The NBA was being dominated by Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, but a youthful Michael Jordan was rising to prominence. Jordan, the third overall selection in the 1984 NBA Draft, wasted little time in showcasing his shooting prowess.
Nobody scored like Jordan, and Bird went on to explain why the young Bulls star didn’t have that “team mentality” in the early part of his career. Jordan stunned the NBA by averaging 28.2 points as a rookie. After missing the majority of the 1985–86 season due to a foot injury, he returned for the playoffs and stunned Bird and the Celtics by scoring 49 points in the postseason opener and 63 in Game 2. The Bulls lost both games, and the Celtics won the best-of-five series.
During the 1985–86 season, the Boston Celtics assembled what may have been their best team in franchise history. They won 67 games during the regular season and strengthened their bench by adding veteran center Bill Walton. The club only dropped one game at home during the entire season and was largely healthy.
Jordan was the only one who could keep the Bulls in the game in game two. With 63 points in the end, he forced the Celtics to play double overtime before winning 135–131. In that particular game, Larry Bird famously remarked that Chicago’s No. 23 was “god disguised as Michael Jordan.”
Bird was full of praise for the young North Carolina star.
Bird stated, “He was driving to the hole and hitting outside shots,” via nba.com. Almost every member of the team was assigned to guard him. He was clearly in a zone.
“He scored big basket after big basket to keep them in the game. He was unstoppable. We did everything we could to help him be shaded. You were discussing a distinct kind of talent.
