An undermanned Heat team beat the Michael Jordan-led Bulls that went 72-10. Here’s how

The 1995-96 Chicago Bulls are widely regarded as one of the best teams in NBA history.

Only nine teams beat the Bulls that season as Michael Jordan, fresh off his brief baseball hiatus, ravaged the league en route to capturing his fourth championship in six years.

Among those nine were some of the best squads of the ‘90s including the New York Knicks, the Seattle SuperSonics and the Indiana Pacers (the Pacers beat them twice). Then there’s the Miami Heat.

“There is no way we are supposed to win the game,” Heat guard Rex Chapman told the Miami Herald following their 113-104 win over the Bulls.

And he was right. It still doesn’t really make sense more than two decades later. If anything, time has made this win seem even more improbable.

Think about it for a second. A day before the teams met on Feb. 23, 1996, the Heat made three trades involving a then-league record 10 players. That left them with only eight active players on their roster. On top of that, the Bulls had just blown out the Heat by 22 less than a month earlier.

So just how did the Heat do it? Scan the boxscore and a few things jump off the page.

One certainly is Chapman’s line. At the start of the fourth quarter, he had outscored Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman combined. Chapman would tie his career high in points with 39 on 9-of-10 shooting from behind the arc.

Another is their then-franchise record-tying 15 three-pointers. The Bulls, conversely, only hit five.

Then there’s Tony Smith who, arriving to Miami via trade, stepped off the plane a roughly 13 hours before tip-off. His reward? A place in the starting lineup and having to guard Michael Jordan. Suprisingly, he held His Airness to 31 and finished with 19 himself.

With a new generation now hip to Jordan’s greatness thanks to “The Last Dance,” we decided to compile stories detailing one of the most remarkable upsets in Heat franchise history.

IT’S MORE THAN A GAME WHEN BULLS PAY A CALL

Published Feb. 23, 1996

The NBA’s version of The Beatles performs at Miami Arena tonight, bringing with it a player called Air (Michael Jordan), another dubbed Hair (Dennis Rodman), and an assembly of talent that’s incredibly rare.

The Chicago Bulls visit South Florida to play the Heat tonight with the most recognizable player in sports (Jordan again), the NBA’s pre-eminent small forward (Scottie Pippen), the premier — and most colorful — rebounder (Rodman again) and a bunch of role players along for the ride.

“We have a three-ring circus with Michael, Scottie and myself,” Rodman said. “Everybody wants to see the Chicago Bulls.”

The Bulls are steamrolling toward becoming the first NBA team to win 70 regular-season games. (The 1971-72 Lakers finished 69-13.) After beating Atlanta, 96-91, Thursday night, the Bulls (48-5) must win 22 of their final 29 games to win 70.

And somehow the Heat must find a way to beat this juggernaut after trading five players, including three starters and both its point guards, Thursday night. No easy task against a regular team, let alone the Bulls: Lakers forward Magic Johnson: “They’re the best passing team and best defensive team in basketball. Their will to win is higher than everybody else’s. Jordan is the best player in the world, Pippen is the best all-around player in basketball, and then you’ve got the best rebounder [Rodman].”

Heat Coach Pat Riley: “I can see them winning 75. They have two of the best perimeter players ever. They have a great coach, a great system.”

Atlanta GM Pete Babcock: “They’re a spectacular team, phenomenal, clearly one of the best ever.”

San Antonio executive vice president Gregg Popovich: “They’re in a class by themselves. There’s nobody close. They have supreme heart, supreme confidence and supreme talent.”

Naturally, the linchpin is Jordan, who had a bumpy 17-game return last season but is now on target for his eighth consecutive scoring title (discounting the one full season he was retired). “I think my skill level has gotten back to where it was four years ago and my rhythm seems to be in sync,” Jordan said. “And I’m better in knowledge and experience.”

Jordan, who will be a free agent this summer, reportedly will seek a three-year contract in the range of $75 million. He is currently earning $3.85 million, which makes him the NBA’s 32nd-highest paid player behind the likes of Danny Ferry, Benoit Benjamin and Sam Perkins.

“Nobody can really pay me what I’m worth,” said Jordan, who says he will return only if Pippen and Coach Phil Jackson come back, too. “But don’t slap me in the face, either. I’m not trying to cripple the Bulls. What Shaquille O’Neal gets will be a good measuring stick. That’s why I want to sign last.”

Pippen is also enjoying an MVP-like season. “We realize that if we execute, we’re going to beat every team in the league,” Pippen said.

Then there’s Rodman, who is on pace to lead the NBA in rebounding for a fifth consecutive season. Just as important, he has not disrupted chemistry.

“He’s shown he’s still the best at what he does and is a very important part of this team’s success,” Jordan said. “I have a better understanding of Dennis.”

