It's an elaborate sequence that starts with a series of dribbles, twirling the ball up in the air in front of his face, some half squats and a secret whispered, centering mantra - "This is for Kay and the baby." After struggling mightily from the free throw line early in his NBA career, Malone developed the ritual with the help of a psychological consultant. With Bulls fans behind the basket already waving wiggly white balloons, Malone begins his trademark pre-free-throw ritual. One free throw and maybe NBA history looks a lot different. Jason Caffey, Bulls forward: When Karl steps to the line, it was like Tupac's song "All Eyez on Me": You've got the whole world looking at you right there, right then. We're sitting there thinking, "OK, when we win, NBC will want this person right after the game and then we have to get Coach Sloan and run back to the locker room." We were already in post-win work mode. I hope we can take them to seven games." And then you get there and you get in that environment and the intensity is so great and you actually have an opportunity to win the game. My ears rang for days.ĭave Allred, Utah Jazz vice president of public relations and communications, 1981-2003: We went into this series with the expectation, "I hope we can be competitive. When Karl walked to the line, it was deafening in that stadium. And with 9.2 seconds left, the newly crowned NBA MVP walks to the line with a chance to rewrite sports history.īrad Rock, Deseret News columnist, 1994-2019: I used to say that 19,911 people could not make more noise than Jazz fans did, and it was like that in Chicago too. (Bulls guard Steve Kerr said the rim was loose from the excessive dunks of Chicago's mascot, Benny the Bull.) As Malone hustles laterally to corral the rebound, a trailing Dennis Rodman climbs up his back and is called for a loose-ball foul.įor the first 47 minutes and 50.8 seconds of these Finals, Malone has been on an absolute tear: 23 points, 15 rebounds, 3-of-4 from the line. But with the shot clock at :02 and the Bulls' defense holding strong, John Stockton forces up a 3 that hits the back of the rim so hard it springs all the way out past the left wing. This is MVP time," NBC analyst Bill Walton exclaims after Jordan's miss, as the Jazz set up in their half-court offense with the score tied at 82. LISTEN: ESPN senior writer David Fleming discusses the moment Scottie Pippen saved the Bulls on the ESPN Daily. Six magical words, so influential and controversial they inspired their own oral history. And a line that will ultimately set the table for the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls and "The Last Dance," the documentary that 23 years later will keep us all sane during a sports-less pandemic. A line so clever it rescues one legacy, rewrites another and destroys a third. It's a line loaded with fascinating cultural, statistical and historical subtext. But with 9.2 seconds left and Malone at the foul line with a chance to seal the win, Pippen conjures and delivers the single greatest line of trash talk in sports history. A future Hall of Famer, at this point Pippen remains something of an introvert, the guy who shrank from this exact kind of late-game spotlight in the 19 playoffs. Meanwhile, the Jazz are poised to steal Game 1 along with home-court advantage, and Chicago's fifth title and eventual second three-peat are suddenly in jeopardy.Īnd then, to the rescue steps Scottie Pippen. And now, for roughly 26 seconds, the basketball world is in chaos: Jordan is, for the time being, Err Jordan, a lowercase goat, and the voters who had narrowly selected Utah forward Karl Malone over Michael (986-957) for league MVP seem to have gotten it right. With 35.8 seconds left in Game 1 of the 1997 NBA Finals between the Chicago Bulls and the Utah Jazz, the greatest player in NBA history actually just bricked what should have been the winning free throw. You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browserīefore 'The Last Dance,' Scottie Pippen delivered six words of trash talk that changed NBA history
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