Michael Jordan’s extraordinary skills helped him take the competitiveness in the NBA to the next level. The six-time NBA champ was the foundation of the Chicago Bulls dynasty in the 1990s. His love for competitiveness was often showcased in his consistency and brilliance throughout the regular season. However, MJ took his fierceness to the next level when it came to the NBA Finals. In fact, Jordan made six appearances in the NBA Finals and managed to take the championship ring home on all occasions. Despite his dominating feats in the Finals, an NBA legend recently made an audacious claim about succeeding to contain Michael Jordan during the 1996 Finals.

Michael Jordan’s biggest performances have come during the Finals stages, where his scoring abilities reached their peak. In 35 games in the NBA Finals, MJ averaged 33.6 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 6.0 assists per game, which is better than his career average in regular season games. Thus, the recent claim from a Miami Heat legend about locking down MJ appears to be quite shocking to many fans.

NBA legend claims to have contained Michael Jordan

Heat legend Gary Payton joined former Boston Celtics star Kevin Garnett on Showtime Basketball’s ‘KG Certified’. In his recent appearance on the show, Payton was asked about his experience facing Michael Jordan during his first NBA Finals in 1996. Gary Payton was a part of the Seattle Supersonics (Oklahoma City Thunder) at the time, who lost the Finals against Chicago. 

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Payton pointed out that he was named the Defensive Player of the Year that year. Meanwhile, Michael Jordan took the MVP award after the regular season in 1996. However, the NBA Hall of Famer could not guard Michael Jordan early in the Finals series as he was recovering from a torn calf. As a result, the Supersonics went down by 3-0 against the Jordan-led Bulls.

Payton claimed that he was able to contain Michael Jordan when he finally got a chance to guard MJ. Gary Payton stated, “And then I guarded him, and then all of a sudden it changed the game around. Uh, his numbers dropped from 33 to 24. And I just made it hard for him to get the basketball.”

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According to the nine-time All-Star, he was not allowed to guard Jordan initially because coach George Karl wanted offensive output from him in such a high-profile series. A labor-intensive task like guarding MJ would’ve severely hindered that. However, when finally afforded the opportunity, the 2006 NBA champ suggested that he worked hard to restrict MJ’s scoring during the last few games. In the end, it wasn’t enough to turn things around for Payton and the Supersonics as they lost the series 4-2.

Jordan and the Bulls’ performance in the 1996 Finals

The Chicago Bulls easily outscored the Supersonics during the first three games of the Finals series and took an early 3-0 lead. Meanwhile, Seattle did manage to pull things back as the series went 3-2 after Game 6.

However, the Jordan-led Bulls made an incredible comeback in Game 7. Chicago defeated Payton’s Supersonics by 87-75 and took their fourth championship home. 

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Meanwhile, Michael Jordan averaged 27.3 points with 5.3 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game in six appearances.