1991 NBA Championship

Lore & Background

The 1990–91 season marked the Bulls' 25th in franchise history. The team was coming off a seven-game loss to the Detroit Pistons in the 1990 Eastern Conference finals. They won a then-franchise record 61 games. Jordan won the scoring title for a fifth consecutive season, and his improved all-around play earned him his second MVP award. In the playoffs, the Bulls swept the New York Knicks in the first round, eliminated the Philadelphia 76ers in the second round, and swept the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference finals. The Lakers, led by Magic Johnson and James Worthy, replaced coach Pat Riley with Mike Dunleavy, Sr., won 58 games, and reached the Finals by sweeping the Houston Rockets, eliminating the Golden State Warriors, and defeating the Portland Trail Blazers in six games in the conference finals.

In Their Own Story

The air inside The Forum in Inglewood was thick with the scent of popcorn and the weight of history. Magic Johnson, the titan of Showtime, walked onto the court to face the rising storm of Chicago. But tonight, the script flipped. The Bulls moved with a fluidity that left the Lakers' defense spinning, passing around the perimeter until the opening appeared. Michael Jordan drove baseline, leaped into the air, and laid the ball in off the glass before his feet touched the floor—a move of impossible grace that silenced the arena. When the final buzzer sounded, ending the series 4-1, the silence on the Lakers' bench was deafening. On the Bulls' side, a roar erupted that seemed to shake the rafters. Jordan stood at center court as confetti began to fall—not as a conqueror, but as the first king of a dynasty in a city that had waited twenty-five years to finally hear its name called.

Reader's Guide

The Bulls won the series 4–1. Game 1: Lakers won 93–91. Game 2: Bulls won. Game 3: Bulls won in overtime, 104–? (Jordan tied the game with 3.4 seconds left). Game 4: Bulls won. Game 5: Bulls won. The series marked the end of the Lakers' Showtime era and the beginning of the Bulls' dynasty.

Did You Know?

• This was the first meeting between teams from Chicago and Los Angeles for a major professional sports championship since the 1959 World Series.
• Jordan became only the fifth player in NBA history (after Joe Fulks, George Mikan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Wilt Chamberlain) to capture the scoring title and a championship in the same season.
• The 1991 Finals marked the first time the Bulls defeated the Lakers in a playoff series; prior to 1991, they met in four postseason series (1968, 1971, 1972, 1973), all Lakers victories.
• Game 1 was not the last NBA Finals game to air in the afternoon (Eastern Time Zone); that distinction belongs to Game 6 of the 1993 Finals.