Magic team in the second round and lost the series in six games. Jordan made two costly turnovers in the final minutes of Game 1 and everything went downhill.
After the series, Jordan’s trainer, Tim Grover told him, “Let me know when you want me to see you.” Jordan’s four-word response was, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
The summer that changed everything
Jordan dedicated the entire summer to becoming the best player in the NBA once again. He asked Grover to help him get his body ready, and he had no days off while filming Space Jam, his first movie role.
It was an eventful and critical summer because he had to find a way to devote himself to filming the movie while preparing for the next NBA season. Jordan determined that he would be part of Space Jam if he had a place to work out and practice. Warner Bros. agreed to his demand and built the ‘Jordan Dome.’
“When [the team] lost to Orlando – that’s where the whole process started,” Grover said. “Initially, what they were going to do was just paint some lines on the parking lot and put a couple of hoops up and I was like, ‘No, no, no. This is Michael Jordan. We’re not playing basketball in a parking lot. Not gonna happen.’”
The ‘Jordan Dome’ was an inflatable dome in the VIP parking lot and training there helped Jordan get ready to be the best version of himself.
Jordan filmed Space Jam from Monday to Saturday, from 7 am to 7 pm. He had a two-hour break for mid-day exercises with Grover, and once shooting finished, he played pickup games with Reggie Miller, Magic Johnson, Dennis Rodman, Patrick Ewing, Horace Grant, Eddie Jones, Juwan Howard, Shawn Bradley, LaSalle Thompson, Jack Haley, among others. Jordan’s goal was to simulate real game situations and they would play until around 10 pm.
“What stood out the most to me was how Jordan could film all day and some evenings and still come out and play two to three hours of games. Most of our pickup games began around 7 pm and lasted until 10. His call time on set the next mornings would be around 5-6 am,” Reggie Miller explained.
The results
Jordan’s training helped him lead the Bulls to a 72-win season. The Bulls also got payback against the Magic, sweeping them in the Eastern Conference Finals. Then they beat the Seattle SuperSonics in the NBA Finals.
Jordan was sensational in the four games against the Magic, averaging 29.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.8 assists, and 2.3 steals in 40.8 minutes. He exploded for 45 points in Game 4 in Orlando to complete his payback mission.
