25th anniversary of Michael Jordan’s stunning double nickel game against Knicks

Michael Jordan tormented the entire NBA for countless seasons, but he took things to another level going up against one rival more than any other.

He spent so many days and nights tormenting the New York Knicks. He spent so many springs hijacking the championship aspirations of New York City with his brilliance. Michael Jordan faced the Knicks five times in the playoffs. He went 5-for-5, all of them excruciating affairs. Jordan may have been universally beloved everywhere else.

In New York City, he was feared. In 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993 and 1996, he imposed his will and the Knicks succumbed to his sword, the blood of New York’s broken heart splashing against his Air Jordans.

Which is why the Double Nickel Game was so different.

And why it remains, 25 years later, so essential to the story of Jordan as the great basketball villain of New York City. Saturday marked the silver anniversary of Jordan’s forever return to Madison Square Garden. He was barely a week out of retirement, he looked more in baseball shape than basketball shape, he wore an unfamiliar number — 45.

Most of the people who came to the Garden, most of the 19,763, had come as much out of curiosity as anything else. They had never been given the chance to offer Jordan a fitting goodbye since he’d left so abruptly in October 1993, off to mourn his murdered father and chase a baseball dream and recharge his basketball batteries.

The Knicks had actually beaten the Bulls the previous spring, finally, but that series featured one sad absence (in Jordan) and one sadly prominent presence in Hue Hollins, the official who all but rescued Game 5 of that series for the Knicks by detecting a foul that nobody else in the building saw.

Fans got in on the torment.

The night of March 28, 1995, I sat in the very upper portion of the Garden, in an auxiliary press box that was almost never needed during the regular season. This night, it was overflowing. This night, everyone wanted to see Jordan. We had no idea that within a year he would regain all of his old magic and all of his old tricks, that he would lead the Bulls to 72 wins and the start of a second Chicago three-peat.

Everyone just knew: Michael was back.

At the Garden, the reaction across all three hours, from layup lines to final buzzer, was unique. The Knicks were a better team than the Bulls, still coached by Pat Riley, still harbouring hope they’d get another crack at a title. Patrick Ewing was brilliant that night: 36 points, some key blocks of Jordan, whose legs still weren’t back yet.

But everywhere else, Jordan was stunning. He made everything: jumpers, drives, free throws. He took 37 shots, made 21. He was 10-of-11 from the free-throw line. At first, inspired by nostalgia, the Garden crowd almost seemed cheerful at the early brilliance. Then, as was his wont, he turned the crowd surly. And worried. And, of course, by the end, with the score tied 111-111, the feeling inside the Garden was sheer terror, as it generally was late in a Bulls-Knicks game.

The Bulls had the ball. Surely Jordan would take the final shot. Surely he would make it.

Surely he would kill the Knicks. Again.

🏀 55 points
🏀 21-37 shooting
🏀 5th game back after 17 months off.

The 25th anniversary of Michael Jordan and the "double nickel" game.pic.twitter.com/gSy5hCfF3X

— Sporting News (@sportingnews) March 28, 2020

And the funny part, of course, is that he did. He killed the Knicks all right. But it wasn’t how you expected it. Driving to the basket — everyone expecting him to get a friendly whistle, at least — he did something else. He saw Bill Wennington — formerly a Garden favourite, when he played at St. John’s. Wennington, smartly, dunked it with two hands. It was 113-111. There were 3.1 seconds. The Bulls weren’t going to lose that. They didn’t.

And it really was a game for the ages, because of the perfect symmetry of Jordan’s point total (55) but also as the middle of an important trilogy that defined Jordan’s career. For while he will forever be known as an acrobatic scorer, he had already clinched one NBA title by opting to pass off for a key shot (John Paxson against Phoenix, 1993) and would do so again (Steve Kerr, against Utah in 1997). And this one, in the middle.

Twenty-five years ago, that filled the Garden with something beyond a roar, something that felt like sheer wonder. If you were lucky enough to be there that night, you can feel it still.

This article originally appeared on the NY Post and was reproduced with permission.

Originally published as 25th anniversary of Michael Jordan’s stunning double nickel game against Knicks