How He Got Up There

He was exhausted after game 7 against the Indiana Pacers, but his friends on the team noticed that when the final game was over, he seemed almost giddy as he raced back to the locker room, like a joyous schoolboy liberated from class after the last day of school. He was equally gleeful on the first flight out to Salt Lake City, Utah, an odd boyishness for a player who was supposed to be old and tired and about to face a team that was rested and that held the home-court advantage. Some thought it came from the fact that he knew the Bulls and he had just barely dodged a bullet against the Pacers, that by the third game, as Larry Bird began to make adjustments, the matchups, particularly in the second half of the games, had begun to favor the younger, deeper Pacers. In particular, Bird was throwing younger, bigger guards at Jordan, most notably Jalen Rose, and they were arriving well rested at a time in the game when Jordan normally liked to take the game over and when his defensive man was usually tired.

In Game 7, with about six minutes left, it appeared for a moment that the Bulls were going to lose: they seemed tired, Jordan palpably weary, bent over, hands on hips when others were shooting fouls, a telltale sign of fatigue with him. Then, in one of those remarkable demonstrations of willpower that have become the signature of his entire career, Jordan's will to excel helped energize his body, and he summoned just enough strength to continue to drive to the basket, get to the foul line, or draw a crowd and pass off to teammates for open shots. That allowed him and his teammates to escape the Pacer bullet. He was still the invincible man. Now at age 35, when it should have been time for younger players from other teams to supplant him and his teammates as champions, he was once again going to the finals.

The boyishness on the plane was a signal that he did not fear Utah, even if the Jazz were well rested, were playing at home at an altitude of some 4,500 feet and were on a roll after inhaling the seemingly mighty Lakers. In truth, they were not that much younger, and what he saw was the matchups: their significantly smaller guards going against him, Pippen, Ron Harper and even Toni Kukoc. He clearly liked these matchups, much more than he had liked what Bird was able to throw at him. He remained upbeat even after the Bulls lost Game 1 to the Jazz in overtime.