1992 Overview
From Hoopedia
1991-92 NBA Season
Kobe Bryant was just a 12-year-old living in Europe when he heard the news. Magic Johnson was retiring from basketball. Bryant didn’t understand why, but he cried anyway and hardly ate for a week. Johnson was his hero.
Fans everywhere had similar reactions to Johnson’s revelation in October 1991 that he had contracted the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS. Johnson announced that he would retire immediately from the NBA and devote his time to educating the public about HIV and AIDS.
He would later attempt two comebacks, but in essence his 12-year NBA career, which included five titles and three MVP seasons, was over. The season would also prove to be the last for Larry Bird, who played through back pain to appear in 45 games, averaging 20.2 ppg.
The Bulls, meanwhile, showed their determination to win a second straight championship by rolling to a club-record 67 wins. Jordan won his third MVP Award and sixth straight scoring title (though his average of 30.1 ppg was his lowest in six seasons). More than ever, Jordan worked to include teammates Scottie Pippen (21 ppg) and Horace Grant (14.2 ppg, 10 rpg.).
Cleveland, with All-Stars Mark Price and Brad Daugherty, won 57 games to tie Portland for the league’s second-best record. The Cavaliers played well all season, but had no answer for Jordan and succumbed in six games in the Eastern Conference Finals.
Portland, hungry to get back to the Finals after a disappointing playoffs in 1991, defeated the Lakers, Phoenix and tough Utah, which had All-Stars John Stockton and Karl Malone, to gain the Finals for the second time in three seasons.
The Trail Blazers managed a split on the road in the first two games. But Chicago took two of three in Portland and returned home with a huge advantage. Many observers expected an easy triumph for the Bulls in Game 6, but after three quarters, the Trail Blazers led 79-64 and seemed ready to push the series to a seventh game. Then, an improbable lineup of Pippen plus reserves Scott Williams, B.J. Armstrong, Bobby Hansen and Stacey King turned the tide, outscoring the Trail Blazers 14-2 to open the fourth quarter and cut the seemingly insurmountable lead to 81-78.
Jordan and Pippen took over from there, scoring the Bulls’ last 19 points to grab the series from the stunned Trail Blazers.
“We needed a different matchup,” Bulls Coach Phil Jackson said afterward. “That’s what we got from those guys. They had fresh legs. It’s either daring or stupid, depending on which way it comes out.”
The Bulls had long retreated to their locker room when they learned that their fans were still celebrating upstairs because it was the team’s first title won in the Stadium. Jackson said, “Grab that trophy. We’re going back up to celebrate with our fans!” And so they did.
“With that, Michael grabbed the trophy, and we went back upstairs,” recalled Bulls VP Steve Schanwald. “When we started emerging through the tunnel, we started to play the opening to our introduction music. It’s very dramatic. “Eye in the Sky” by the Alan Parsons Project. So the crowd knew when the music started playing that something was happening. The team came up through the tunnel, and all of the sudden the crowd just exploded. It was a 10,000-goose bump experience.
All of a sudden some of the players -- Scottie and Horace and Hansen-- got up on the table so that everybody could see them in the crowd. Then Michael came up and joined them with the trophy, and they started dancing. It was just an electrifying experience, and I think for anybody that was there, it was a moment that they will never forget as long as they live.”
