{"id":58038,"date":"2025-08-04T16:24:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T16:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/58038\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T16:24:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T16:24:07","slug":"richard-dumas-admits-losing-game-6-vs-bulls-tore-him-apart-didnt-nobody-think-paxson-would-take-the-winning-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/58038\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Dumas admits losing Game 6 vs. Bulls tore him apart: “Didn’t nobody think Paxson would take the winning shot”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richard Dumas admits losing Game 6 vs. Bulls tore him apart: “Didn’t nobody think Paxson would take the winning shot”<\/a> originally appeared on Basketball Network<\/a>.<\/p>\n

During the Michael Jordan<\/a> era of Chicago Bulls<\/a> basketball, everybody knew where the ball was going to be when the game hung in the balance: in MJ’s hands. With his incredible shotmaking ability and unflappable nature, Jordan was the one player you could count on to deliver in the clutch. However, there was one game where he didn’t have to take that responsibility.<\/p>\n

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In Game 6 of the 1993 NBA Finals against the Phoenix Suns, the Bulls found themselves trailing 98-96 with just 14 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Every Suns player and fan anticipated that MJ would take charge of the final possession, and their expectations were met as he collected the inbound pass.<\/p>\n

However, the ending wasn’t quite what they expected. Instead of taking the last shot himself, Jordan passed the ball to the top of the rainbow arc to Scottie Pippen, who then escaped Charles Barkley’s defense by driving into the teeth of the defense. With the defense collapsing on Pip, he found a cutting Horace Grant, who then kicked the ball out to a wide-open John Paxson<\/a>, who canned the game-winning triple with 3.9 seconds left in the game.<\/p>\n

According to Suns forward Richard Dumas<\/a>, it was a shot that drove him to tears.<\/p>\n

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To come so close and fall short<\/p>\n

The NBA season is a long and arduous grind. After the 82-game regular season concludes, those worthy must then navigate the treacherous waters of the playoffs, where each game becomes increasingly more important and every possession is crucial. Dumas understood this, as he had to work his way back to the Suns after getting suspended for the entire 1991-92 season after failing a drug test<\/a> before his rookie season even got off the ground.<\/p>\n

Richard soon proved his worth, averaging 15.8 points on 52 percent shooting for a Suns squad that won 62 regular-season games and secured the West’s top seed. He even held his own in the NBA Finals, scoring 25 points on 12-for-14 shooting in Game 5, and to come that close to a championship and fall short was devastating.<\/p>\n

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“I actually cried that day,” Dumas shared<\/a>, recalling the aftermath of Game 6.<\/p>\n

“I really felt the emotions of that game that day because I’m like, I just knew we had that game,” he continued. “I’m like, if we go to overtime, we’re gonna have it. But for them to just\u2026 that was just a smart, that was a well-developed play.”<\/p>\n

Related: “I needed something to calm me down” – Richard Dumas admits he used to drink a six pack of beers before every game<\/a><\/p>\n

The Suns didn’t expect Paxson to take that shot<\/p>\n

Dumas recalled the moment when Jordan, with momentum, took possession of the ball and charged toward the basket. Their plan was clear: converge on him and make his path as challenging as possible. But to their surprise, Michael gave up the ball in an unexpected show of trust in his teammates, something he admitted to developing, especially when he saw them drain shots in crucial moments.<\/p>\n

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“When I saw Paxson shoot it, I mean, I have seen him make so many shots when we really needed it. I just knew it was going in,” Jordan explained<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“They draw us all in there. Didn’t nobody think Paxson would take the winning shot, let alone a three-point shot to win it,” Dumas remarked. “But I’m like, that’s one of the hurt feelings I ever had when I was on the basketball court.”<\/p>\n

For Richard, that would be the closest he would sniff the Larry O’Brien trophy in a career shortened by drug-related offenses.<\/p>\n

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“That took a piece of my heart right there. I’m like, ‘Hey, it’s like I’m about to accomplish my goal and you just took it from me,'” he stated.<\/p>\n

Known as a big-time scorer for his entire career, Jordan’s willingness to pass the ball and trust his teammates in clutch moments was a testament to his growth as a leader on and off the court. Unfortunately, Dumas and the Suns didn’t see this coming and paid the price.<\/p>\n

Related: “It was just a completely instinctive play that caused me lots of pain” – Danny Ainge on Suns’ defensive mishap that led to John Paxson’s clutch shot in 1993 Finals<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally reported by Basketball Network<\/a> on Aug 4, 2025, where it first appeared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Richard Dumas admits losing Game 6 vs. Bulls tore him apart: “Didn’t nobody think Paxson would take the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[7329,7334,7328,355,6415,43768,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-58038","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-chicago-bulls","9":"tag-john-paxson","10":"tag-michael-jordan","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-phoenix-suns","13":"tag-richard-dumas","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}