The Last Dance: Michael Jordan’s 1993 retirement and theories addressed

Michael Jordan’s retirement set the world on fire and sparked several theories, now the record on why he stepped away has been set straight.

Michael Jordan announces his retirement from professional basketball at a press conference in Chicago in October 1993. Though retiring from the NBA, Jordan will go on to play professional baseball and eventually make a return to basketball. (Photo by © Ralf-Finn Hestoft/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Throughout the years the reason behind Michael Jordan walking away from the game, following the Chicago Bulls’ third consecutive title, remained a mystery.

Speculation spread far and wide about why the game’s best player would step aside at the peak of his powers with the lure of more championship glory sitting within reaching distance.

A secret gambling suspension became the biggest theory that fans clung onto with Jordan’s exploits widely known and an investigation into those habits being undertaken.

Of course another theory was the murder of Jordan’s father which occurred a little over a month after the finish to the 1992/93 NBA season.

But more than 20 years later, the man himself has set the record straight on just what was the driving force behind his decision to step away from the game he loved.

After taking down the Phoenix Suns in the 1993 NBA Finals, Jordan knew he had just played his final game.

“After we won the championship, I sat in the gym with my father. In the back of my mind, I knew that was probably my last game and no one really knew except for my father and myself,” Jordan said on The Last Dance.

Jordan announcing his retirement in a nationally televised press conference.

Jordan’s agent David Falk approached Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf at a charity dinner to tell him the unthinkable news the star player was ready to call it quits.

“At that time, we were coming off of three championships, I fulfilled my responsibility to the city, to the Bulls, to my teammates,” Jordan said.

Reinsdorf knew he wasn’t going to be able to talk his star player out of his decision, but he did make him talk to coach Phil Jackson before a final call was made and a meeting in his office was set.

“This was … a young man that’d gone through some heart-rending things,” Jackson said on The Last Dance.

“You’re denying a gift to society, but I understand. You know, I understand.”

The secret was then broken to the world in early October when it was leaked at a game between the Chicago White Sox and Toronto Blue Jays.

After throwing out the first pitch, Jordan went up to a private box to watch the game when then Bulls manager Jerry Krause was requested by Reinsdorf.

It was then Reinsdorf shared the news of Jordan’s plans to step away from the game, news Krause refused to believe.

“That game was on a Tuesday and I wanted to hold the story until Wednesday, but it leaked out,” Reinsdorf said.

“All hell broke loose at the ballpark on a Tuesday night. Media trying to get into my box to get to Michael. It was wild.”

News of the biggest athlete on the planet calling time spread like wildfire as every media outlet forgot about the game and turned their attention to Jordan who quickly caught wind of what was unfolding and departed the stadium before the contest was over.

Jordan throwing out the first pitch.

THE GAMBLING SUSPENSION THEORY

Why the biggest athlete on the planet and the best player on the court would walk away left all scratching their heads.

An unstoppable force on the hardwood had decided he had achieved everything he needed to, but many believed something behind the scenes was the true motive for his decision.

Jordan’s gambling habits were well documented and a theory soon sparked that the Bulls star had been handed a suspension by the NBA.

The theory had merit with the league opening an investigation into Jordan’s gambling habits in early 1993 with former federal judge and U.S. lawyer Frederick Lacey looking into his gambling and if it broke league rules.

A Sports Illustrated story in 1993 detailed how Jordan had drawn the ire of the NBA with two major gambling stories.

“The first came in late 1991, when a $57,000 check from Jordan was discovered by the IRS in the bank account of convicted cocaine trafficker James (Slim) Bouler; then $108,000 in checks from Jordan were found in the briefcase of slain bail bondsman Eddie Dow,” Jack McCallum wrote.

Theorists allege Jordan let slip the secret suspension during his nationally televised press conference when he responded to a question about returning to the NBA with the statement:

“Five years down the line, if that urge comes back, if the Bulls have me, if David Stern lets me back in the league, I may come back,” Jordan said at the time.

The David Stern line stuck out like a sore thumb to those who believed the suspension was behind his decision to retire.

Jordan’s retirement rocked basketball fans across the globe.

“Michael Jordan’s retirement in 1993 was one of those seismic “where were you when you heard the news” moments. And you immediately think, why?” former ESPN correspondent Andrea Kremer says on The Last Dance.

“Nobody could rationalise that Michael would just walk away.

“Look at some of the events that have recently happened. His father was tragically murdered, there’s a number of questions about his gambling and you start to connect some dots and you think, ‘is this all related? Was this a secret suspension?’”

But the theory was well and truly put to bed by not only Jordan, but several other high profile media members and the then commissioner, David Stern.

“You’re telling me, that David Stern, the ultimate capitalist, takes his number one player on his number one franchise and unilaterally decides to lower the value of the rest of the league franchises by taking him out and the Bulls out effectively for some secret penalty and no one ever finds out about it?” president of Rare Air Media Mark Vancil said on The Last Dance.

“The folklore, the urban legend that I sent him away because he was gambling … ridiculous. It never, no basis in fact whatever,” Stern said.
“I could bang on the table and say it’s a calumny, a slanderous lie or whatever. It’s just not true. Never was and never will be, no matter how many times people ask the question.”

“I didn’t retire because he kicked me out or they suspended me for a year and a half. That is not true, there is no truth to that,” Jordan says.

“I needed a break, you know, my father just passed and I retired. I retired with the notion that I wasn’t going to come back.”

MJ needed a break.

Vancil went a step further in shutting down the theory by stating Jordan had notified him of his desire to walk away a year ahead of his announcement.

“I had sat with him a year earlier and he told me what he was gonna do,” Vancil said.

“It was the summer of ‘92, and it’s the Dream Team summer. You could tell he was really tired, as tired as he looked and as beat up as he looked, I said ‘so what are you gonna do?’

“There’s a long pause and he said, ‘I’m gonna shock the world. Now I’m gonna quit and go play baseball.’

“And I said ‘when?’ and he said ‘well I’d do it right now, except Bird and Magic never won three in a row, and I gotta do the Olympics but if it wasn’t for that, I’d be playing this summer.’”

Jordan had reached the summit and surpassed legends of the game. He had nothing left to accomplish and decided the time was right to step away and pursue another dream.

But after trying his hand at baseball, the allure of basketball crept back into his psyche and Jordan returned to the NBA in 1995 and helped lift the Bulls back to the top of the pile as he achieved the unthinkable all over again.