#OTD, January 13 of 1999, Bulls’ Michael Jordan announced his second retirement from the NBA
With Phil Jackson’s contract expiring, the pending departures of Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman looming, and being in the latter stages of an owner-induced lockout of NBA players, Michael Jordan retired for the second time on January 13, 1999.
Due to a lockout, the 1998-99 season did not start until February 5, 1999, after a new six-year Collective Bargaining Agreement was reached between the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association. Due to this, the last game Michael Jordan played for the Chicago Bulls was one of the greatest clutch performances in NBA Finals history during the 1997-98 season.
The Chicago Bulls returned to the Delta Center for Game 6 on June 14, 1998, leading the series 3–2 versus Utah Jazz. Jordan executed a series of plays, considered to be one of the greatest clutch performances in NBA Finals history. With the Bulls trailing 86–83 with 41.9 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, Phil Jackson called a timeout. When play resumed, Jordan received the inbound pass, drove to the basket, and hit a shot over several Jazz defenders, cutting Utah lead to 86–85. Then, with 5.2 seconds left, Jordan gave Chicago an 87–86 lead with a game-winning jumper, the climactic shot of his Bulls career.
Once again, Jordan was voted the Finals MVP, having led all scorers averaging 33.5 points per game, including 45 in the deciding Game 6. Jordan’s six Finals MVPs is a record.
Despite his January 1999 claim that he was “99.9% certain” that he would never play another NBA game, in the summer of 2001 Jordan expressed interest in making another comeback, this time with his new team. On January 19, 2000, Jordan returned to the NBA not as a player, but as part-owner and president of basketball operations for the Washington Wizards.
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