The Last Dance: Did Michael Jordan start the minutes restriction?

Episode 2 of The Last Dance recalled that Michael Jordan was on a 14-minute restriction during much of his sophomore season. Did they start this trend?

These days, plenty of star NBA players have been placed on minutes restrictions to help heal or manage injuries. Did one of the game’s most pure competitors, Michael Jordan, actually start this trend?

Episode 2 of The Last Dance, which premiered Sunday night, recalled that Jordan, in his second year, disobeyed the Chicago Bulls‘ orders on managing his broken foot in his sophomore season.

The team had given him permission to head back to the University of North Carolina to rehab his injury, but Jordan played plenty of pickup ball while he was there, among other physical activities, which was against Chicago’s wishes.

When he returned, the organization was skeptical of his habits at UNC due to the size of the calf on his injured leg being larger than his non-injured leg.

The Bulls didn’t want Jordan to play right away.

Jordan and team majority owner Jerry Reinsdorf went head-to-head over Jordan’s injury. Reinsdorf and the team’s doctors determined there was a 90 percent chance that Jordan would be fine if he played, but a 10 percent chance that he would injure his foot so bad he’d never play again.

Jordan was willing to take those odds. Reinsdorf, trying to revamp the Bulls’ image by way of Jordan, was not.

They came to an agreement, Jordan would play, but on a minutes restriction. Seven minutes per half, 14 minutes per game. It was a very strict restriction, described as one where Jordan would practically be pulled if he was midway through taking a shot.

These days, this strategy is commonplace for injured players, especially stars. Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons and Victor Oladipo have all seen the minutes restriction at one point or another, among others.

The irony in Jordan being on such a stingy restriction early in his career is the debate of “load management” versus pure competition. Some view load management and injury management as the antithesis of competition and a minutes restriction is at times viewed to be less than doing everything you can to win.

The Last Dance depicted a scene where Jordan and the Bulls faced this predicament in a crucial game to make the playoffs against the Indiana Pacers late in the season.

Jordan wanted to play, and he was capped as usual at 14 minutes with under 20 seconds to play. With just 20 seconds, one would think the Bulls would take the risk and let Jordan get out there and close it out.

Ironically, John Paxson launched a prayer and won that game for Chicago, Jordan on the bench.

Recalling Jordan on the minutes restriction isn’t exactly how we remember one of the greatest competitors. Often called out as the opposite of today’s mindset with star players, it’s interesting to see him and the Bulls at the forefront of managing playing time, even if Jordan was firmly against it.