Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls faced great opponents in the quest for their 6 championships, including the Utah Jazz, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Seattle Supersonics who obviously were not so "lucky". But before winning the 6 titles, Jordan would face one of the biggest challenges of his career: the Detroit Pistons and the rules created against himself, the so-called “The Jordan Rules” or Jordan's rules.
Detroit Pistons and Chicago Bulls clashed in four consecutive post-seasons starting in 1988. At that time, Michael Jordan, at 24 years of age, he was at his heyday, and he was ready to take over the championship after receiving the “MVP” title and defeating Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Pistons' plan and ‘matter of honor’ was to beat the Bulls in 5 games and send them home.
Jordan returned in 1989 and wanted to continue proving his sovereignty, this time in the playoffs with Bulls and Pistons in the Eastern Conference finals. The Bulls had a good head start , increasing its lead to 2-1 in the series, with 46 points from number 23.
The Pistons needed to stop MJ at any cost, so coach Chuck Daly strategically stated that: If Michael had the ball, he should be forced to go to extremes and be guarded by two players. If he was forwarding from the left side, he should be immediately guarded by two. If he were coming from the right, the defense should be forced to the middle by also guarding two players. Moreover, coach’s orientation was not to make it easy if Jordan passed by any player, that he should be thrown to the ground if necessary. Thus, Detroit won three consecutive games and advanced to the NBA finals (eventually winning the title) and Jordan's season was once again cut short by the Pistons.
Enraged by the taste of defeat, Jordan began to prepare even more foreseeing a new encounter with the Pistons in the 1990 Eastern Conference finals. The averages in his series were insane - 32.1 points per game, 7.1 rebounds per game and 6.3 assists. Unfortunately, the work was in vain and the “Bad Boys” from Detroit won the series (this time in 7 games) for the third consecutive time and won another championship.
It became evident in the 1990 series that Jordan was very competitive, but even so, the Pistons were still ruling the game. MJ, intensified all his training during the "off-season" of that time, combining the fundamentals on the court with muscle strengthening. He knew he needed a lot more physical strength before another encounter with the Pistons.
In the 1991 Eastern Conference finals, the Bulls beat the Pistons, finally advanced to the finals, beating the Los Angeles Lakers. Jordan had an excellent performance in the series with an average of 29.8 points per game and 7.0 assists per game, most of which went to Scottie Pippen who showed he overcame the "migraine game" the previous season.
Just before the end of the last game in the series, Pistons simply left the court showing that they were indeed sore losers, which symbolized the end of the team's “Bad Boy” era. In the same way that Detroit beat the Celtics, Jordan’s time had finally arrived at the Bulls.
MJ, Phill Jackson and the Chicago Bulls, won three consecutive championships from 1991 to 1993. They would also have three more victories between the years of 1996 and 1998. The team in their history faced excellent teams, but none challenged them like the Pistons.
The Pistons had an elite set of players on the court. Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars were stronger than most guards and often challenged MJ on the defensive side, along with the trio that would likely scare any player with Bill Laimbeer, Rick Mahorn and Dennis Rodman. Detroit was also quite balanced with the presence of Vinnie Johnson, Adrian Dantley and Mark Aguirre. That balance, aligned with defensive intensity and courage, was enough to overwhelm the Chicago Bulls.
Little did they know that these rules would make Jordan the greatest basketball player of all time.
