BOISE, Idaho — THIS DAY IN SPORTS…June 20, 1993, 30 years ago today:
John Paxson’s three-pointer with 3.9 seconds left holds up for a 99-98 Chicago victory in Game 6 of the NBA Finals. It was the Bulls’ first basket of the fourth quarter by someone not named Michael Jordan. The game wasn’t over, as Phoenix star Kevin Johnson had a chance to win it at the other end, but the Bulls’ Horace Grant blocked his attempt at a buzzer-beating floater in the lane. With the victory the Bulls completed their first championship three-peat by beating the Suns four games to two.
Paxson’s line for the game was modest: eight points on 3-for-4 shooting (2-for-3 from three-point range) with one rebound and one assist in 22 minutes. But his trey for the ages lives as part of Chicago sports lore. Paxson, a former Notre Dame star, was the 19th overall pick in the NBA Draft in 1994, going to San Antonio. After two years with the Spurs, he signed with the Bulls as a free agent. Paxson was then paired with Jordan in the backcourt but was coming off the bench by the time he hit his famous 1993 game-winner. He retired a year later.
Chicago coach Phil Jackson hired Paxson as an assistant coach for the 1995-96 season after he retired. But Paxson, not wanting the coaching grind to eat up all the time he could spend with his family, resigned at the end of the season (after another Bulls championship) to go into the broadcast booth. When Jordan came out of his second retirement in 2001, he asked Paxson to consider the head coaching job in D.C., but Paxson declined. He would get back into basketball, though, as the Bulls’ general manager from 2003-09 and their vice president of basketball operations from 2009-20.
Jordan averaged an NBA Finals record 41 points a game in 1993, but no one realized the clincher against the Suns would be Jordan’s final game prior to his first retirement. About five weeks later, Jordan’s father was murdered, and at the start of training camp that October, Jordan announced that he was retiring from the Bulls. He said he was burned out as a basketball player — then in February of 1994, another surprise: Jordan announced that he was pursuing his late father’s dream that he play Major League Baseball by signing with the Chicago White Sox organization. Jordan was OK as a baseball player but wasn’t at a big-league level. He returned to the Bulls a year and a half later, setting the stage for Three-Peat No. 2.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
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