Shawn Kemp makes Michael Jordan admission about 1996 NBA Finals downfall

History may have taught us that Michael Jordan’s NBA Finals resume is unassailable, due in large part to the fact that MJ’s Chicago Bulls were a perfect 6-0 when the Larry O’Brien Trophy was on the line. And while nobody can take that perfect 6-0 record away from Michael Jordan, we can simply point out the facts. While MJ was superhuman more often than not when the lights shined brightest, in one particular NBA Finals series, the man who was compared to God by Larry Bird in 1986 looked remarkably mortal.

In the 1996 NBA Finals, as the Chicago Bulls were zeroing in on completing what would go down as the most dominant season in NBA history, Michael Jordan was rather pedestrian by traditional MJ standards. Against the Seattle Supersonics, Jordan averaged 27.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.2 assists with 42/32/84 shooting splits. Now while most stars would look at a series-long stat line like this and remain content, for MJ, it was a departure compared to what we had grown accustomed to. This was the only NBA Finals series in which MJ scored under 31 points per game. It was his second-lowest scoring average in a postseason series ever, and the 42 percent from the field was his third-worst shooting percentage in the Playoffs.

So considering how well the Sonics defended Michael Jordan in comparison to other teams MJ and the Bulls faced in the NBA Finals, how did Chicago manage to hold off Seattle? Sonics power forward Shawn Kemp recently weighed in on All The Smoke podcast, giving the majority of the credit to former Bulls rival Dennis Rodman, who came to Chicago ahead of the 1995-96 season and proved his value immediately, helping to lead the Bulls to what was at the time a league-best 72-10 record and eventually, a fourth NBA Title.