1992-93 NBA Finals

Result

Games

Finals MVP

Michael Jordan. Jordan averaged 41.0 points per game across the series, becoming the first player to win three consecutive Finals MVP awards since the honor was introduced in 1969.

Series context

The 1992-93 Finals completed Chicago's first three-peat, pitting the two-time defending champion Bulls against a Phoenix Suns team built around newly acquired regular-season MVP Charles Barkley. Chicago entered the series somewhat fatigued: several Bulls players, including Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, had gone straight from the 1992 Finals into the 'Dream Team' run at the Barcelona Olympics with almost no offseason rest, yet the team still compiled a 57-25 regular-season record. Phoenix, meanwhile, had traded for Barkley in the offseason and rode his MVP campaign to a franchise-record 62 wins, the best record in the league that season. Chicago took control early, winning both games in Chicago, Game 1 by 100-92 and Game 2, before the series shifted to Phoenix. The Suns kept their championship hopes alive with a dramatic triple-overtime win in Game 3, one of the longest games in Finals history, evening the series. Chicago won Game 4, but Phoenix forced a Game 6 by winning Game 5 at home. With the series poised to return to Phoenix for a potential Game 7, Chicago closed things out in Game 6 in Phoenix behind one of the most famous shots in Finals history: with the Bulls trailing by two points and time running out, Horace Grant passed out of a double-team to a wide-open John Paxson, who drained a three-pointer from about 25 feet with 3.9 seconds left to give Chicago a 99-98 win and the championship. The title made the Bulls the first team since the Boston Celtics' run from 1959 to 1966 to win three consecutive NBA championships, and Michael Jordan, who averaged 41.0 points per game in the series, became the first player in history to win three straight Finals MVP awards. For Charles Barkley, the Finals appearance was the only one of his Hall of Fame career, and Phoenix's loss left the franchise without the championship that had eluded it since entering the league. The series is remembered as the dramatic capstone to Chicago's first dynasty run, coming just months before Jordan's surprise retirement from basketball in October 1993 to pursue a career in professional baseball, a decision that would open the door for a new champion to emerge the following season. Jordan's Finals scoring average of 41.0 points per game set a Finals record, and he punctuated it with a 55-point outburst at Chicago Stadium in Game 4. Both teams survived difficult early-round tests to get there: Phoenix, the No. 1 seed, nearly became the first top seed to lose to a No. 8 seed when the Lakers took a 2-0 lead in the first round before the Suns rallied to win in seven, then beat San Antonio in six games in the semifinals and outlasted Seattle in a seven-game Western Conference finals in which Phoenix set NBA postseason records by attempting 64 free throws and making 57 of them in the deciding game. Chicago, meanwhile, had to erase its own 0-2 deficit against New York in the Eastern Conference finals, eventually winning that series in six games. The triple-overtime Game 3 in Phoenix was only the second game in Finals history to require three extra periods.

Sources

• Wikipedia - 1993 NBA Finals
• Basketball-Reference - 1993 NBA Finals
• Basketball-Reference - 1993 NBA Playoffs