’92 Finals game 1, the shrug

It’s Jun 3, ’92. In Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Portland Trail Blazers, Jordan set records for most points in a first half (35) and most made three pointers in a half (6). Even more iconic than the actual performance was what’s come to be known as the Michael Jordan Shrug.

It goes back to some trash talk before the ’92 Finals even started. Clyde Drexler was the centerpiece of that Blazers team, and one of the biggest stars of that NBA generation. Drexler was considered Jordan’s #1 rival at the time, and the two shared the cover of a Sports Illustrated issue before the playoffs began.

Clyde’s teammates suggested that “The Glide” was a better three point shooter than Michael. If you want to get technical, they were right.

Jordan shot just 27% on threes in the ’91-’92 regular season, and they weren’t a large part of his game. Only 11.5% of his field goal attempts came from behind the arc. Drexler, on the other hand, was a 33.7% shooter from downtown that year, with 22.9% of his shots coming from deep. Jordan’s comeback to the Blazers’ trash talk?

He essentially said:

“Clyde is a better three point shooter than I choose to be”

Then came the Finals.

Including his masterful performance in Game 1, Jordan shot 42.9% on threes in the Finals, whereas an ice-cold Drexler made just 15% of his. As fellow Hall of Famer Magic Johnson learned later that very same summer in Barcelona, talking trash to MJ is always a bad idea. If he wants to be a better three point shooter than you? He will be.

“When my shot started falling from everywhere, I ran to the 3-point line.”

Said Jordan, who was just 27 for 100 from 3-point range in the regular season and 5 for 16 in the playoffs. Drexler took 338 3-point shots in the regular season and made 114.

All those first-half points came despite a stretch of more than 5 minutes at the start of the second quarter when Jordan was on the bench, resting. And they came so thick and fast — and from so far away — that at one point the NBA’s Most Valuable Player nailed a 3-pointer, then gave a shrug as if to say:

“What can you do?”

The answer from the Blazers.. Nothing.

“I was in a zone, The 3s felt like free throws. I took them and they went in.”

Jordan said.

The blowout tied for the third-largest in championship-series history, just two points shy of the biggest — Washington’s 117–82 win over Seattle on June 4, ’78.

Jordan made a shambles of the ballyhooed individual battle with Clyde Drexler, who scored 16 points for the Trail Blazers.