The rise of the NBA was quite declining in the 1970s. The league looked like it was heading for a crash, just like the other professional basketball leagues before the league.
The league had great players, like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, but these players weren’t exactly the flashy type. Just when the league appeared to be closed, two star college players entered the league and saved it.
The players I’m talking about are, of course, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. Bird and Magic’s rivalry brought fans into arenas and increased ratings on TV.
This was a great sign for the league, but it would get better. In 1984, high-flying Michael Jordan flew onto the scene and NBA attendance records rose through the roof.
While there have been many NBA games with great attendance records, one regular season game stands above the rest. The NBA regular season game with the highest attendance in NBA history took place on March 27, 1998, when the Chicago Bulls played the Atlanta Hawks.
Chicago Bulls vs. Atlanta Hawks, March 27, 1998
The March 1998 game between the Chicago Bulls and Atlanta Hawks had a attendance record of 62,046 fans. The only other NBA game with higher attendance was the 2010 NBA All-Star Game, which was played at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, Texas.
This game makes it clear why the turnout was so high. First, it was played in a huge football stadium, and second, it was an All-Star Game with all the best NBA stars.
But why would a regular season game draw 62,046 fans? There were two main reasons why this regular season game brought so many fans to the game.
The first reason was that this regular season game was Michael Jordan’s last regular season game in Atlanta (as a member of the Chicago Bulls). The second reason was that, like the 2010 NBA All-Star Game, this game was played in a football stadium.
The Atlanta Hawks played their regular season game on March 27, 1998 at the Georgia Dome. This is the former home of the Atlanta Falcons. Of course, football stadiums can hold more fans than NBA stadiums.
Then we had the greatness of Michael Jordan. MJ is the greatest basketball player she ever made, and he was in 1998 in his last dance with the Chicago Bulls. At the time, the Chicago Bulls were the most popular ticket in town.
When Jordan and the Bulls came into your town, you paid close attention (and paid a lot to see him). Michael Jordan was the equivalent of Michelangelo or Beethoven. He was a once-in-a-lifetime act, and if you had the chance to see him live, you had to jump all over it.
So, of course, if you look up the highest-attendance regular-season game in NBA history, it’s only fitting that Michael Jordan was involved in the game. Now Michael Jordan certainly played a big part in the attendance record, but he also got a little help from the Atlanta Hawks organization.
After the 1996-97 season, the Hawks decided to leave the Omni, their home stadium, and have a new stadium built. The problem for the 1997-98 regular season was that the new arena hadn’t been built yet. So, this is why the Atlanta Hawks played their home games at the Georgia Dome.
This was an exciting moment for the Atlanta Hawks fans, but unfortunately for them, their Hawks would lose to the Bulls, 89-74. Jordan had a quintessential Jordan game where he scored 34 points on 13-26 shootings.
The timing of Jordan’s final season with the Bulls and the process of building a new stadium created a perfect storm to create the most-attended regular-season NBA game in NBA history.