LeBron James Reacts to Horace Grant’s Remarkable Revenge Story Over Michael Jordan and Chicago Bulls

When Michael Jordan was at his peak in the NBA, rarely did the Chicago Bulls lose a game. Surprisingly though, the Bulls did face a bad defeat back in the MJ era. NBA veterans recently had a discussion about the same. They recalled the moment when the rising Orlando Magic once defeated the great Chicago Bulls.

When the Orlando Magic bullied the Michael Jordan-led Bulls

It was the 1995 NBA playoffs. And it was a surprise that the Orlando Magic reached the finals. Well, how could they, right? After all, the Bulls were in line. But as it turns out, they defeated the Bulls to reach the finals.

The speculative reasons may be that Michael Jordan had just returned from his sudden retirement. Or that former Bull Horace Grant was now with the Magic and wanted revenge. Well, according to league veterans who played during that era, both these reasons are equally contributive.

In the recent episode of Uninterrupted hosted by Paul Rivera, guests Penny Hardaway, Scott Burrell, and Maverick Carter discuss episodes 7 and 8 of the last dance.

Amongst talks of Michael Jordan’s emotional interview in episode 7 and reflection of his retirement in ’93 and subsequent return to the NBA, what they discussed a little shadily was the Orlando Magic vs Chicago Bulls game of 1995.

According to Penny Hardaway, the Bulls’ decision to let go of Horace Grant upset him. Once he joined the Magic, Grant apparently displayed his hatred for the Bulls.

Add to that the fact that Michael Jordan actually held Grant responsible for being the mole in the team. MJ believed that Grant delivered the internal ongoings to author Sam Smith, who wrote the controversial book The Jordan Rules.

Hardaway said, “We (the Magic) tried to make him as comfortable as possible and Horace Grant had the series of his life! He almost didn’t miss a shot the entire season!”

Grant ended up having per-game averages of 18.0 points and 11.0 rebounds.

The year was Jordan’s iconic “I’m back” year. However, it seems he wasn’t in his fittest basketball shape. Hardaway described how Jordan was out of shape. He said, “(Jordan) had no explosion; he had no lift, he wasn’t dunking the ball that he was usually dunking.”

Hardaway also revealed that Jordan’s form gave them a chance to go as high on the ladder as they did. Jordan averaged 31.0 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 2.5 steals a night in that series.

The aftermath of the defeat

Members of the Magic, including Shaquille O’Neal, propped Grant up on their shoulders after the win.  Hardaway revealed he had nothing to do with it because he “knew not to wake them up”.

Here he meant that he didn’t want to induce any bad blood, which would make his legendary opponents crush the team to death when they took their revenge.  Unfortunately for the Magic, that is exactly what happened.

In the 1995-96 season, the Bulls had a then-record 72 regular-season games and destroyed the Magic in the Eastern Conference Finals on the way to a championship. The Last Dance showed the video on one of Jordan’s press conference where he says Grant being carried off the court motivated him.

It seems the veterans’ real talk hit the right chord with players now as well. Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James responded to this part of the podcast, saying that he liked how candid the former players were. We’re not sure if James liked the Magic’s win or Jordan’s weakness, but that’s for him to know.