Ah, once upon a time.
Today marks the 25th anniversary of what has become popularly known as "the freeze-out game" in NBA lore. It was the 35th annual mid-season classic that also happened to serve as Jordan's inaugural NBA All-Star game and took place at the venerable Hoosier Dome in Indianapolis, IN. The West squad defeated the East, 140-129 but in spite of the presence of such future legends as Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the true story of the afternoon was the soon to be 22-year old Michael Jordan.
Many veteran stars were angry about the unrivaled popularity and press that the newcomer was receiving. His flashy, high-flying style was tailor made for engendering jealousy as was his dominant offensive abilities. Compounding matters was the fact that, during the Slam Dunk contest the previous day, Jordan eschewed his Bulls practice gear in favor of a Nike warm-up suit and wore gold chains in addition to the controversial, inaugural edition of his Air Jordan sneakers.
At the time, the first year Chicago Bulls megastar was giddy just being there and was very gracious in evaluating the experience. It wasn't until after the fact that whispers of an agenda against him by his fellow stars surfaced. Legend has it that Jordan's East teammate Isiah Thomas orchestrated a freeze-out of Jordan by instructing the other players to avoid giving him the ball. He also told West stars Earvin "Magic" Johnson and George Gervin to play much tougher defense against Michael than a usual exhibition game like this would require.
As it were, Jordan played the fewest minutes of any starter and shot only nine times. In the quarter century since then, the allegations of a freeze out have taken on an enormous mythology. Last summer, during his induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame, Jordan kindly sneered at the notion and participants of the freeze out and essentially declared that in spite of it, he became a cultural icon en route to winning everything anyway.
At the end of the day, I'm glad that Michael Jordan was treated that way as a rookie. It not only made him better and stronger, but it gave him even more incentive to inflict his will on the entire game of basketball for the next decade and a half.
Boy, was that awesome to watch.
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