20 Years Later: Nick Anderson stole the ball

May 7, 1995 was one of the best days in Orlando Magic history. Twenty years ago, Nick Anderson stole the ball from Michael Jordan, making him look human.

It is considered one of the greatest, if not the greatest, moments in Orlando Magic history.

With 16 seconds left, the Chicago Bulls led by one point with the ball after Dennis Scott tried forcing a pass to a cutting Anfernee Hardaway for a turnover. Michael Jordan received the ball at the free throw line with Nick Anderson the only one left to hound him.

And hound him he would.

Anderson got beat initially, but caught Jordan looking the other way, poking the ball away from behind for Hardaway to start a fast break where Horace Grant finished things off for a Magic win.

From Susan Slusser of the Orlando Sentinel:

"The Chicago Bulls were surprised by the means the Orlando Magic used to beat them, but they shouldn’t have been. They’ve seen it before. In the last regular-season meeting at Orlando Arena, Nick Anderson tipped the ball from the Bulls, and Anfernee Hardaway dunked the game-winner with less then a second left. On Sunday, with the Magic trailing by one with 10 seconds to go, Anderson duplicated his feat by knocking the ball loose from Michael Jordan as Orlando went on to a 94-91 victory in Game 1 of the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinals."

Orlando had stunned Chicago, and stunned the NBA, for a 1-0 series lead and a 94-91 win at the Orlando Arena. It is so a part of Magic history, that we really do not think about it any other way.

Nick Anderson is always going to steal the ball from Michael Jordan.

Thursday was the 20th anniversary of that great game. And it really was a great game. The Magic held a seven-point lead in the early fourth quarter. That was the largest lead of the game.

Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen both struggled from the floor, shooting a combined 10 for 33. Jordan missed two free throws, had the famous steal and missed Scottie Pippen on the ensuing possession for an easy layup on a bad pass all in the final two minutes. Shaquille O’Neal made — MADE — 12 of 16 free throws including two big free throws late.

Jordan had bruised his hand in the clinching Game Four against the Hornets and was still having trouble dribbling and shooting entering Game One.

These are the details that get forgotten. It was an incredible game.

So, for the 20th anniversary of the game, I decided it was due for a re-watch.

Thanks to an intrepid YouTube user, the entire national broadcast of the game (starting at the 6:30ish mark of the first quarter, thanks Rockets-Jazz Game 5) is on YouTube and can be found in the Orlando Magic Video Vault.

Re-watching the game you learn little things that history forgot and get to relive a great moment as it happens, sensing the tide of history grow around you. The whole game is about two hours on tape and I live-tweeted it since there were no games on Thursday night.

Happy Anniversary!

Next: Setting the stage

Of course, we know that was not true as the Rockets eventually won the title.

May 7, 1995 was actually quite a huge day in the NBA Playoffs in general. NBC played a NBA Playoffs triple header. It started at Madison Square Garden where Reggie Miller famously scored eight points in nine seconds as the Pacers stunned the Knicks 107-105.

The second game was a Game Five between the Jazz and the Rockets. Hakeem Olajuwon scored 33 points and Clyde Drexler had 31 points as the Rockets stole the series 95-91 at the Delta Center. No other Rockets players scored in double figures.

The Magic and Bulls though was the main event. Well, Jurassic Park making its television debut at 8 p.m. ET was the main event, but whatever.

Shaquille O’Neal was an animal on the inside. He scored 18 of his 26 points in the first half. The Bulls really had no answer for him other than to throw their “three-headed monster” — Will Perdue, Bill Wennington and Luc Longley — at him. They could do very little. O’Neal ended up averaging 24.3 points and 13.2 rebounds per game in the six-game series.

The illegal defense rule was a bit confusing back in the day. It pretty much prevented zone defenses. It was amended in 2000 loosening the restrictions on zone defenses.

Flopping is not new.

This is a recurring storyline throughout the game. The NBC broadcast actually shows a bulky adhesive on Jordan’s hand. And it is his right hand. Jordan started the game shooting horribly and taking a good chunk of Chicago’s shots. He was really out of rhythm. Maybe the injury did play a big part.

We will have to stay tuned to find out.

Next: If Michael Jordan had Twitter

Seriously, could you imagine Michael Jordan playing with Twitter? All the “he’s not Magic Johnson, he’s so selfish” tweets and picking apart his play — especially after retirement. This game would have caused a humongous social media firestorm with Skip Bayless spitting venom and hot takes so fast, not even he could control it.

It would have been bad. As we will see later in the game. This? This was a good play from Scott.

Some explanation here.

My family occasionally got seats underneath the basket near the Magic bench. I would have been six at the time of this game. So always one of the fun parts of sitting there was that we were in charge of the Superman velcro.

They installed velcro along the table on the baseline underneath the basket. Every time Shaq dunked, we put a Superman sticker on the velcro. When you are six, these things are fun. I remember it very well. One of my favorite parts of going to the game.

Next: The 3-point revolution

One of the fun things about watching old games is the old advertisements. Does anyone remember All Sport? I think it was a competitor for Gatorade before Powerade came around. It has gone the way of the dinosaurs, pre-Jurassic Park at least.

Perhaps the biggest difference between the NBA 20 years ago and the NBA today is the 3-point line. The NBA actually moved the 3-point line in one foot before the 1995 season.

