On March 27, 1998, the Atlanta Hawks hosted the Chicago Bulls in front of a record crowd at the Georgia Dome.
62,046 fans flocked into the stadium to witness Michael Jordan lead the Bulls to an 89-74 win. The win improved Chicago to 54-17 on the season, as they continued on their journey to eventually become NBA Champions for the third consecutive season and for the sixth time in eight years.
Jordan led all scorers with 34 points on the night, finishing 13-for-26 from the floor while adding five rebounds and four assists.
For the Hawks, Christian Laettner top scored with 13 points off the bench, while Dikembe Mutombo added 12 points and 10 rebounds.
The game was held at the Georgia Dome due to the continued construction of the soon-to-be new Hawks home arena - now known as State Farm Arena.
Between 1997 and 1999 the Hawks would play home games at the Georgia Dome and also at the Hank McCamish Pavilion - originally known as Alexander Memorial Coliseum.
With Hamish McCamish Pavilion only holding a capacity of 8,600 fans, the Georgia dome was used for marquee matchups, and at the time, there was no bigger game than Jordan coming to town.
To this day the night remains the largest NBA crowd in history, and in fact, the Georgia Dome holds three of the top six, with the 47,790 fans that attended the Hawks-Bulls matchup in November of 1997 also making the list.
Other notable events on March 27th
- Magic Johnson returned to the Los Angeles Lakers as head coach and led them to a 110-101 victory over Milwaukee. Johnson coached the Lakers for the last 16 games of the 1993-94 season, posting a 5-11 record.
- Moses Malone of Philadelphia moved past Elvin Hayes into third place on the NBA's all-time games played list, with 1,304, during the 76ers' 124-122 OT loss against Boston at Hartford.
- Karl Malone tied Moses Malone (27,409) for fourth place on the all-time scoring list.
- Alonzo Mourning of the Miami Heat returned to action after missing the first 69 games of the season after being diagnosed with the kidney ailment focal glomerulosclerosis. Mourning recorded nine points and seven rebounds in 18 minutes of playing time.
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