On May 10, 1995, the NBA did not just get a playoff game. It got a television event wearing black sneakers and a No. 23 jersey again.
Chicago’s 104-94 road win over Orlando in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals drew a 7.9 rating on TNT and reached an average of more than five million homes, making it, at the time, the most-watched NBA game ever on cable television.
The game had everything the league could have asked for. Michael Jordan was newly back from baseball, still shaking off rust, still carrying the strange visual shock of No. 45 before switching back to No. 23 after Game 1. Orlando had Shaquille O’Neal, Penny Hardaway, Horace Grant and the swagger of a young team that truly believed it had arrived. This was not nostalgia against youth. It was box office against box office.
Jordan scored 38 points as Chicago evened the series 1-1, answering Orlando’s Game 1 win and the famous Nick Anderson line that No. 45 did not explode like No. 23 used to. The Bulls needed that answer badly, because the Magic were no regular upstart. They had gone 57-25, posted a 39-2 home record, and would eventually win the series in six games on their way to the NBA Finals.
That is what makes the rating so fascinating now. It was not the Finals. It was not even a conference final. It was a second-round game on cable, and still America tuned in like something historic might happen because, well, something historic usually did when Jordan walked into the frame.
The Bulls won the night. The Magic won the series. TNT got a record. And the NBA got another reminder that Jordan’s return was not just a sports story.
It was appointment television.
