Ron Harper was confused as to why Michael Jordan offered his apologies.

The Chicago Bulls expected Michael Jordan to explode on any given night. Dropping anywhere between 30 and 50 points in a game was a regular thing during Mike’s prime. As the best scorer of his generation, the “Black Cat” had a green light to get to his spots and jack up shots.

Interestingly, in one game, Jordan felt guilty after dropping 55 points on the Washington Bullets (now Wizards) in Game 2 of the 1997 NBA Playoffs.

Jordan wasn’t a ball-hog

A confused Ron Harper accepted his apology but explained that he didn’t have to say sorry.

“He told us he was very sorry for scoring all the points. I told him he had nothing to feel sorry for,” Harper said in 1997, per the Chicago Tribune.

“He had a very sensational game. And as a team, we have to definitely improve the way we play. We can’t rely on him to score all the time. But since he did score all the points… he did have two assists though. He was very unselfish,” Harper said with a laugh.

Jordan was indeed on fire that night. He shot 22 of 35 from the field or 62.5 percent. He was 1-of-2 from deep and was a perfect 10-of-10 from the free-throw line. In addition to the two assists, he also had seven rebounds and two steals. His efforts powered the Bulls to a 109-104 win over the Bullets.

A complete mismatch

“Air Jordan” averaged 37.3 points in those three games against the Bullets. His stellar performance in that series isn’t discussed that much by diehard fans, probably because everyone expected the Bulls to annihilate the eighth-seeded team.

But Rod Strickland, Washington’s point guard at that time, remembers how disgruntled the entire team was. He also felt bad about Calbert Cheaney who endured Jordan’s offensive outburst.

“I don’t know if he gave us a 50-piece, I think, or maybe 40-something,” he said. “I never forget Calbert Cheaney being destroyed, and he walked in another room after the game. I was like, ‘Man, get out of there. Come on in here. We good.’ But Mike is Mike. … Mike was able to dominate when he needed to and how he wanted to. Mike was a mismatch. We know that.”

To be fair to Cheaney, he dropped 26 points on Jordan, which is a major feat. But Cheaney seemed to have forgotten to play defense and paid the price. MJ toyed with him, pump-faked him to death, drained fadeaways in his face, and shot with pinpoint accuracy.

Virgil’s work has appeared in various local and international newspapers/magazines. He joined Basketball Network in November 2021 and has been writing mostly about old-school topics from the ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s.