1990-91 NBA Finals

Result

Games

Finals MVP

Michael Jordan. Jordan averaged 31.2 points on 56% shooting with 11.4 assists per game and was named Finals MVP as Chicago won its first championship.

Series context

The 1990-91 Finals marked a generational turning point for the NBA: Michael Jordan's first trip to the Finals against Magic Johnson's Lakers, in what would prove to be Johnson's last Finals appearance as a player. Chicago had assembled a franchise-record 61-win season behind Jordan, who captured his fifth consecutive scoring title, and under coach Phil Jackson, who had installed the triangle offense to help Jordan trust his teammates and unlock a more balanced attack featuring Scottie Pippen, Horace Grant, and Bill Cartwright. The Lakers, still centered on Magic Johnson in the twilight of the Showtime era, won 58 games under first-year coach Mike Dunleavy after Pat Riley's departure to the broadcast booth. Los Angeles stole Game 1 in Chicago, 93-91, on a late shot by Sam Perkins, and it appeared the veteran Lakers might slow the ascendant Bulls. But Chicago responded emphatically, routing Los Angeles 107-86 in Game 2, a game remembered for Jordan's iconic switch-handed layup in mid-air after eluding Sam Perkins near the rim. Game 3 went to overtime in Los Angeles, with Jordan hitting a clutch jumper late in regulation to force the extra period before the Bulls pulled away, 104-96. The series turned decisively in Game 4, when injuries to James Worthy and Byron Scott further depleted an already-thin Lakers roster, and Chicago cruised to a 97-82 win. The Bulls closed out the championship in Game 5 back in Chicago, 108-101, with John Paxson contributing a strong scoring performance down the stretch. The victory gave Chicago its first NBA championship in franchise history and Jordan his first Finals MVP award, the first of six he would eventually win. Just as significantly, it marked the symbolic end of the 1980s era defined by the Lakers-Celtics rivalry and the passing of the torch to a new generation led by Jordan. Magic Johnson would be diagnosed with HIV and announce his retirement from playing just months later, in November 1991, making this his final Finals appearance as an active player. For Chicago, the title launched what would become a dynasty, with the Bulls going on to win two more consecutive championships before Jordan's first retirement in 1993, forming the foundation of the storied three-peat era that followed. Chicago's road to the Finals ran through a sweep of Detroit's defending champion 'Bad Boys' Pistons in the Eastern Conference finals, a measure of revenge for a bruising seven-game loss to the same Pistons the year before; the Bulls had also swept New York and beaten Philadelphia in five games earlier in the playoffs. The Lakers, for their part, swept a young Houston team and eliminated Golden State's high-scoring 'Run TMC' squad before beating Portland in six games in the Western Conference finals. This was also the first NBA Finals broadcast by NBC, which had taken over national television rights after CBS had carried the league for the previous 17 years; Game 1, played on a Sunday afternoon, was the last Finals game ever televised in an afternoon window rather than in prime time.

Sources

• Wikipedia - 1991 NBA Finals
• Basketball-Reference - 1991 NBA Finals