The Chicago Bulls won six NBA championships during former coach Phil Jackson and former shooting guard Michael Jordan's time with the team, starting with the 1991 NBA Finals against Magic Johnson and James Worthy's Los Angeles Lakers.

The 1991 playoffs included a four-game sweep of the arch-rival Detroit Pistons that showcased Jackson and Jordan's team at their best, more physical and team-oriented after years of competing. 

Jordan averaged fewer points that season (31.5) than his previous four seasons, but it was all by design, as Jackson explained on 'The Way of Champions' podcast with host John O'Sullivan. 

Jackson detailed how he convinced Jordan to change his ultra-aggressive approach on offense, giving him more juice to take over games in the fourth quarter, a strategy that helped him become one of the most successful coaches in NBA history. 

Jackson brought Jordan into his offense and attempted to show him that the NBA's highest scorers never win championships, a tough pill for the former NBA and Chicago Bulls legend to swallow. 

"When I was given the job as the head coach of the Chicago Bulls, I brought Michael Jordan in to speak with me, and I said, 'You know, you've averaged 37, 38 and 36 points a game the last three years. You know, you've been the scoring champion, but if you look back at the history of the NBA, there hasn't been a scoring champion for almost 15 years who's won the championship. They don't go together," Jackson said he told Jordan. 

He also told the Bulls superstar that the Bulls needed to take the focus off of him to open things up for his teammates. 

Jordan asked Jackson if he would run an "equal opportunity" offense like former Bulls assistant coach Tex Winter had been talking about. 

"I said, 'Yeah, I guess you could call it an equal opportunity offense," Jackson said on the podcast. He added that he would not be calling the plays from the sideline and would instead give players the chance to make reads during game action. 

"(Jordan) said, 'Well, I don't think that I have to give up a scoring championship. I could score 32 points a game and still win a scoring championship. That's only eight points a quarter,'" Jackson said. 

"Michael, I had trouble scoring eight points a game when I was a player," Jackson added. 

The new Jordan offensive strategy would help the Bulls guard to serve as the team's closer, allowing him to preserve enough energy to put away opposing teams in the fourth and final quarter. 

"But rather than scoring eight points a quarter, why don't you save that for the fourth quarter and score 14 points in the fourth quarter and take us home?" Jackson asked. "And you can do what you want to do during the early part of the game and then put the onus and the nail in the coffin in the fourth quarter to seal the deal," Jackson told Jordan.

"He kind of liked that idea," the former Bulls coach added. 

By the time the 1991 Finals rolled around, the plan began to work to perfection. Jordan scored 31.2 points per game and averaged 11.4 assists per game as teammates Scottie Pippen, Horace Grant, John Paxson and Bill Cartwright picked up the scoring slack. 

Jordan had become a point guard in a shooting guard's body, with the ability to transform into a high-octane scorer in crunch time. 

"And you know, I think we lost two or three of our first games that we played in my first year coaching, and everybody had to kind of figure out how to do it, how to play together when the ball was dictating the action, when the passes were dictating what people would do, rather than a specific number for a player being called from the sideline," Jackson said on the podcast. 

"And I gave the team a little bit of authority, which is exactly what a coach wants to happen." 

Jackson, who became known as the 'Zen Master' that season, successfully helped mold Jordan into one of the most successful athletes in team sports history with one minor adjustment.

Jordan bought in, the Bulls went on to win six championships, and the rest is history.