What If Jordan Didn't Retire In 1993?

CLEVELAND - Michael Jordan led the Chicago Bulls to their 3rd straight NBA championship by averaging a record 41 points per game in the 1993 NBA Finals. Four months later, he was retired.

My oh my. What could have been?

Today marks the 16th anniversary of Jordan's shocking decision. He turned the basketball world upside down by stepping away from the game that turned him into a global icon worth hundreds of millions of dollars. What's more, he did it at just thirty years of age and was still the most dominant player in the league.

The Bulls entered the 1993-94 season a bit shell shocked. Training camp commenced a day after MJ's announcement and new addition Toni Kukoc shed tears at the reality before him; no playing beside his hero whom he idolized for years in his native Croatia. Jordan may have had a very successful season in '92-'93, but the summer was horrific. His father James was murdered while he slept on the side of a road. Many speculated that this event took the joy out of playing ball for Michael and led to his early retirement. During the season, the Bulls fought valiantly to maintain their dominance over the league, minus the most seminal player in the game's history.

They nearly pulled it off.

All-Star Scottie Pippen stepped up to a higher level and led the defending champs on both offense and defense. Kukoc was surprisingly sharp in the clutch, winning several games for the team at the buzzer and Horace Grant had his best season; 15 points and 11 rebounds per game. Add to all that the precision marksmanship of B.J. Armstrong and Steve Kerr and you have the makings of an even better team than the one that won the title in '93.

If Jordan had been a part of it, that is.

MJ meanwhile, was busy taking up minor league baseball. With the roster that Chicago had, they were able to summon a remarkable resolve and turn out a very fine regular season, finishing at 55-27, just two games behind their previous season's effort. They swept the Cavs in round one, then lost a slugfest to the Knicks in 7 games. The Knicks went on to win a classic series over the Pacers, which featured a classic Reggie Miller performance in Game 5, then met the Rockets in the '94 Finals.

Thanks largely to an all-world Hakeem Olajuwon, the Rockets squeaked past the Knicks in 7 games to capture the NBA title. The Rockets were a very balanced squad, boasting an awesome inside-out game with Olajuwon and Otis Thorpe in the paint and a litany of shooters around them such as Vernon Maxwell, Kenny Smith, Robert Horry and rookie Sam Cassell.

Jordan had been on such a roll through the first few seasons of the 1990's that there's no doubt he would have continued his stunning brilliance in '93-'94 had he not retired. Olajuwon won his first ever MVP award, but MJ would have been just 31 that season and the odds on favorite to win his 4th MVP and 8th scoring title. He was still young and brazen enough to do all the things he'd always done, even though he later opined that he may not have had the correct motivation.

Malarkey.

Even if Jordan would've been worn out from two years of nearly non-stop basketball (including the '92 Olympics), he would have manufactured motivation any way he could. Plug Michael into the '94 Bulls and worst case scenario, Kukoc doesn't flourish as much offensively and Pippen doesn't evolve as much as he did. Even in that scenario, both of those players were still mega-talented and would have still been outstanding. Pippen was a superstar before MJ left, and Kukoc may have been even better with Michael. Overall, they would have been even better as a team because they had the same talent but much of it had improved, plus they added the 6'11" multi-faceted Kukoc to the mix.

Imagine how driven Jordan would have been to win a 4th title in a row!

The Bulls barely lost to New York in the playoffs without Jordan, so they definitely would have beat them with him. Regarding the Pacers, Miller became Mr. Crunchtime in that series. MJ wouldn't have allowed that, not just because of his skill...but his pride would have eaten Reggie alive. Of course, this is all assuming that the Bulls would have met the same teams in the playoffs had Jordan stayed, which is highly unlikely. More to the reality, they would have had a higher seed and still pushed aside any team.

Let's not forget; they were the three-time defending champs!

In the Finals, the Rockets would have been problematic. Olajuwon was totally unguardable that season, but the Bulls always handled those dilemmas by giving the superstar big men they faced different looks on defense. Rotating several big bodies on Hakeem and playing him straight up would have given him free reign to dominate the interior, but it would have greatly compromised their potent outside attack. MJ and Pippen were lockdown defenders and would have minimized their shooters like they so often did to many teams.

I believe Chicago would have won in six or seven games over the Rockets.

Of course, Jordan really did return at the tail end of the following season, 1994-95 but was very out of sync and rusty to say the least. There was very little chemistry on the team and they had begun to be affected by a very mediocre showing in their first 65 games, going just 34-31. By now, the class of the East was the upstart Orlando Magic. The way that the season ended for the Bulls was a six game loss to the Magic in the semifinals. The biggest problem for Chicago in that series wasn't their lack of rebounding (Grant defected to Orlando over the summer of '94), it was Michael's inability to finish on his drives to the hoop. Incorrect timing and a very flat jumper weren't indicative of lost skill, but rather uncoordinated muscle reaction.

That happens when a finely tuned athlete like Michael Jordan doesn't play pro basketball for a year and a half.

The Magic went on to face defending champion Houston in the '95 Finals and were swept. Olajuwon, at age 32 masterfully dominated the 23-year old Shaq O'Neal and won his 2nd straight Finals MVP. The Rockets had acquired Clyde Drexler at mid-season, but somehow weren't as sharp as they were the previous season. Their postseason success was predicated more on heart and stubborn resolve than anything. If the Bulls would have faced the Rockets of 1995 with a full-seasoned MJ, it would have been a meeting of heart and soul versus heart and soul.

With a full speed MJ, the Bulls win that matchup everytime.

The Bulls trounced Orlando the following season, 1995-96 with Dennis Rodman in tow and a re-precisioned Jordan. They swept them emphatically in the '96 East Finals, and their key to success was playing O'Neal straight up and bottling up their shooters. With O'Neal and superstar Penny Hardaway scoring at will, the Magic figured to be well served but they weren't. That's because shooters like Nick Anderson and Dennis Scott were marginalized just as I mentioned earlier. Of course, Rodman was a major factor off the glass but whatever the case was, the Magic had no chance.

Chicago marched to an historic 72-10 season and captured their 4th title. MJ earned all of the usual accolades and added another iconic level to his legend. At the end of the day, the trifecta of titles that the Bulls won from 1996 to 1998 were just three of the five that they would've won.

If only Michael would've stayed put in October 1993.