All of Michael Jordan's NBA Finals Air Jordans
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By Stadium Goods |All of Michael Jordan's NBA Finals Air Jordans
Recapping every sneaker that Michael Jordan wore during his 6 six NBA Finals appearances. Spoiler alert: there’s more than 6 shoes.
Matt DeSciora & Zack Schlemmer
With the 2023 NBA Finals set to tip off tonight, we here at Stadium Goods are thinking about all of the great sneakers we’ll be seeing on Miami Heat and Denver Nuggets players throughout the series. But we also can’t help but think about all of the great sneakers that have appeared in past NBA Finals games. Of course, when doing so, one naturally gets nostalgic about all of Michael Jordan’s NBA Finals appearances and the Air Jordans he wore for each.
Jordan led the Chicago Bulls to six NBA Finals throughout the 1990s and collected six rings for a perfect championship record. There’s little doubt that Jordan had a tremendous amount of help from teammates like Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Horace Grant, John Paxson, Steve Kerr, and so many other Bulls players. But he also may have had some help from his Air Jordan sneakers.
While Jordan appeared in six NBA Finals with the Bulls, he didn’t just wear six Air Jordans. Today we’ll be talking about each and every Air Jordan he laced up for each NBA Finals appearance.
1991
After years of being beaten up by the Detroit Pistons "Bad Boys" in the playoffs, in 1991 Jordan and the Bulls finally made it to the NBA Finals to face the Los Angeles Lakers. The Bulls bested Magic Johnson and the Lakers in five games, all with the Air Jordan 6 "Infrared" on Mike's feet. Times were simpler in the early '90s, when star players didn't seem to have another special edition sneaker colorway for every game of the Playoffs. Jordan wore the iconic black and neon red Jordan 6 throughout the '91 Playoffs, and it became his first Championship shoe when the Bulls claimed their first Larry O'Brien Trophy on June 12, 1991.
Memorable moment: Hand-switch layup
1992
You may know the original black Air Jordan 7 as the "Raptors" colorway, but since the Toronto Raptors weren't even a team in 1992 when Jordan and the Bulls defeated the Portland Trailblazers in the Finals, we're going with its original color name here. Jordan laced up the black, charcoal, red, and purple Jordan 7 throughout the '92 Playoffs en route to his team's Championship repeat.
Memorable moment: The Shrug
1993
Aptly nicknamed, the black, white, and red Air Jordan 8 "Playoffs" was worn by Jordan throughout the '93 Playoffs before meeting Charles Barkley and the Phoenix Suns in the Finals. It would end up being John Paxson who clinched the series for the Bulls with a game-winning 3-pointer in Game 6, but of course, he wouldn't have had the opportunity without MJ doing work along the way. In '93 Jordan had his highest points average of all of his six Finals victories at 41 points per game. It was a Three-Peat for the Bulls, and Jordan's third Finals MVP honors in as many appearances. In fact, Jordan won the Finals MVP for all three years of the next Three-Peat, as well.
Memorable moment: Jordan scores 55 points in Game 4
1996
Air Jordan 11 “Bred” + Air Jordan 11 Low PE “Bred”
After lacing up a player exclusive Air Jordan 11 Low in the same colorway for Game 1 (similar to this released version), Jordan wore the standard Air Jordan 11 "Bred" for the next five games of the 1996 NBA Finals. The underdog Seattle Supersonics proved to be worthy adversaries to the mighty 72-10 Bulls team, but in the end, MJ got the best of them to win his fourth title after his first full season back from retirement.
Memorable moment: Jordan gets emotional after winning Game 6 on Father's Day
1997
Air Jordan 12 “Playoffs” + Air Jordan 12 “Flu Game”
Jordan and the Bulls were back to the Finals again in '97, this time facing the Utah Jazz. Once again, the best team in the West was no match for MJ and Bulls, as they completed the series in six games. For the first time, Jordan wore two colorways of his latest Air Jordan model throughout the '97 Playoffs. For home games he wore the black and white Air Jordan 12 "Playoffs." For road games Jordan laced up the black and red version that would become forever after known as the "Flu Game" colorway when he wore them during his legendary Game 5 performance with the flu—or rather, food poisoning from some bad pizza as Jordan now claims in the "Last Dance" documentary. Since Air Jordan 12 "Food Poisoning From Sabotaged Pizza" doesn't have much of a ring to it, we're predicting that it will continue to be referred to as the "Flu Game" colorway.
Memorable moment: 38-Point "Flu Game"
1998
Air Jordan 13 “Bred” + Air Jordan 13 Low PEs + Air Jordan 13 “Playoffs” + Air Jordan 14 “Last Shot”
Michael's Finals footwear has been easy to track up until now. But in 1998 (once again versus the Jazz) he hit the court in a variety of models and colorways. He really made things complicated for sneaker historians by wearing standard Air Jordan 13s and Air Jordan 13 Low player exclusives (one which was similar to this released version) for different halves of two games. Most notably, the Air Jordan 14 made its world debut in Game 3, months before it released in 1999. Jordan wore the black and red colorway that would become known as the Air Jordan 14 "Last Shot" after Jordan poetically hit the series-winning jumper in a pair in Game 6—his last shot as a Chicago Bull. Here's the complete rundown:
Game 1: Air Jordan 13 "Bred"
Game 2: Air Jordan 13 Low PE "Black" + Air Jordan 13 "Bred"
Game 3 and 4: Air Jordan 14 "Last Shot"
Game 5: Air Jordan 13 Low PE "Black/White" + Air Jordan 13 "Playoffs"
Game 6: Air Jordan 14 "Last Shot"
It's also interesting to see that he wore the Jordan 14 in the third and fourth games, and then went back to the Jordan 13s for Game 5. If only we could know what the reasoning or thought process behind that was! He again laced up the Jordan 14 for Game 6, which would prove to be the model's iconic moment as it became the final Air Jordan ever worn by Michael in a Bulls uniform.
Memorable moment: The Last Shot