6 Rings: the true story of the Chicago Bulls dynasty

 

Twenty years ago, the dynasty ended.

The Chicago Bulls of Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Phil Jackson won six championships in eight seasons and reshaped the NBA forever.

My latest story celebrates their final game together, Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals, and completes (for now, I guess) an ongoing series of pieces that I have written over the past 13 years on what was easily my favorite era as a sports fan.

Here, all together, are those pieces about “YOUR World Champion Chicago Bulls!”

I will never get tired of hearing that.

How The GOAT Was Built: 6 Life Lessons From the 1996 Chicago Bulls

Way back in October, back when the Bulls’ record of 72 wins was safe, I began an essay about the 12 moves the Bulls made between June 1993 and October 1995 that turned an aged, bickering, 57-win champion into a flourishing, rejuvenated, 72-win juggernaut.

Seven months later, I have a 13,000-word e-book and have spent more time reading about and watching clips of the 1995-96 Bulls than any time other than 1995-96. I’ll save you the suspense: It’s been a sweet 7 months!

Thus I am very proud to release “How The GOAT Was Built: 6 Life Lessons From the 1996 Chicago Bulls.”

READ AND DOWNLOAD THE PDF VERSION: How the GOAT was built — by Jack M Silverstein

For an iBooks copy for your phone, email readjack.com@gmail.com.

More e-book options to come.

To read the six lessons without the prologue or epilogue, (but with lots and lots of video!), click the links below:

Can you name all of the players on the championship Bulls?

It’s quiz time!

Can you name all 38 players who appear on Bulls championship banners?

Ready…

Learning the Hard Way: Jordan’s Bulls vs. the Bad Boy Pistons

From Bear Down and Get Some Runs:

Learning the Hard Way

My parents became friends in 1972. For eight years they lived on the East Coast, dating on and off until they decided to get married in 1980. I was born a year later while we were living in Brooklyn, MJ two years after that in Connecticut, and in 1984 we moved back home to Chicago in an Evanston apartment as my folks had always planned.

This is how it felt to be a Bulls fan in the late 80s.

As a three-year-old with Chicago fandom rich in the blood, I really could not have asked for a better time to move back. While doomed as apocalyptic by the great Orwell, 1984 was the beginning of a golden era in Chicago sports. The Cubs won the division that summer, going to the postseason for the first time since 1945. The Bears, buoyed by an incredible 1983 draft, dominated in the fall and went back to the NFC Title game, and though they lost to the Niners the seeds were planted for their incredible 1985 run.

But the city’s most significant move came in the middle of the year, when the Bulls used the number 3 pick in the draft to select Michael Jordan, a junior guard from North Carolina. This was the landscape of Chicago sports when I was growing up, and from 1984-1998, I saw some pretty incredible feats:

Moving On–The tale of Scottie Pippen’s 1994 Chicago Bulls

October 6, 1993: Moving on

My mom told us while we were getting dressed for school.

October 6, 1993: The Day the (American Basketball Portion of the) Earth Stood Still.

It must have been something for her, hearing the news and knowing she had the responsibility to tell my brother and me. I can imagine her downstairs, getting ready for her day in the classroom, making our sandwiches and listening to the radio as she would on any other morning, and then comes the report, and her own personal reaction, and the sudden decision that had to be made of how to tell us. This wasn’t a death; a family member, or even a pet, passing away. This wasn’t a building bombed or a country going to war; it wasn’t a house burning down or a near-fatal car accident. This was just a man deciding he no longer wished to play basketball. That’s all it was. Yet she knew it was more than that, we all knew, the city knew, and so she walked up the stairs and stepped into our room and gave us one final moment of innocence before telling us what we never thought possible.

“Boys, I’ve got some bad news.” We stood and looked at her. “Michael Jordan retired.”

Bear Down and Get Some Runs, best-of: April 24, 2005

April 24, 2005

I woke up this morning ready to go.

From the ’04 Final Four Blue Devils to the ’05 Playoff Bulls…

Granted, I wasn’t dressed or showered, nor had I eaten, and you can’t very well go to a basketball game without getting out of bed, but all that aside, I was ready. The last time I’d seen the Bulls in the playoffs, I was a sophomore in high school with little idea as to where I’d be attending college. Bill Clinton was president, Dave Wannstedt was coaching the Bears, and Sammy Sosa was in the midst of a record breaking month in which he hit twenty home runs and transformed himself from Sammy to SAMMY. Seven years and five Bulls coaches later,[1] the Bulls are back in the postseason, and I am going to see them.

On the John: Appreciating Captain Kirk

On the John

One way or another, Captain Kirk has led the Bulls since his rookie year.

Appreciating Captain Kirk

Originally completed March 25, 2009

First, he was the replacement. Jay Williams crashed his motorcycle a week before the draft, and suddenly the Bulls needed a point guard. Had Williams not hopped on that bike, maybe Pax would have nabbed Mike Sweetney or Jarvis Hayes or Nick Collison. Instead, it was Kirk Hinrich.

Bear Down and Get Some Runs, best-of: January 13, 2005

From 1991 through 1998, the Bulls won six championships, with Michael and Scottie playing on all six teams. During that time, they had two main cores of players who won at least two titles each. The first three-peat featured a core of Grant, Paxson, Cartwright, Armstrong, Scott Williams, Perdue, King, Hodges, and Levingston. The second three-peat featured a core of Rodman, Harper, Longley, Kukoc, Kerr, Wennington, Brown, Buechler, Caffey, and Simpkins. Watching the Bulls during the ’90s was a treat, and not just because they were a dominant title-winning team. As great as the championships were, and as much fun as it was to watch them play basketball, what really made the Bulls of the ’90s special was that we got to watch a group of players play together year after year.