June 16, 1996: Michael Jordan Completes His Comeback

June 16, 1996: The Chicago Bulls defeat the Seattle SuperSonics 87-75, to take Game 6 and the NBA Championship.

Michael Jordan thus completes his comeback from his "exile," after the death of his father, James Jordan; his not-really-a-suspension, due to his gambling addiction; and, as comedian Jordan Peele would later say, "your baseball career, now that was a tragedy!"

He sat out the 1993-94 season, and the Bulls lost the Eastern Conference Semifinal to the New York Knicks, who then lost the NBA Finals to the Houston Rockets. In March 1995, Jordan returned, or was allowed to, but, like Muhammad Ali, fighting Joe Frazier after only 2 tuneup fights, may have needed more time: The Bulls got swept in 4 straight by the Orlando Magic, who then got swept in the NBA Finals by the Rockets.

But in 1995-96, the Bulls dominated the NBA all season long, winning 72 games for a new regular-season record. With Phil Jackson coaching them, and Jordan, 1991-93 "threepeat" holdover Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Ron Harper, Luc Longley and Toni Kukoc, the Bulls swept the Miami Heat in 3 straight, beat the Knicks 4 games to 1, and swept the Magic in 4 straight to win the Eastern Conference title, setting up a Finals against the Seattle SuperSonics.

It surprised no one that the Bulls won the 1st 3 games, 107-90 and 92-88 at the United Center in Chicago, and 108-86 at the KeyArena in Seattle. The Sonics took Game 4 at home, 107-86. But when the Sonics also took Game 5 in Chicago, 89-78, it put more than just the Bulls' status as a contender for the title of "greatest team of all time," but their title this time. People began to talk about the Sonics maybe becoming the 1st team to come back in the Finals from 3-0 down to win it. Only the 1951 Knicks had even forced a Game 7 before losing.

Game 6 was played in Seattle on Sunday, June 16 -- Father's Day, a fact not lost on Jordan. He scored 22 points, and led the Bulls to an 87-75 victory, and their 4th title in 6 years. He was named the Most Valuable Player of the Finals for the 4th time, but it was the title he cared about, as the TV cameras caught him in the locker room, tearfully hugging the Larry O'Brien Trophy.

The Bulls would go on to make it 6 NBA Championships in 8 years, with Jordan being named Finals MVP every time. Then, general manager Jerry Krause began to break them up, thinking he could build a new dynasty without Jordan -- or Jackson, for that matter. He was wrong: He was fired as GM after the 2003 season, and died in 2017. In the 26 seasons since, the Bulls have won just 5 Playoff series, reaching the Conference Finals twice, in 2011 and 2015, after Krause left.

The Sonics? They ceased to exist in 2008, without ever having been to another Finals (the only one they won was in 1979), and were moved to become the Oklahoma City Thunder (where they reached the Finals and lost in 2012).

(UPDATE: The Thunder won the NBA Championship in 2025. The Bulls still haven't made the NBA Finals, and the Conference Finals only twice.)

The Bulls' 72-10 regular-season record was surpassed by the 2016 Golden State Warriors, who went 73-9, but lost Game 7 of the NBA Finals.

Were the '96 Bulls the greatest team of all time? The argument in their favor is Jordan.

But the question in comparing them to other teams is not, "Who's going to guard Jordan?" On the 1967 Philadelphia 76ers, Hal Greer. On the 1970 New York Knicks, Walt Frazier. On the 1972 Los Angeles Lakers, Jerry West. On the 1983 76ers, Maurice Cheeks. On the 1985 Lakers, Magic Johnson. On the 1986 Boston Celtics, Larry Bird would personally take up the challenge. On the 1989 Detroit Pistons, the man who shut Jordan down better than anyone, Joe Dumars. On the 2000 Los Angeles Lakers, Kobe Bryant. On the 2012 Miami Heat, Dwyane Wade.

No, the real question, for any Bulls team with Jordan, whether it's the 1st threepeat with Bill Cartwright at center or the 2nd one with Luc Longley, is, against those teams, is, how are they going to stop, respectively: Wilt Chamberlain, Willis Reed, Chamberlain again, Moses Malone, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Robert Parish, Bill Laimbeer, Shaquille O'Neal or LeBron James.

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June 16, 1996 was, as I said, a Sunday -- Father's Day. Football was out of season. Hockey season had ended 6 days earlier, when the Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup, completing a 4-game sweep over the Florida Pnathers.

And these Major League Baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians, 5-4 at Yankee Stadium. Andy Pettitte outpitched Dennis Martínez. At that point, Martínez had won 239 games in the major leagues, Pettitte 23. When their careers were over, Pettitte had won 256, Martínez 245.

