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'The Shot' that changed two teams rings true 20 years laterBy Chris Tomasson, for NBA.comPosted May 7 2009 12:53AM
In January 1999, on the day Michael Jordan announced his retirement from the NBA a second time, Craig Ehlo retreated to a room in his Spokane, Wash., home to watch a sports highlight show. He sat down and, suddenly, heard a voice speaking to him.
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Actually, it was the television.
"Craig Ehlo, if you're watching, sit down and relax," the announcer said. "Because Michael has said this is one of his favorite shots."
That was 10 years ago, two years after Ehlo had retired. All that time, though, had not dulled Ehlo's memories about being on the wrong end of one of the most famous plays in basketball history. The memories still have not faded.
Thursday marks the 20th anniversary of "The Shot," Jordan's game-winning, last-second jumper over Ehlo in the deciding game of an Eastern Conference first-round series on May 7, 1989. The shot gave Jordan's Chicago Bulls a 101-100 win over Ehlo's Cleveland Cavaliers and almost immediately became a piece of NBA lore.
"Pretty much every day somebody will bring up that shot,'' said Ehlo, who played 14 years in the NBA and is now a college basketball television analyst in the Pacific Northwest. "They'll say, 'I saw your shot on a commercial or a highlight last night.' It's just nice to be remembered for something."
In his illustrious basketball career, Jordan hit two last-second shots that secured championships. One was his 1982 jumper that gave North Carolina a win over Georgetown for the NCAA crown. The other was his 1998 jumper over Utah's Bryon Russell that secured Chicago's sixth and final title.
Neither of those winners has the notoriety of "The Shot," though, and neither is regularly featured in commercials.
"The Shot," though, has become something else. Gatorade once did a spot that altered the footage as if Jordan had missed the shot. A Nike commercial once had Spike Lee reading "Craig Ehlo'' from a book of history about Jordan, something Ehlo didn't mind since he got a check for $2,500 for use of his name.
"Of all the big shots in basketball, it ranks right up there," said Bill Cartwright, a Phoenix assistant who then was Chicago's starting center. "It was a great moment that will keep being replayed over and over again."
As memorable as the shot was, it didn't mean much in the grand scheme of things. After defeating the Cavaliers, the Bulls beat New York in the second round before falling to Detroit in the Eastern Conference final. Still, Jordan has looked back on that Sunday afternoon at Richfield Coliseum as a pivotal moment in getting the Bulls in position to start their dynasty.
"For us to get over the hump and make people believe in what we were capable of achieving was the game against Cleveland when I hit 'The Shot,'" Jordan said earlier this decade. "That was how we won the city (of Chicago) over to believe.''
The Bulls had lost in the first round of the playoffs during Jordan's first three seasons, in 1985, 1986 and 1987. They had beaten Cleveland 3-2 in the first round in 1988 before being whipped 4-1 by Detroit in the second round.
What "The Shot" did was help put Jordan's reputation for making big plays into overdrive.
"It was the evolution of him starting really to make a major name for himself," said Brad Sellers, the Chicago forward who threw the inbound pass on the play. "It was a stepping stone. And it elevated the franchise."
Heading into the Playoffs that year, few thought the 47-35 Bulls were on the verge of anything special. As the East's No. 6 seed, they had lost all six regular-season meetings with No. 3 Cleveland, which had gone 57-25. All the major Chicago newspapers had picked the Bulls to lose, some in three games. That prompted Jordan to lash out, vowing Chicago would win in four.
The Bulls got off to good start, winning 95-88 in Game 1 at Cleveland while Cavaliers star guard Mark Price sat with a groin strain. Leading 2-1, Chicago had a chance to close out the series at home May 5, but Jordan missed a late free throw in regulation, and the Cavaliers forced overtime before winning 108-105.
Jordan later would say the missed foul shot fueled his desire for redemption when the teams played the deciding game at Richfield Coliseum.
