The Day in Toronto Where Michael Jordan Had His Worst NBA Game
The greatness of Michael Jordan is never questioned in the world of basketball, but even the greats can have an off night. He was no exception and on the night of December 15th 2002, he had a game unlike any other of his legendary NBA career.
Being on the road for a match-up with the Toronto Raptors at the time, he avoided the embarrassment of tanking on home soil. This, thought, made it all the more amusing for Canadian fans.
Having retired in 1998 from the Chicago Bulls, the team he won six NBA championships with, Jordan went on to take up an office job, serving as president of the Washington Wizards. It wasn't long before he was back on the court, though - in September 2001, he announced he would play for the Wizards in the upcoming NBA season, in which he would average 22.9 points in sixty appearances for the team.
Jordan rejoined Washington for the following season and, while pushing forty years of age, did not show it on the court. He had been a key role player for the Wizards in 2002-03, leading their scoring on a number of occasions and, prior to arriving at the Air Canada Centre on December 15th, had gone ten games in a row scoring in double digits. It was clear that he was still to be taken very seriously at this point in his career.
That said, not all of his efforts were resulting in wins - in fact, neither the Wizards nor the Raptors were on top form come their pre-Christmas meeting. When the Wizards pitched up in Toronto, though, they had the better record over a Raptors side that would have to face their new visitors without two of their best players, Vince Carter and Antonio Davis, who were both ruled out for the night.
All of these signs seemed to indicate that Jordan was to lead the way for an easy Washington win in Toronto. The reality turned out to be a very different story.
Jordan, who played 39 minutes in the game, was having an off-night unlike any other of his basketball life, at least as a shooter. While he grabbed eight total rebounds and dished nine assists, he was only able to get one shot to drop in the game. He had nine attempts at basket throughout the night, which would have put him on course for 18 points, but at the final buzzer he had just two to his name.
Never before had the game's greatest faltered so much - the only time he had scored so low before was in limited time off the bench. This was only one of seven games in the 2002-03 season he was unable to reach double digits. Fans who came out to see Jordan be Jordan were likely so disappointed to see him on such bad form. Washington's coaching staff may have started panicking at their go-to player coming up short time and time again. Fortunately for them, his team mates were there to pick up the slack.
With Lindsey Hunter doing a lot of damage off the Raptors' bench, Washington were behind 49-47 at half time. When play resumed though, Jerry Stackhouse caught fire for the Wizards, sinking fifteen points in the third quarter alone, at the end of which they were now ahead by seven. As they continued this form into the final period, the short-handed Raptors didn't have much to respond with.
Voshon Lenard had been leading Toronto for three periods before falling apart at the end, failing to score at all in the fourth, finishing with 18 points behind Hunter, who led the team with 22. Stackhouse was the leading scorer with 28 points at the end of this dramatic contest at the Air Canada Centre, which finished as a comfortable win for the Washington Wizards, 95-82.
Jordan recovered from this disappointment with back-to-back thirty point performances and 22 when he next played the Raptors in January. The Torontonians were not yet done humiliating Jordan though: the following March, in DC, a full-power Toronto side held Jordan to only four points in the contest while Vince Carter led all on the floor with 21 in a 89-86 win for the Canadian team.
Playing the Canadian franchise seemed to have an adverse effect on Michael Jordan - in a season where the ageing megastar was still a regular top scorer, the Toronto Raptors, more than once, made him look feeble. Long before Toronto became NBA champions and did not have as many achievements to their name, the team did have the distinction of holding the game's greatest to his worst NBA performance.
Comments