Bernie Williams went 4-for-5 with an RBI. Tino Martinez went 2-for-4 with 3 RBIs. Rookie Derek Jeter did not start, entered the game as a defensive replacement, and went 0-for-1.

* The New York Mets lost the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-4 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. The Mets took a 4-3 lead into the bottom of the 8th, and blew it.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Texas Rangers, 10-9 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves, 3-2 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The Florida Marlins beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-2 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Cincinnati Reds bat the Montreal Expos, 7-0 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Roger Salkeld pitched a 4-hit shutout.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the San Diego Padres, 8-4 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Tony Gwynn went 0-for-3 with a walk, and had an RBI on a fielder's choice.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Kansas City Royals, 13-5 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City. Brady Anderson, in his outlier year, went 3-for-5 with 2 home runs, a walk and 5 RBIs. Cal Ripken went 3-for-5 with a walk.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 10-9 at Milwaukee County Stadium.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Detroit Tigers, 4-1 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 11-3 at Coors Field in Denver.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the California Angels, 6-4 at Anaheim Stadium (now Angel Stadium of Anaheim).

* And the Seattle Mariners beat the Chicago White Sox, 7-6 at the Kingdome in Seattle. Edgar Martínez went 2-for-3 with a walk and 4 RBIs. Ken Griffey Jr. went 2-for-4 with a walk.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the Houston Astros, 8-7 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Barry Bonds went 0-for-4 with a walk. For the Astros, Derek Bell went 4-for-4 with 3 RBIs.

April 13, 2008: The End of the Seattle SuperSonics -- For Now

April 13, 2008: Although it is not yet official, the Seattle SuperSonics play their last game. They beat the Dallas Mavericks, 99-95 at the KeyArena. Earl Watson leads the Sonics with 21 points, and rookie Kevin Durant scored 19. In defeat, Dirk Nowitzki leads all scorers with 32.

The SuperSonics were Seattle's 1st true major league sports team. Before that, the city had the University of Washington, Seattle University, and the Seattle Metropolitans of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, 1917 Stanley Cup winners, but they folded in 1926. The team known at various times as the Seattle Indians, the Seattle Rainiers and the Seattle Angels had won 7 Pennants, but they were all in the Pacific Coast League.

Losing the Sonics, a team that existed for 41 years, made the Playoffs 22 times, reaching 6 Conference Finals, winning 3 Conference Championships and the 1979 NBA title was a blow to the Queen City of the Northwest.

And, the thing is, it didn't seem to make any sense. Seattle's a big city: 650,000 people in the city, 4.4 million people in the metropolitan area. The arena was relatively new: It opened in 1994. Attendance wasn't an issue: Although their last 3 seasons in Seattle were competitively terrible, the attendance was good (15,955 in the next-to-last season, before they officially became a lame duck and dropped to 13,355).

Granted, since then, Oklahoma City has strongly supported the team. It proved to be a good city for the NBA. But they should have gotten an expansion team, not taken somebody else's team.

The NBA did a "Cleveland Browns" with the Sonics: The Thunder could take the organization and the players, but not the history or the trademarks. They do not hang banners for the titles won by the Sonics. The NBA committed itself to restoring the Sonics, but, through the 2021-22 season, has not done so.

UPDATE: The original version of the Sonics never had a team Hall of Fame. But they did retire 6 uniform numbers: 1, for 1970s and '80s guard Gus Williams; 10, for 1980s and '90s guard Nate McMillan; 19, for 1970s guard and head coach Lenny Wilkens; 24, for 1970s forward Spencer Haywood; 32, for 1970s and '80s guard Fred Brown; and 43, for 1970s and '80s guard Jack Sikma. They also raised a banner in honor of Bo Blackburn, who broadcast for them from their debut in 1967 until 1992.

Should the franchise be re-established, they would be entitled to re-raise those banners, as well as for their 1979 NBA Championship; their Western Conference Championships of 1978, 1979 and 1996; and their Division Championships of 1979, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2005.

Wilkens, Brown and Blackburn have been elected to the State of Washington Sports Hall of Fame. So have 1990s guard Gary Payton, 1990s forward Detlef Schrempf (also a University of Washington graduate), and forward Steve Hawes, a UW graduate who played only the 1983-84 season with the Sonics.

For now, the Thunder do not have a team Hall of Fame, but are honoring the Sonics' retired numbers. To those, they have added 4, for 2000s and '10s forward Nick Collison. The only Thunder personnel yet elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame have been forward Carmelo Anthony, who played the 2017-18 season for them; and Billy Donovan, their head coach from 2015 to 2020, but elected on the basis of having coached the University of Florida to back-to-back National Championships in 2006 and '07.