“San Antonio did not allow Dennis to be himself,” said Sacramento center Olden Polynice, who played with Rodman in Detroit. “Chicago allows him that luxury. He will not snap.”

Said Jerry Krause, the Bulls’ executive vice president: “I told Dennis he doesn’t have to worry about me lying to him because I’m not promising him anything. His contract is up after this year, and then we’ll see where we go from there.”

Tonight, expect the normal theatrics from Rodman. Jackson says Rodman plays to the crowd better than any player except Indiana’s Reggie Miller. “He may be right,” Rodman said. “Whatever the people like is what they get.”

Besides The Big Three, the Bulls also have received adequate contributions from sixth-man Toni Kukoc and their role players -- centers Luc Longley and Bill Wennington and guards Ron Harper and Steve Kerr. “Those guys like Wennington and Kerr are playing above their heads,” Polynice said.

So how do you beat the Bulls? Only five teams have -- Seattle, Orlando, Indiana, Denver and Phoenix.

“I have no idea,” Hawks forward Grant Long said.

Long’s coach, Lenny Wilkens, offers one key: “You have to make them defend, which they had to do against Phoenix. And if you trap, you better rotate well.”

Says Heat TV analyst Jack Ramsay: “They really have to shoot poorly to be beaten. I would try to contain Michael, get the ball out of his hands and let the others beat you.”

Still, few are ready to anoint the Bulls as the best team ever.

“How can they be the greatest ever when they haven’t won a championship with this group?” Boston Coach M.L. Carr said.

Said Celtics guard Dana Barros: “The Bulls teams earlier in the 1990s were actually better because they had Horace Grant and more depth.”

Polynice: “The Lakers and Celtics of the ‘80s were more cerebral. But the Bulls are something. All Phil Jackson has to do is sit there and adjust his glasses during the game.”

In fact, virtually nobody expects Chicago to breeze through the playoffs. Toronto Coach Brendan Malone insists Orlando has the better team.

“The Bulls are not exceptional, not nearly as good as great teams of the past,” Phoenix forward Charles Barkley said. “Orlando and Indiana will give them trouble. They’re not just going to cakewalk through the playoffs.”

Philadelphia Coach John Lucas: “If they had a center, they would be a perfect team.”

Jordan understands the pressure. “If we don’t win it all, we’ll only be remembered as the team that won 70 games and then choked in the playoffs.”

But don’t count on that happening, Jordan says. “After we win the title,” he says, “history will find a place for us.”

— Barry Jackson

WANTED: POINT GUARD, EXP. NECESSARY

Published Feb. 23, 1996

The face-lifted Heat will throw Alonzo Mourning and the seven dwarfs tonight at the Bulls, who are making their bid as the best in NBA history.

Chicago: Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman.

The Heat: Rex Chapman, Jeff Malone and Kurt Thomas.

Chicago also has Steve Kerr, Toni Kukoc and Luc Longley.

The Heat also has Keith Askins, Tony Smith, Voshon Lenard and Danny Schayes and . . . that’s about it. Miami, which scored 66 points against the hapless 76ers its last time out -- with a full roster -- will dress eight players tonight but no true point guard. The rest of the team is en route.

“We will have eight players,” Heat Coach Pat Riley said. “That’s a tough look against the Chicago Bulls, but that’s what we’ll have.”

So you’re a Heat fan hoping to salvage what shapes up to be a long night? We have three words:

Bet the Bulls.

— Herald Sports Staff

TRADING FRENZY: HEAT MAKES 3 DEALS 3 STARTERS GONE; TIM HARDAWAY ON WAY

Published Feb. 23, 1996

In a flurry of deals, the low-scoring Miami Heat traded for two scorers -- Tim Hardaway, a Golden State guard, and Sacramento’s Walt Williams.

The Heat gave up guard Bimbo Coles and forward Kevin Willis to get Hardaway and forward Chris Gatling, then dealt Billy Owens and Kevin Gamble to the Kings for Williams and Ty Corbin. The Heat also traded rookie Terrence Rencher for guard Tony Smith of Phoenix.

Tonight Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls come to town.

— Herald Staff

DEPLETED, BUT NOT DEFEATED EIGHT PLAYERS, 1 BIG VICTORY AS HEAT ROLLS

Published Feb. 24, 1996

The Heat topped an incredible Thursday with an impossibly stunning Friday. On Thursday, Heat Coach Pat Riley traded five players, three of whom were starters.

Friday, he won with what was left -- against what might be the best team in NBA history.

The Heat defeated the Chicago Bulls, 113-104, in front of a sellout Miami Arena crowd.

The Bulls have won 48 games this season. They have lost only to Orlando, Seattle, Indiana, Denver and Phoenix.

And now to the Heat.

