The creator of NBA Jam has finally confirmed the long-standing conspiracy theory that the game was programmed in a way that if Michael Jordan or anyone from the Chicago Bulls took a last-second shot against the Detroit Pistons, it would ALWAYS miss.

In an interview with Ars Technica, NBA Jam lead designer Mark Turmell admitted to having programmed the game to make the Bulls automatically miss last-second shots when playing the Pistons since he was a die-hard Detroit fan. For what it's worth, Turmell is a Michigan native.

“Making this game in Chicago during the height of the Michael Jordan era, there was a big rivalry between the Pistons and the Bulls. But the one way I could get back at the Bulls once they got over the hump was to affect their skills against the Pistons in NBA Jam,” Turmell said.

“And so I put in special code that if the Bulls were taking last-second shots against the Pistons, they would miss those shots.”

https://twitter.com/Arda/status/1276597118598369287

The Bulls and Pistons had an intense rivalry back in the day. Those “Bad Boys” Detroit teams basically tried to kill Michael Jordan every time he drove to the basket. The Motor City franchise even implemented the “Jordan Rules,” a four-step plan to stop MJ at all costs.

The “Jordan Rules” forced the Bulls legend to hit the weights and get stronger. He put on about 15 pounds of muscle in the summer of 1990 and was ready to dish out pain to the Pistons instead of receiving it during the 1990-91 campaign.

In the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals, Jordan and the Bulls swept the Pistons, finally getting past their arch-nemesis. However, Detroit walked off the court, going right past the Bulls bench without shaking the Chicago players' hands.

Ever since then, Jordan has hated Detriot legend Isiah Thomas, and that hate still exits today.