'If I was healthy, we could have beaten the Bulls' - Nate McMillan reflects on his potential impact in the 1996 NBA Finals

The 1996 NBA Finals was a weird one. The Chicago Bulls seemed to have the series wrapped up, but the Seattle Supersonics rallied to take two games and add some drama. It also featured an absolute chess match between Phil Jackson and George Karl, although Karl was at a disadvantage without his trusted backup point guard, Nate McMillan.

McMillan suffered a bad back, forcing him to miss three games on the biggest stage. Needless to say, those three contests were all losses. So, would the two-time All-Defensive guard tipped the scales in the Sonics' favor in full bill of health?

"If I was healthy and we could have executed our game plan, we could have beaten the Bulls, or at least taken them to seven games," McMillan said, per Alex Wong of Complex.com.

Old reliable

Nate never averaged more than 7.6 points at any point in his 12-year career. In fact, '95-'96 was one of his worst scoring seasons at five points per game.

That said, Karl did not trust McMillan because he could put the ball in the basket; Nate earned that confidence because he could prevent people from doing so. That's why even though he had Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp, the 2013 NBA Coach of the Year called his backup point guard "the key" to the entire team. Of course, the rest of the squad echoes that sentiment.

"Nate was a huge part of the team. He made all the right plays offensively and defensively," forward Detlef Schrempf commented.

It can't be confirmed if the Bulls did it on purpose, but McMillan's absence and limited effectiveness was a bane to Seattle's offense.

"They put Scottie on Gary, and trapped a little more than they normally did. They took the ball out of Gary's hands and we didn't have another point guard who could handle the ball," McMillan observed.

True enough, Seattle's offense was splendid, with Nate in commission for Games 4 and 5. They blew Chicago out by a combined 34 points, but it was a case of too little, too late. The Bulls took care of business in Game 6 on their home floor to wrap up their fourth championship in seven years.

Could McMillan have made a difference?

McMillan played all 12 seasons in Seattle and was nicknamed "Mr. Sonic." Nate experienced health issues in '95-'96, which was the reason why he only played 55 games that year. Still, the Sonics were a different team when he was healthy. On the 55 healthy nights the 6'6" guard suited up, the team won 46, a 69-win rate that would have tied Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain's 1971-72 Lakers!

What made Nate such a valuable piece under Karl? That's because both guys shared the same wavelength. As Tim Booth of the Seattle Times wrote, George rarely had to call plays if McMillan was on the floor.

"He probably was the guy that I enjoyed playing for the most, because he didn't have any restrictions on my play. And he allowed us to play," McMillan stated. "He demanded and challenged us to play hard and to do all the things that I believed in, so it was easy to play for him. It was easy to relate to him. I kind of felt like I was an extension of him out on the floor, because I knew what he wanted and what he wanted was what I felt that needed to happen on the floor."

Unfortunately, McMillan never had another opportunity to show what he could do on the biggest stage. Nate played two more seasons and ten more playoff games, but that bad back never recovered, forcing him to retire in 1998. It would be unfair for the Bulls to say "Mr. Sonic" would have turned the series around if he was healthy. Nonetheless, "Mac" would have given the Sonics a fighting chance at the very least.