The final game went back and forth before Jordan gave the Bulls a 99-98 lead on a short jumper with six seconds left. The Cavaliers called timeout, and coach Lenny Wilkens drew up a play. The problem was, it worked too well. "The play we set up, we scored a little too quickly," Wilkens said.
Ehlo inbounded the ball at midcourt to forward Larry Nance, who threw it back to Ehlo. He drove for a layup with three seconds left for a 100-99 lead. It looked as if Ehlo might end up being the hero. He had played the game of his life, ending up with a team-high 24 points.
"I'm thinking this little old boy from Lubbock, Texas was going to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated," said Ehlo, who had missed Game 3 of the series with a sprained ankle he suffered in practice while simulating Jordan on the scout team. "I'm thinking, 'I'm living my Andy Warhol 15 minutes of fame.'"
Ehlo got his 15 minutes. It was just for another reason.
After a timeout, Sellers was tabbed by Bulls coach Doug Collins to inbound the ball at halfcourt. It was an interesting selection considering Sellers, a native of Cleveland suburb Warrensville Heights and a former Ohio State star, had grown up attending Cavaliers games whenever he could get cheap tickets.
Wilkens elected not to guard Sellers, instead seeking to double-team Jordan with Ehlo and Nance. "I'm 7-foot, and I got a clean look," Sellers said. "They had nobody jumping in my face, and I was standing on a tight sideline, and we didn't have any more timeouts left."
Jordan shook off Nance, pretty much knocking him out of the play. Wilkens said Ehlo unnecessarily took one step toward Chicago forward Scottie Pippen, who was moving behind him. That enabled Jordan to catch the ball on the right sideline, and, with two dribbles, get a step on Ehlo while streaking toward the foul line.
"We wanted Craig to be able to push him out further," Wilkens said.
Ehlo, though, turned out to be no match for Jordan. Neither were the laws of physics.
Once Jordan got two feet beyond the foul line, he hung in the air for what seemed to be the better part of the weekend. While Ehlo was flying by, Jordan rattled the shot in as the buzzer sounded.
Jordan, who scored 44 points, jumped up and wildly pumped his fist in triumph. Ehlo collapsed to the floor in dejection.
"I was the first to get over to (Jordan)," Sellers said. "It was pandemonium (among the Bulls). We were crying. It was just crazy. The noise in the Coliseum had been deafening, but then you could have heard a pin drop."
The Cavaliers couldn't believe their season was over.
"Michael hung in the air for what seemed like an eternity," Ehlo said. "I kept replaying in my mind what I could have done differently ... But it truly meant something in sports history, to be beaten by a shot like that, from a player like that, and have him consider it one of his all-time favorite shots."
Wilkens said it took a while to get over the devastating defeat. Calling it "the highlight that never dies," Price said it was "painful" to watch for a few years before he finally became numb to it.
It took longer for the Cavaliers to recover. While the Bulls went on to dominate the 1990s, a promising Cleveland team never could get past Jordan and the Bulls, also losing to them in the 1992 Eastern Conference final and in the second round in 1993.
"To lose in a manner like that shook the franchise to a certain extent," Price said. "The next year (Cleveland) traded Ron Harper in the Danny Ferry trade. It seemed that shot kind of changed the direction of two franchises."
The pain of the 1989 loss has been dulled somewhat by time and the recent success of the Cavaliers, which is making life a bit easier for Sellers. As the economic development director for Warrensville Heights, he regularly deals with Cavaliers fans.
"Not a week goes by that somebody doesn't mention that shot, saying they just saw something about it on TV or they were at the game," Sellers said. "There's no chance to get away from it living (in the Cleveland area)."
Ehlo lives 2,000 miles away. He can't get away from it, either.
NBA.com contributor Chris Tomasson covered the 1989 Eastern Conference first-round game between the Bulls and Cavaliers for The Canton (Ohio) Repository
.