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:

The 1993 Bulls and LeBron James: a look back, and a look ahead

The 1993 Bulls and LeBron James: a look back, and a look ahead

Originally posted June 20, 2013

Michael Jordan scored the first nine points of the 4th quarter of Game 6 of the 1993 Finals — Pax scored the last three.

If I could watch only one Bulls Finals game for the rest of my life, it would be Game 6, June 20, 1993: Bulls 99, Suns 98. The night the Bulls secured their legacy as one of the premier teams in league history. The night “Paxson for three!” became every young Chicago hooper’s on-court self-exclamation.

There are a few reasons this game gets the nod for me. One, of course, is the remarkable final 45 seconds:

On the John: A shirt for all ages

On the John

A shirt for all ages

Originally completed October 27, 2010

The Chicago Bulls Triple Threat shirt, seen here on April 24, 2005, its first call-up since the mid-90s.

In 30 minutes, the Chicago Bulls begin their 2010-11 season. As a new patch on their jerseys indicates, this season marks the twenty-year anniversary of the 1991 Bulls, the franchise’s first championship team.

Perhaps more significantly than that is a separate, albeit connected, twenty-year anniversary: that of my Chicago Bulls Triple Threat t-shirt.

On the John: When Kobe met Michael… and other stories…

On the John

When Kobe met Michael… and other stories…

Originally completed June 17, 2010

So close…

Ten minutes after Game 6 was in the books, Scoop texted:

“Game 7. Who you got?”

As always, I was excited for the hoops talk. In fact, before responding to Scoop, I called Bulls beat reporter Chris Cason to discuss everything from the Perkins injury to The Incredible Hops of Shannon Brown. We spoke for a half hour, and it still took me another hour to give Scoop my answer. I just did not want to face it.

Which is curious. Because a sports prompt like “Game 7. Who you got?” is usually the type of discussion I relish. Something about the way Boston had lost…

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…

The readjack.com CHICAGO BULLS collection

Aaaaand nooooooow…

Nothing like a Bulls poster to make a kid's room complete.

Since I’ve written so much about YOUR WORLD CHAMPION CHICAGO BULLS! (don’t you still love hearing that?), I figured I would create one page with all of my best Bulls work. Essays from Bear Down and On the Johns from 2006 to the present.

I will also post the best Bulls-related youtube vids, links to other people’s Bulls writing, and whatever else seems appropriate.

Cool?

Cool.

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.”

Determined to win–the story of the 1993 Chicago Bulls

Determined to Win

If there is one disadvantage to winning back-to-back championships in any sport, it’s that eventually the extra games begin to wear on your team. After playing 99 meaningful games in 1991 and another 104 in ’92, Michael and Scottie rode away to Barcelona to play for the Dream Team. When they returned in the fall of ’92, it was clear: they were exhausted.

Pippen and Jordan reveal their true patriotism by draping themselves in American flags on the '92 medal stand.

The ’93 Bulls got off to a good enough start, but didn’t dominate the way they had the past two years, and at the end of the season found themselves second best in the East behind the rising New York Knicks, and third best overall behind the Barkley-led Suns. Most critics saw both of these teams as legit threats to the Bulls’ dynasty; Sports Illustrated predicted the Knicks and the Suns in the Finals. The Bulls were finished…