Michael Jordan highlights are iconic jewels of sports history. Every one of them is carefully filed away in the part of your brain reserved for awesome moments. This particular clip from 1997 has eluded us for way too long.
On Dec. 12, 1997 the Bulls played the Hornets in Charlotte in a game where Jordan, Toni Kukoc and Luc Longley did everything, and the rest of the Bulls were floundering. It was pretty forgettable except for the first quarter, when Jordan faked out David Wesley so badly it would take a year’s worth of aloe to remove this burn.
Jordan’s pass fake is so good that Wesley is convinced Steve Kerr has the ball. He’s so convinced that even after turning and staring at Kerr for a solid second, he’s still not convinced he doesn’t have the ball.
In fact, it takes about three second from fake to realization. Wesley only turns back to look at MJ when he’s already fading away for the shot. Goodness this is pretty.