“This is for Daddy”
Michael Jordan’s most emotional NBA Championship
The night was June 16th, 1996, and just like three times before, Michael Jordan was celebrating an NBA championship. This championship, however, meant much more to the greatest player to ever play the game. Something was different about this win. It was Father’s Day. In one of the rarest and most emotional Jordan moments, MJ was found lying on the locker room floor in tears after the game. This win was for his dad.
On July 23, 1993, just eight days before his birthday, James Jordan Sr. pulled over in Lumberton, NC to take a nap. Daniel Green and Larry Demery spotted the car on the road and shot James to death in his sleep and stole the car. His body was found on August 3rd in a South Carolina river, and it was not until August 13 that it was confirmed to be Jordan’s father. Jordan went through nearly a month of uncertainty before finding out that his father was murdered, and was in a state of emotional distress. It was time for a change.
He would always mention how baseball was his first love and how Jordan Sr. always urged him to play, being that he was a semi-pro baseball player himself. In fact, baseball was the first sport that Michael was taught as a kid by his father. While their relationship was not highly publicized until after James was killed, Michael would always talk about how big of an impact his dad had on his life. James could always be found at the Bulls home games cheering on his son. After his death, however, it seemed like something was missing and that Michael was emotionally struggling with the death of his father, and speculation arose that he was retiring after he threw out the first pitch at the Chicago White Sox game. The next day, just before the start of the 1993 NBA season, Michael held a press conference and abruptly retired form basketball.
“My father used to say that it’s never too late to do anything you wanted to do. And he said, ‘You never know what you can accomplish until you try.’” — Michael Jordan
In February of 1994 Jordan began his journey as a minor league baseball player with the Chicago White Sox minor league affiliate, the Birmingham Barons. While his stats were unremarkable, Jordan was trying his best to handle the pressure of changing sports. It was a time in his life where he had very few highs and plenty of lows. In his minor league career, he hit for a very weak .202 average with 114 strikeouts in just two seasons. But it wasn’t all bad in Birmingham. Just before he decided to return to basketball, most Jordan fans would agree that it seemed like his baseball career was heading down the right path until the 1995 MLB players strike occurred and no one was playing baseball. Jordan saw no other option but to make a return.
Following his short career as a baseball player, MJ returned to basketball with a famous press release that had two words, “I’m back.” His return in mid-March helped secure a playoff spot for the Bulls, but they were beaten in 6 games by the Orlando Magic. Motivated by a playoff loss and after leading the Bulls to a 72–10 record in the following season, Jordan dominated the playoffs, and it was like he never even left. But he knew that all along he was doing it for his father. Even though he had just won championship number four, he was more emotional than ever before. Most players view their first championship win as the most emotional because they have finally reached the peak of their sport. But Jordan had been there three times before, and there was nothing better than this one.
“People said, ‘You’ll taint your image as a basketball player by playing baseball.’ But you can’t do that. You can’t touch what I did in basketball. You can’t touch it. You can never take that away from me.” — Michael Jordan
After a game in which Jordan scored 22 points, grabbed 9 rebounds,and dished out 7 assists, you were not going to find him celebrating with his teammates at first. In a post game interview with a close friend, Jordan said “I know he’s watching. To my wife and kids, to my mother, brother and sister, this is for Daddy.”
