RealGM

Twenty-five years ago today, on March 28, 1990, Michael Jordan torched the Cleveland Cavaliers for his career-high 69 points in overtime at the old Richfield Coliseum.

Watching the highlights, the guy was simply scoring with an ease that is seldom seen. It's really like watching an artist at work. There wasn't anything the Cavs could do about it.

He got under their skin too. One of their bigs - I forget if it was Daugherty or Nance - committed a hard foul against Jordan that might be called a flagrant if committed today. And then Lenny Wilkins got so upset with the refs that he got himself thrown out of the game. I never knew that before watching these highlights.

Jordan's performance that day still ranks as the 11th highest individual scoring game in NBA history. If you take out all of Wilt's games from the 60s, it's still the 5th highest individual scoring game in NBA history.

And although the game is obviously most remembered for his point total, we'd be remiss not to also appreciate the 18 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 steals, and 1 block he also put up on 62.2% from the field. A performance for the ages.

Here is a video showing every point he scored in that game. Also note the Craig Sager sighting at the end - I guess this was before he started with the colorful wardrobes.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unpVgfDL8j0[/youtube]

Stacey King refers to this as the game in which he and MJ combined for 70.

Keller61 wrote:Stacey King refers to this as the game in which he and MJ combined for 70.

Like when Bill Wennington reminisces about the double nickle game in NY when he and MJ combined for 57. I'm glad they can have fun with stuff like that.

I was 8 when the 69 game happened, and it was awesome.

I remember that game. I felt sorry for Craig Ehlo.

TimRobbins wrote:I remember that game. I felt sorry for Craig Ehlo.

Yeah, Craig Ehlo's career consists of being Jordan's bitch on multiple occasions.

Oddly this is the anniversary of Hakeem's quadruple double too. What a draft class that was.

I know he already had it going pretty good at that point, but I doubt the Cavs fans cheering when he got knocked down by a hard foul near the end of the 2nd didn't factor into the rest of that game.

What I remembered most about this game is that Jordan only had 1 dunk..I recorded this game (As I did with every Bulls game as a kid) but I lost this game cause as I was getting ready to record the next game I was looking for a VHS that had room on it..I had forgotten I had started watching this game again and needless to say I taped over it...still mad to this day I did that.