The NBA Finals always ensure to jot down a historical moment in its record books. The same was the case with the 1991 NBA Finals. Then, the Chicago Bulls and the Los Angeles Lakers squared off to ink history for two Hall of Fame legends. The game which saw the Windy City lifting championship became the only benchmark to compare Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson. While ‘His Airness’ took his first ring in the league, it sadly coincided with the retirement ‘Magic‘ who had led the Lakers to 5 Championships through the 1980s. Awe strikingly, it continues to make hefty ripples on discourses till now; this recent one is the latest in the row. 

In the latest ‘The 25/10 Show’ featuring Nick Young, the former Golden State Warriors champ speaks of his favorite Kobe Bryant and later jumps into a comparison between Bryant and MJ which acts as the trigger. Young opined that the ‘Black Mamba‘ has faced tough competition while Jordan couldn’t beat the tough ones like Magic Johnson. With this, Shady McCoy clearly disagreed.

The former shooting guard, Young, said, “You didn’t win against Magic, you didn’t win against Bird.” McCoy was taken aback since the ‘Black Cat’ did beat Magic in the 1991 Finals. He responded, “That’s not true, he beat Magic!” However, Young’s reassertion that “You didn’t win” got him to think and he said, “He caught that thing around that time?” mentioning the tragedy that befell upon the historic ‘first rookie to win NBA Final MVP’, which is HIV as the legend himself revealed to the public.

Young replied, “Yes, it was that same year. He had it while he was playing.” It caught McCoy off guard and he got mum for a second before the talk went on. Johnson’s HIV illness against the Bulls legend’s skills, is it fair? 

It is subjective to even ask, but some insights into the 1991 Finals may be good. 

The Finals and the face-off

In the 1991 Finals, Game 1 was won by the Lakers. Even though it was on a narrow margin, ‘Air Jordan’ was embarrassed defending the 6-ft-9 Magic. The on-air roasting of Michael Jordan is pretty famous for, “the big shot came up short” highlighting his limitations against much taller Johnson. In that matchup, Jordan helped the Bulls with 32 points, 8 rebounds, and 12 assists. On the other hand, the Lakers No. 32 added 19 points, 10 rebounds, and 11 assists. Despite having performed better than one of the greatest point guards ever, His Airness could not take the defeat lightly.

For Jordan, it was a game of inspiration. And like every time he got back in the next games along with the Chicago Bulls. In the entire series, the UNC alum averaged 30.4 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 11.4 assists. In comparison, Magic Johnson folded the gold and purple jersey with a defeat and a Finals average of 18.6 points, 8 rebounds, and 12.4 assists per game.

Does this support what Young said?

Trailing Young’s opinion Johnson’s potential could be glorified for his history of getting a ring as a rookie while the 5x NBA MVP took 7 years to win it. Then, what about the 6 championships Jordan got for the Bulls? The 3-peats Chicago got through 1991-1993 and 1996-1998 also had the signature of ‘MJ‘.

While Young in the show mentions Jordan as a “shining object,” jersey #23 had kept on breaking record after record from the only player ever to win 10 scoring titles to scoring  30+ points in 562 regular season games.

So, Magic had his superior physique and stunning records at the time of the face-off. Meanwhile, Jordan was on the verge of stardom. Then comes again Johnson with this health condition that might have pulled him down. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a second chance to see them brush against each other on the hard floor. 

Comparisons, as subjective as they can be, could get tangled amidst factors like age, performance, and health. Hence, the conundrum of “who is the best” could go a long way.