Okay so this morning I was sorting through my old NBA highlights folder, you know, just random stuff I’ve collected over the years. Mostly Jordan dunks, some Pippen defensive plays, the usual. But this time, a clip popped up – Paxson hitting that jumper against Phoenix in ’93. Just that one shot.
It got me thinking hard while I refilled my coffee. Why is Paxson just a footnote for most people? All everyone talks about are the stars. It didn’t sit right. I felt like I needed to dig deeper, to really understand why that moment, why him specifically for that shot, mattered more than maybe even Phil Jackson realized at the time.
So I dove headfirst. My desk became a disaster zone:
- Pulled up dusty old forum posts from the 90s on my second monitor.
- Had my main screen playing grainy YouTube highlights on mute (the quality was painful).
- Scrolled through endless stat pages on my laptop – points per game? Meh. I was hunting for stuff that usually gets ignored.
- A notepad filled up fast with messy scribbles: “Location: Corner,” “Drawn by Grant screen?,” “Time left: 3.9s,” “Jordan trapped mid-post…”.
The whole morning evaporated. Seriously. At one point my stomach growled – lunch was definitely skipped. I kept asking myself: “What was really happening right before that pass? Who made it possible? Why Paxson and not, say, Armstrong?” The stats alone weren’t giving me answers; they never do for the good stuff.
Here’s what clicked eventually, hitting me like a ton of bricks:
- Jordan was doubled hard every single time down the stretch. Phoenix wasn’t messing around.
- Pippen was covered tight too, a shadow attached to his hip.
- Horace Grant? Setting monster screens, totally freeing guys up… but not looking to shoot.
- And there was Paxson. Smart. Moving without the ball like his life depended on it. Reading the scramble. Finding the quiet spot. John freaking Paxson had drilled that exact same shot countless times in practice. It wasn’t some fluke lucky bounce. It was homework.
That’s the real kicker everyone misses. Phil Jackson trusted him implicitly with the season on the line because Paxson had done the boring work, over and over, for years. He wasn’t the flashiest. He didn’t put up big numbers. But he knew exactly where to be and what to do when the chaos hit.
Seeing it that way… it completely changed how I look at those Bulls teams. The superstars couldn’t do it without guys like Paxson being ready to deliver exactly when the play broke down. The trust, the preparation behind that one shot – that’s the hidden machinery right there. Finding stuff like this? That’s the good part of getting lost down these rabbit holes.