But not really the Heat. It was the eight-player, fractured version, the team that hobbled into Friday after losing five teammates in three trades the day before. Absent were traded players Bimbo Coles, Kevin Willis, Billy Owens, Kevin Gamble and Terrence Rencher.

“Nobody is more surprised at this than we are,” said Heat guard Rex Chapman, who made nine three-point shots -- one less than the all-time NBA record. “But that’s why the game is played. If we had come out, and just laid down for them, we could have gotten beat by 100.”

Only one of the five players Miami acquired made it to the game. That was ex-Suns guard Tony Smith -- who started and scored 16 points -- about 13 1/2 hours after stepping off a plane from Los Angeles.

Why did he start so soon after arriving from the Suns?

“We didn’t really have another point guard,” Riley said.

Nearly every fan that filled the place stayed for the ending, standing and throwing cheers at a team that didn’t have enough players to scrimmage at that morning’s workout -- and the same team that scored 136 points in its previous two games combined.

Who needs Tim Hardaway, Chris Gatling, Walt Williams and Tyrone Corbin, who will be at practice today for Miami?

Said Riley: “Maybe we can keep them away another day or two.”

(We think he was joking.)

Miami made 15 three-point shots, tying a team record. The Heat made a team record 11 three-point shots in the first half, missing just four. That computes to 73.3 percent, which is better than the Heat’s -- the old Heat’s -- free-throw percentage (71.5 percent).

Michael Jordan, who was guarded by Tony Smith, had 31 points on nine of 21 field goals. Steve Kerr had 19 and Scottie Pippen had 13 -- on four of 18 field goals.

“It was a good loss for us,” Bulls Coach Phil Jackson said. “We need a loss to rebuild and get ourselves centered.”

Said Pippen: “You never get anything from a loss.”

Said Jordan: “It was very evident we did not come out prepared. We look at it as a bad outing, a bad night. We don’t want to get too comfortable playing like this.”

Chapman led Miami with 39 points. Alonzo Mourning and Voshon Lenard added 19 each. Mourning grabbed 12 rebounds and Keith Askins 11.

Friday was a day Heat assistant coach Bob McAdoo donned practice gear and worked out with Miami’s players because somebody was needed to fill up the court. It was a day Smith both saw the Heat playbook for the first time and was expected to execute it -- after flying all night to get to Miami in the morning.

Smith learned just a couple of plays.

“We just ran easy stuff,” he said. “Sometimes Coach was calling a play and wasn’t sure what it was, but I would just watch everybody until I could figure out what to do.”

Chapman couldn’t sleep Thursday night -- he stayed up with his wife, mulling the day’s trades. The next day, he made a remarkable 90 percent from behind the three-point line -- nine of 10 -- and tied his career-high in points.

“That’s impressive,” Jackson said. “I don’t know who else hit them, but I know Rex Chapman was on fire.”

Chapman sealed the game when he hit his ninth three-pointer with 2:20 remaining after Lenard grabbed an offensive rebound. Chapman’s shot gave Miami a 106-95 lead.

The Bulls, who trailed by as many as 26 in the third quarter, came back with a three-point shot and three-point play by Kerr to narrow the margin to five points with 1:12 remaining.

“You have to be shocked,” said Heat guard Jeff Malone, who was signed fewer than two weeks ago. “But one thing I have learned from this team since I have been here is these guys have a lot of character.”

— Amy Shipley

TWILIGHT ZONE AT MIAMI ARENA

Published Feb. 24, 1996

I am about to write the most absurd sentence of my journalism career:

The grotesquely short-handed Miami Heat kicked the spit out of the world’s best basketball team Friday night, 113-104, even though Alonzo Mourning had a bad game.

No, wait.

Here’s a more ridiculous sentence:

At the end of the third quarter, Heat guard Rex Chapman had more points than Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman combined.

No, no, no.

Here’s a better one:

Someone who plays for the Heat named Voshon Lenard -- or is it Leonard Voshon? -- had more points (19) than Pippen (13).

“Everybody is going to look at this score on ESPN and jaws are going to drop all around the country,” guard Jeff Malone said afterward.

Malone, I believe, still plays for the Heat.

Who can tell any more?

At one point Friday, Mourning was called for traveling. He jumped up in the air with the ball, looking to pass, but before he came down, Pat Riley had traded away all his teammates.

Clearly, the Heat will be world champions this year if Riley can just figure out a way to trade half the team before every game.

Chapman, terrified that Riley might trade him during a 20- second timeout, refused to miss during what might be the most stunning victory in Heat history. He made 9 of 10 three-pointers and finished with 39 points.

Maybe Chapman kept shooting because he feared that, at any moment, Riley would trade away the ball. Chapman was feeling so good he took one jumper from the spot where the new arena is being built in Sunrise.

