“Motherf****r look at me and say, ‘Where you going on vacation at?’” – Sam Cassell on what Michael Jordan told him before tip-off of Game 3 of their first-round series

Michael Jordan’s intense competitive drive and supreme confidence are the stuff of legends. There are countless stories of how “His Airness” would use his unwavering confidence to seemingly take the spirit out of whoever his opponents were in that game. Former All-Star guard Sam Cassell knows this all too well, as he experienced this firsthand when he and the New Jersey Nets faced off against Jordan’s Chicago Bulls in the first round of the 1998 NBA Playoffs.

Truly believed they could beat the Bulls

Cassell is a man who does not lack confidence himself. After all, you don’t earn a reputation for being a crunchtime killer without having the audacity to shoot the ball when the game hangs in the balance.

As the Nets took on the Bulls during their “Last Dance,” the one-time All-Star believed they could topple MJ and his squad, especially after Chicago barely won over New Jersey in the first two games of the best-of-five series.

“The first game, I swear we were going to beat them. They won by like four or five points (96-93), and we had them. I said, ‘We gonna beat the Bulls. Oh my God, we gonna beat the Bulls, man,’” Sam told Darius Miles and Quentin Richardson on the “Knuckleheads Podcast.”

The second game played out like the first, as the Bulls eked out a 96-91 victory to take a 2-0 series lead. With the games being close, Sam felt they were due for a win. However, Jordan saw it differently.

An ominous message

Aside from being a clutch shotmaker, another thing Cassell was known for was his incessant chirping. He was an elite trash-talker who never backed down from anyone on the court and never hesitated to let them know about it. However, before Game 3 began, Jordan beat him to the punch.

“The third game, in the Meadowlands in New Jersey, you come out for the starting lineup, you know, before the jump ball, you dap everybody up. MJ looked at me and said, ‘Where you going on vacation at?’ I was like, ‘What you mean I’m going on vacation? We taking this game to game four.’ Man, that man had like 23 points in the first quarter,” Cassell narrated, eliciting raucous laughter from the hosts.

“John Calipari was the coach in New Jersey. Second quarter, Cal said, ‘We down like 19. Hey man, let’s see some of the other guys play, get some playoff experience,’” Sam conveyed as D-Miles and Q burst into more laughter.

Jordan eventually scored 38 points on 16-of-22 shooting, and the Bulls won 116-101 to sweep New Jersey and advance to the second round.

Sam’s anecdote was another fine example of MJ’s greatness. He was so incredibly talented and confident that he knew he had his opponents right where he wanted them, and there was nothing they could do about it.

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