‘Final Dance’: Jazz, Bryon Russell Insist Jordan’s Recreation 6 Shot Was a Push

The 10-part ESPN Michael Jordan documentary, “The Final Dance,” was all the time going to careen towards a triumphant remaining shot from Jordan and a painful, controversial second for members of the 1997-98 Utah Jazz, knocked off by the Bulls for the second straight yr in these NBA Finals.

And the looming query has all the time been whether or not Jordan ought to have been known as for an offensive foul on a push-off on Bryon Russell earlier than he put up the game-winning and series-clinching shot from simply behind the foul line in Recreation 6 in Utah.

There was, unquestionably, contact between Jordan and Russell, after which Jordan bought his shot off and made it, with 5 seconds to play. The shot gave Jordan his 44^th and 45^th factors on the day, a exceptional quantity contemplating the Bulls solely scored 87 as a workforce. Jordan was 15-for-35 from the sector.

So, was it a push-off? One member of that Jazz workforce, guard Howard Eisley, informed me, “Folks nonetheless ask me now whether or not it was a push-off on Michael Jordan on that final shot. It was … a bit of.”

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