Teams just did not use the 3-point line. The league average for 3-point attempts was 15.3 in 1995 compared to 22.5 this year. That is a 47.1 percent increase in average 3-point attempts in 20 years!

The Rockets took the most 3-pointers in 1995 at 21.4 per game — not even at this year’s average! The Magic took 17.2 per game and just 13 in Game One — six each from Nick Anderson and Dennis Scott.

https://twitter.com/OMagicDaily/status/596459230237958145

Next: Shaq is cruising

Stuff looked very different when he hatched out of his egg. Around 2000 or so, they made Stuff skinny. He is decidedly larger in 1995.

I left my Jurassic Park DVD at my parent’s house, so I did not get to complete my night the way I wanted. Checked AMC, they are not airing it too. I feel very disappointed.

Shortly after this, Penny Hardaway stubbed his toe trying to dribble through a trap drawing a foul. It is the Playoffs, injuries will happen.

Next: The Horace Grant Theory

On the call for this game was the stellar broadcast crew of Marv Albert and Matt Guokas with Jim Gray working the sideline. If I am not mistaken, Bob Costas and Bill Walton called the Knicks-Pacers game earlier in the day. Costas would work his way from the Garden back to the studio probably by halftime of the second game to anchor the desk. Costas is just that good.

But so too are Marv and Guokas. Guokas was a longtime national broadcaster before taking some time off and then returning to broadcast Magic games.

I often talk very highly of Horace Grant and his influence on this team. It is probably just the observation of the pattern that the Magic got so significantly better by really just adding him.

It was this play and several others throughout the game that proved this theory to be pretty accurate. Grant makes all these little hustle plays and defensive rotations and just always found himself in the right spot. He cleaned up a lot of messes. And was always timely with his jumper.

Next: Bad blood in Chicago

I mean, seriously:

Phil Jackson famously said the Bulls were going to let Horace Grant beat them because they believed he could not. Grant beat them time and time again throughout the series.

Jonathan Abrams of Grantland wrote this on Grant’s relationship with the Bulls for his oral history:

"Horace Grant was a reliable two-way power forward who had already won three championships with the Bulls. Chicago believed it had a deal to re-sign Grant, but Grant bristled over not being signed earlier. In July 1994, he bolted to Orlando for $17 million over five years. “I left on a clear conscience,” Grant told the Orlando Sentinel. “The [Bulls] organization had the problems, not me. When we were winning, they kept everything under the rug, but now that they’re struggling, you see all these things coming out. Obviously Jerry [Krause] is a liar.”"

What I found interesting or did not remember was that Michael Jordan had some really choice words for Grant too. It was some really bad blood that went deeper than just bad contract negotiations.

Next: Jordan is rearing to go

Jordan scored seven points and made three of his final four shots. But we will get to the end soon…

Seriously, he made it sound like Kerr spent years in Orlando with his familiarity with the Orlando Arena.

Next: Ron Harper as Tayshaun Prince

Ron Harper played in 39 minutes over five games taking 14 field goal attempts in the series. In 1996, Harper started in all 80 games, averaging 23.6 minutes per game. He became an integral part of the Bulls three championships the next three season.

Yes, yes it is.

Next: Shaq makes them when it counts

Unlike Shaq’s game, Penny’s game was really uneven. He scored 16 points on 5-for-12 shooting and missed three of his nine free throw attempts. It was hardly an even performance. The ball stagnated and the team struggled offensively when it was not dumping it in to Shaq.

Credit goes to the Bulls for limiting the Magic’s fast break opportunities. They forced the Magic into slowing the game down, something they would have to do all series to win.

With the Magic in the bonus early, there is no doubt NBA coaches today would be hacking Shaq to send him to the line. He was a 53.3 percent free throw shooter in the regular season. But, as noted, he shot the ball extremely well in Game One, making some big free throws down the stretch.

Bill Wennington had 14 points and four rebounds off the bench, probably playing the best of the Bulls’ three 7-footers.

Next: The moment

From Abrams again:

"Magic play-by-play announcer David Steele: The confidence really mushroomed after winning Game 1 against Chicago, when Nick Anderson stole the ball against Michael Jordan late in the game. That’s probably one of the great victories in franchise history."

"Magic head coach Brian Hill: As [Jordan] was coming over half court, Nick kind of got a little piece of it and it got away from him a little bit, and then [Anderson] got a little piece of it again and we ended up with a steal and a fast-break layup by Horace."

"Nick Anderson: I remember in that first game when we beat them, reporters made it seem like I said that 45 is not like 23. And then the next game, he came out wearing no. 23. He was sending a message that he was still no. 23."

Abrams notes the actual quote was: “Here is the actual postgame quote from Anderson: “Number 23, he could just blow right by you. Number 45, he revs up, but doesn’t really take off.'”

Jordan definitely was not the same. Whether that was because of the wrist or him still getting into basketball shape, we will never know.

Seriously, the Magic had control for most of the game. But the Bulls did not play their best game either. They were a bit out of sync and still trying to figure out how to play together against a solid defensive team.

Orlando definitely had some of that youth streak in it though. The team had a chance to put the clamps down up eight early in the fourth quarter, but turned the ball over and struggled to shoot.

This was going to be a great series.

But the moment at the end of Game One was the one that would define the series and become legendary to Magic fans.

Next: What we learned from the oral history of the 1995 Magic