How close was Michael Jordan to signing with the New York Knicks in 1996?

MJ nearly joined Patrick Ewing in New York in the summer of 1996

© Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports

Michael Jordan built an all-time great NBA resume by winning six championships with the Chicago Bulls. However, things could have been very different had he joined the New York Knicks in the summer of 1996.

Basketball's biggest star in the Big Apple?

The Knicks are one of the NBA's most storied franchises. They're also one of the league's unluckiest when it comes to snagging marquee stars. The Knicks have never had a truly transcendent player since the days of Patrick Ewing, and they've been looking for someone to fill that void ever since.

In the summer of 1996, they thought they had their man. Michael Jordan was fresh off his fourth NBA championship with the Chicago Bulls and was reportedly considering leaving Chicago to join the Knicks if he did not get the right figures he wanted on his new contract. His Airness wanted to receive a one-time "balloon payment" identical to the one that Ewing received from the Knicks — a one-year deal worth $18 million, which at the time was the largest in league history.

The idea of Jordan in a Knicks jersey was tantalizing. He would have been the biggest star in the biggest media market in the world, and he would have had a chance to carve out his legacy apart from the one he had built in Chicago. The Knicks were confident they could snag Jordan for several reasons, as Ewing was close to Jordan and had been trying to recruit him to New York for years.

Not meant to be

However, in the end, it wasn't meant to be. The Bulls were given an ultimatum by Jordan's agent, David Falk, of "one hour, maybe the rest of the day" to offer his client a contract substantially better than the one-year, $25-million deal the Knicks were prepared to give His Airness. 

The Bulls gave in and gave Jordan a one-year deal worth $30 million, the largest single-season contract in NBA history at the time. 

The Knicks were left empty-handed, and they would have to continue their search for a player who could lead them back to glory. As for Jordan, he would go on to win two more championships with the Bulls before retiring for the second time in 1999.