There is an Oklahoma Hall of Fame, for citizens of the State in all walks of life, in Oklahoma City, but not yet an Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame. 2007-16 forward Kevin Durant (taken in the team's last NBA Draft as the Sonics) and 2008-19 guard Russell Westbrook were elected to it while still with the Thunder. General manager Sam Presti was elected after the 2025 NBA Championship.

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April 13, 2008 was a Sunday. There were 5 other games in the NBA that day:

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Miami Heat, 84-76 at the Quicken Loans Arena (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Toronto Raptors, 91-84 at The Palace in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan.

* The Orlando Magic beat the Chicago Bulls, 104-84 at the United Center in Chicago.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Houston Rockets, 111-94 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver. Allen Iverson scored 33 for the Nugs.

* And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the San Antonio Spurs, 106-85 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.

These games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees lost to their arch-rivals, the Boston Red Sox, 8-5 at Fenway Park in Boston. Daisuke Matsuzaka was the winning pitcher, while Phil Hughes didn't get an out in the 3rd inning. David Ortiz did not play, but the other main steroid cheat, Manny Ramirez, went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. Of the Yankees' steroid users, Jason Giambi hit a home run, but Alex Rodriguez went 0-for-5. Derek Jeter did not play.

* The New York Mets lost to the Milwaukee Brewers, 9-7 at Shea Stadium. Gabe Kapler and Rickie Weeks hit home runs for the Brew Crew, David Wright for the Metropolitans.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-5 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. In the top of the 10th inning, Carlos Zambrano grounded out, but it allowed Ronny Cedeño to score the winning run. Mark DeRosa hit a home run for the Cubs, Jayson Werth and Eric Bruntlett for the Phils.

* The Washington Nationals beat the Atlanta Braves, 5-4 at Nationals Park in Washington.

* The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Baltimore Orioles, 6-2 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds, 9-1 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Ken Griffey Jr. went 0-for-4.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Oakland Athletics, 7-1 at Progressive Field in Cleveland. 

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 11-0 at U.S. Cellular Field (now Rate Field) in Chicago. Javier Vázquez pitched 7 innings of 5-hit shutout ball. Matt Thornton and Nick Masset completed the 6-hit shutout. Paul Konerko went 2-for-5 with a home run and 5 RBIs. Joe Crede hit a grand slam.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Minnesota Twins, 5-1 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Texas Rangers, 5-4 at Rangers Ballpark (now Choctaw Stadium) in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. Joe Inglett hit a sacrifice fly in the top of the 10th inning, to score Marco Scutaro with the winning run.

* The Houston Astros beat the Florida Marlins, 5-1 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 13-5 at Chase Field in Phoenix.

* The San Diego Padres beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, 1-0 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. How many Padre pitchers does it take to pitch a 5-hit shutout? On this afternoon, 5: Greg Maddux, 2 hits over 5 innings; Joe Thatcher, a hit in the 6th; Cla Meredith, a hitless 7th; Heath Bell, a hit in the 8th; and Trevor Hoffman, a hit in the 9th. The only run of the game came in the top of the 4th, Jim Edmonds scoring on a sacrifice fly by Paul McAnulty.

* The San Francisco Giants beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-4 at AT&T Park (now Oracle Park) in San Francisco.

* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Seattle Mariners, 10-5 at Safeco Field (now T-Mobile Park) in Seattle. Ichiro Suzuki went 0-for-3, but drew 2 walks and stole a base.

Football was out of season. The NHL was in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and 4 games were played:

* The New Jersey Devils beat their arch-rivals, the New York Rangers, 4-3 at Madison Square Garden. John Madden (no relation to the football coach, broadcaster and video game impresario) scored the winning goal, 6:01 into overtime. Unfortunately for me, that was the only game the Devils won in that series.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Boston Bruins beat the Montreal Canadiens, 2-1 at the TD Banknorth Garden (now the TD Garden) in Boston. Marc Savard scored the winning goal, 9:25 into overtime. Marc is not related to Canadiens legend Serge Savard, although Serge does have a son named Marc.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Washington Capitals, 2-0 at the Verizon Center (now the Capital One Arena) in Washington.

* And the Calgary Flames beat the San Jose Sharks, 4-3 at the Saddledome in Calgary.

And in English soccer, Manchester United beat Arsenal, 2-1 at Old Trafford in Salford. Owen Hargreaves scored the winning goal in the 72nd minute. This didn't quite clinch the Premier League title for United, but it did pretty much knock Arsenal out. United ended up beating Chelsea for the title by 2 points, and Arsenal by 4.