“There is no way we are supposed to win the game,” Chapman said. “How the hell does anyone bet on sports?”

You should have seen Riley on Friday, uncharacteristically jumping up and down in the second quarter, about as excited as you’ll ever see him. The Heat was up by 20 most of the game but nearly collapsed in the fourth quarter before Lenard grabbed a couple of crucial offensive rebounds.

“Frightened rebounds,” he called them.

I thought I had seen the height of basketball absurdity Thursday night. The statistically obsessed Rodman grabbed a rebound that teammate Jordan already had, knocking Jordan over just to take the ball from him. But then, in another game, Toronto’s Carlos Rogers started screaming and taunting so much after a dunk that he was called for a technical foul -- screaming and taunting even though his team was down 19 points with two minutes remaining. None of that was nearly as absurd as Friday, though.

“Storybook,” Stacey King sang in the Heat locker room. “Storybook.”

Does King still play for the Heat?

New Heat guard Tony Smith -- the only player acquired Thursday who made Friday’s game -- arrived on a 6 a.m. flight and was immediately inserted into the starting lineup.

Hi, Tony. Welcome to Miami. Thanks for hustling down here for tonight’s game. Now go out there and guard the world’s best player.

“Don’t ask me about the trades,” Jordan said before the game. “I don’t care.”

The Bulls (48-6 and still on pace to win a league-record 73 games) clearly thought this night would be easy. When Pippen tossed an artistic alley-oop to Jordan, he ran down the court shaking his fist like a man about to let loose some dice.

Heck, why shouldn’t they have thought it would be easy?

The Heat had only eight players -- and I use the term “players” loosely, seeing as how Danny Schayes was one of them. Miami had scored 66 points in its previous game. Jordan once scored 69 in a game.

The most relevant question Jordan answered before the game, honestly, was this: Hey, Michael, how do you keep your concentration during shots with all those flashbulbs going off?

(For the record, “I’ve gotten used to it,” was his answer).

Unfortunately, Heat owner Micky Arison couldn’t make the game. No, it wasn’t because he had no interest in seeing a Heat lineup that, at one point, featured Smith, Lenard, Chapman, Keith Askins and Danny Schayes. Arison was off somewhere finishing off the purchase of a $1.8 billion cruise ship. In case you are wondering, that ship will cost Arison 395 times Mourning’s salary. Arison owns several of them.

Before the game, Rodman, sporting hair as rust-colored as his shot, sat in the locker room with headphones on. He was wearing a ragged T-shirt that read, “I don’t mind straight people, as long as they act gay in public.” Rodman said he could not name a single Heat player other than Mourning.

Kurt Thomas?

“Who’s that?” Rodman asked.

There are four faces on the cover of the Heat’s media guide.

Three are gone.

The only one left is Riley’s.

Friday, it couldn’t stop smiling.

— Dan Le Batard

GOOD NEWS TRAVELS FAR

Published Feb. 26, 1996

The Heat was in the midst of one of the biggest victories in team history, defeating the Bulls Friday night, and team owner Micky Arison was asleep in Venice, Italy. Or he was trying to sleep, anyway.

Heat officials promised to fax him a box score when the game ended, so he kept getting out of bed and checking under his door, waiting for a delivery from the hotel front desk.

Arison attends nearly every Heat game, but he went to Helsinki last week where a new Carnival cruise ship was being delivered. Then he went to Italy to check on a couple of ships there.

The fax never arrived, so Arison didn’t know the result of the game -- a 113-104 Heat victory -- until he turned on CNN the next morning.

“The reporter said the game was a blowout -- but the Heat won,” Arison said. “Then the reporter -- and this was a news reporter -- said, ‘I am not kidding.’

“I was elated.”

Arison was not elated, however, that he missed perhaps the most remarkable victory the Heat will have as long as he owns the team. “You’re about the 20th person to tell me that,” he said.

In a black bag on the table in front of his courtside seat at Miami Arena was a tape of that game. Arison said he would watch it at home after Sunday’s game.

• Heat forward Chris Gatling, acquired Thursday from Golden State, requested No. 15 with Miami instead of the No. 28 he was given. Gatling said the choice was in honor of former teammate and good buddy Latrell Sprewell, who wears 15 for the Warriors. Gatling wore No. 25 with the Warriors, which is the number worn by Heat guard Jeff Malone.

— Amy Shipley

C. Isaiah Smalls II

Miami Herald

302-373-8866

C. Isaiah Smalls II is a sports and culture writer who covers the Miami Dolphins. In his previous capacity at the Miami Herald, he was the race and culture reporter who created The 44 Percent, a newsletter dedicated to the Black men who voted to incorporate the city of Miami. A graduate of both Morehouse College and Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, Smalls previously worked for ESPN’s Andscape.