Michael Jordan Once Severed Finger Tendon Cutting a Cigar, Might've Missed Games

Many blame former Bulls general manager Jerry Krause for pushing Michael Jordan into retirement in 1998 and breaking up a team that won three straight championships. 

However, it's worth noting that Jordan may not have been able to play most of the 1999 lockout-shortened season because of a severed tendon in his finger he suffered attempting to cut a cigar at a casino in the Bahamas.

ESPN's Zach Lowe reminded many of the long-forgotten tidbit in his recent profile of Toni Kukoc.

Not much of how this happened is known. A Page Six report from 2000 says the incident happened when Jordan was "fooling around" with a cigar cutter. Jordan attributed his injury to the cigar cutter being "cheap" and breaking as he pressed down on it in an interview with the Chicago-Sun Times in 2000.

What is clear is that Jordan suffered serious damage to his hand. What was originally described as an injury that would take six weeks to heal ultimately left Jordan with nerve damage in his hand. He told the Sun-Times he was no longer able to palm a basketball and underwent a second surgery to repair the injury. 

"When Hefferon did the surgery, he saw all the ligament damage I already had from dislocating my finger so many times," Jordan explained. "So the only thing he could do was reattach the tendon. He said, 'You'll lose some mobility, there is nothing I can do."'

"I can still shoot," Jordan continued. "But I can't grip the ball completely. I have a tough time picking it up off the dribble like I used to."

Jordan said the injury did not influence his decision to retire, which tracks for anyone who has watched The Last Dance.

The Bulls were destined for a divorce after the 1997-98 season—in large part because of tensions between Krause and his stars—and no team had the salary cap space to give Jordan a contract befitting of his stature. (Jordan's salary was higher than the entire NBA salary cap in 1996-97 and 1997-98.) 

But even if MJ would have wanted to play, it's unlikely he would have been able to—or would've at least been playing in a diminished state.