While Dan Majerle might never be counted among the greatest adversaries of Michael Jordan , the 1993 NBA Finals revealed an unexpected rivalry between the two. While the media hyped the matchup between Charles Barkley and His Airness in the championship round, the five-time MVP harbored a specific agenda against Majerle. Remarkably, the Michigan native found pride in Mike’s admission of wanting to ‘kill him’ on the court rather than feeling humbled by this targetted approach.
Dan on seeing Mike’s agenda against him in the ‘93 Finals
Although ‘Thunder Dan’ was never considered among the most lethal shooting guards in the league, he started to average points in double-digits by his sophomore year. Then, by his third season, he already secured a place on the All-Defensive Second Team and received an All-Star nod by the 1991-92 season. His diligent efforts on the court were so impressive that Bulls’ GM Jerry Krause took a special interest in his abilities.
Moreover, Mike admitted in the sixth episode of ‘The Last Dance’ documentary that after knowing how fond Krause was of Majerle, he decided to put the Suns’ shooting guard in his rightful place.
"You think he's a great defensive player? OK, fine," Jordan said. "I'm going to show you he's not."
On the other hand, Dan, who wasn’t even sure of getting a mention in the documentary, was astonished to learn that Jordan held a special motive against him. Interestingly, rather than being discouraged by this revelation, Majerle wore it like a badge of honor—knowing the arguable GOAT has planned something special for him.
"I was sitting there on the couch watching and thinking, OK, is he going to mention me? I hope he doesn't kill me; maybe he shouldn't mention me. So when he said that, I was just as shocked as anybody, " Majerle said . "People bring it up to me all the time and I think it's a badge of honor. The greatest player in the world is trying to kill me - which he did."
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Jordan did bring his A game against Majerle
Even though Majerle upped his scoring average from 16.9 points in the regular season to 17.2 during the championship round, his efforts were totally overshadowed by Jordan’s incredible performance. His Airness averaged an insane 41.0 points per game in the series, leading the Bulls to their third straight championship in six games. What’s even crazier is that the New York native dropped the most points in each of those contests.
Safe to say, this admission only highlighted how much the opposition players respected Mike. Even when he openly expressed his desire to dominate them, they were happy to be noticed by him.
Related: "That guy sent me a message tonight, and I didn't like the message" - When Michael Jordan dominated Charles Barkley and the Suns in their first clash of the season
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