Top 100 momentsNo. 29
The last shot
Michael Jordan pushes off, fades, and beats Utah for a sixth title. The Bulls dynasty ends on the play everyone can still see with their eyes closed.
June 14, 1998. Game 6 in Utah. The Bulls are chasing a sixth title in eight years. Michael Jordan strips Karl Malone, goes the length of the floor, pushes off Bryon Russell — or doesn’t, depending on who you ask — and fades. The shot goes. Chicago 87, Utah 86. He holds the follow-through like a statue that already knows it will be a poster.
The dynasty is over in the next room: a lockout, a retirement, a front office that wanted a new era. The last shot is the ending the sport actually kept. Jordan’s Chicago years become a miniseries people still argue about as if the tape might change.
Plenty of players have hit bigger shots in bigger voids. None of them are this picture. The NBA’s global boom has a last frame, and it is Jordan in Utah, arm out, clock gone.