Magic Johnson Shares the Story Behind Michael Jordan's 'Shrug Game'

And of course it's behind Michael Jordan losing a game to Magic Johnson the night before. If it's one thing that fuels Jordan, it's losing.

If there is one thing you should take away from "The Last Dance' series is that Michael Jordan is exceptionally competitive and HATES being compared to anyone in the NBA. Anyone who crossed his path that seemingly threatened to be a hair close to Jordan was embarrassed on the court.

During episodes five and six of the highly acclaimed ESPN series, Jordan ran into multiple players who threatened his throne, Charles Barkley, Toni Kukco, and Clyde Drexler. In each competitive series, Jordan met them with his best and often contributed to their shortcomings in achieving greatness in the NBA; for Barkley, it was his ring. If there is any player in the NBA who deserved a ring outside of Allen Iverson, it's Barkley. But this particular story involves Drexler.

Clyde Drexler was selected 14th overall in the 1983 NBA Draft to the Portland Trail Blazers, where he spent 12 years. During his career, Drexler was a 10x NBA All-Star, and was apart of the NBAA All-Team on five separate occasions; Drexler's career wasn't cheap by any means. However, Drexler met Jordan and the Bulls in the 1992 NBA Finals; the Jordan Drexler got was on another level.

Jordan was itching for his third consecutive championship; Only two teams before him have completed the feat, the Lakers and the Celtics. In the documentary, during that particular series, Drexler's comparison to Jordan was not taken in stride,

"Me being compared to him, I took offense to that... based on the way I was playing at that time; it wasn't even close. So I attacked him every night."

And attacked, he did. The Bulls vs. Blazers series, Jordan averaged 35.8 points, 6.5 assist, and 4.8 rebounds; his averages during the first round against Miami were even higher with 45 points per game, 9.7 rebounds, and 6.7 assists. The man was a machine in 1992!

Game 3 of the '92 NBA Finals was dubbed the 'Shrug Game.' If you aren't familiar, 

The infamous shrug happened on June 3rd, 1992, the first game of the series and the game that gave Jordan a record of three-point shots made of the season. But what was the story behind the shrug, and who was he giving it to? During a recent fan interaction, Brandon Robinson filmed Lakers' legend Magic Johnson explaining what happened the night before,

The night before he hit all them threes against Portland, we're playing Ben Wiz at his house. Right? His dad and I, we busted, we tore him up. And I'm running six nos and five specials on Mike. Right?

So we play, and I said, "Michael, I got to go home; you got to game." Because, remember, I was working for NBC at that time. So I'm calling the game. He said, "No, MJ." Because Michael is so competitive when he is losing, he doesn't want you to leave. So we played, I said, "No, I'm going home to the hotel."

So remember the shot, and he made four or five in a row. And remember when he made that last one, and he turned to the score, he was turning to me. He was so hot that night. So he owed me a lot because I'm the one he was mad at me. That's why he took it out on Clyde Drexler the next day in the game. So we had such a great time.

Crazy thing, Jordan wasn't even a prolific three-point shooter. Game one, he shot 6 of 10 behind the arc for 60% shooting; the most three-pointers he made in a single game and attempted during the 1992 season.

Drexler understandably was having a difficult season due to nagging injuries in his knee and feet, but he continued to push through for his team and committed to playing. Still, Jordan is a different beast when he's threatened.

If it's any consolation, Drexler did win a championship with the Rockets in 1995... of course, it was during the time Jordan took a hiatus and returned too late to push his team. But who's counting specifics?

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