Inside the Start of the Chicago Bulls' Championship Run
BOUND FOR GLORY: An oral history of how Michael Jordan, Phil Jackson, and the rest of the 1991 NBA champs learned to play together and started the greatest pro sports dynasty the town has ever seen
http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Ma...ticle=0#artanc
hahah people posting hours agoHAHA just what I was thinking. I came here to see which was a more embarrassing end to a classic team. I think Lakers today was worse. More classless and pathetic. Maybe Kobe will go on to be a laughingstock as a coach and GM like Isaah did now that his career is over.
No matter how he's remembered in the long run, PJ will always be MJ's coach, that guiding light in the storm, a guy I grew up loving and respecting.
It's really too bad that he went on to be one of the Spurs mortal enemies.
The quotes that stuck out to me
SMITH: So then they go out west. They win a few games. They’re kind of playing .500 ball into December. They’re a good team, winning their home games mostly. Then, right before Christmas, they go into Detroit and just get blown out. Dominated the way Detroit had dominated them in the past. I remember Phil talking after the game that this is a sort of crucible for this team, and maybe we need to blow it up—not trade Jordan, but maybe make some big changes. That maybe this team isn’t up to it.
PAXSON: You have to remember how we always walked out of that building. It was never with any success. I take myself back to that Game 7 [in the previous year’s Eastern Conference finals], where we lost. That was as loud a building as I’ve ever heard. It was deafening.
SMITH: But they came out of that. I think they played the Lakers at home, and Detroit also, like a week later, around Christmas. I remember Detroit was upset at having to play on Christmas. They were the defending champions and playing on Christmas. The notion was, the league hated Detroit because the bad-boy thing was catching up to them. The league had sort of pushed [that reputation], but now it had kind of gotten out of control, and they were trying to reel them back in. I remember a number of the players refused to come on the team plane to Chicago on Christmas Eve, and several of them came on their own Christmas morning.
PAXSON: And we beat them. And I can remember thinking: You know what? I’m not sure they have that [fire to win] right now after having won two [championships]. Because if you’re thinking about winning that third one, you’re going with your team. You’re fighting that whole battle. When I saw that, I kind of felt good about where we were headed.
SMITH: Pippen was always complaining about his contract. And now they’re recruiting Kukoc. [Negotiations to bring the European player Toni Kukoc to the team that year ultimately fell through, to the delight of Pippen and Jordan and the consternation of Krause. Kukoc would not join the team until 1993.] Because the fans were so locked into Jordan and Pippen and the team and so negative toward Jerry Krause, [the wooing of Kukoc] was looked at as some kind of betrayal. It was ludicrous. [Management was] trying to improve the team—trying to get the best player in Europe basically for free.
KING: We go [to Detroit] and win the third game. In our eyes, it’s over. But we still know they’re going to come out and give their best effort. Let me tell you how y they were: We had morning shootaround, and there’s a time limit with the shoot-around—you have to be off the floor within an hour. So our shootaround had about 15 minutes to go. Phil was going over the game plan. And we were talking about what we were going to do that night. So [the Pistons] were in the hallway, and they’re disrupting practice—whistling and yelling. I remember Bill Laimbeer was like, “Get the off our court, time’s up.” [But] Scottie was y, too. I remember [him] doing a dance, like with a broom. Somebody goes, “Scottie, what you doin’?” “I’m sweeping up the trash—just like we’re gonna do tonight.” They really couldn’t say anything. We were cracking up.
PAXSON: It was incredibly satisfying, the fact that they had to walk by our bench. You could still see Isiah was kind of ducking down, shoulders kind of slouched, trying not to be seen. The disappointing thing about that is they had a similar cir stance with Boston where [the Pistons] had to overcome [the Celtics]. When they did, when they finally beat Boston to get to the finals three years before, [Celtics forward Kevin] McHale and all those guys went right to them and were like, “Congratulations, you’ve earned it.” We obviously didn’t get the same thing. But it did kind of validate what we believed in—that we played the right way. They were really good, but their time had come and gone, and it was our turn now.
SMITH: It was tremendous joy. That locker room was the most joyous it ever was in any of those championships, by far, because they’d finally achieved [a championship]. I remember covering the team in the late eighties where in the newspapers people were writing columns routinely that Jordan could never win. That you can’t win with Jordan.
Hey I know what you mean. For years I was a bigger Laker hater than Bulls fans.
Yes he always had a ''stacked lineup'' but ultimately Bulls don't win in 1991 without him just like Lakers don't win in 2000.
Like article states the Bulls lost the first 3 games of the season and didn't hit their stride til after the All Star Break. That calm assurance was what the team needed just like Lakers needed the same thing down 15 in the 4th Quarter to the Blazers in Game 7. Interesting that Pip was on the other side in that game
For all the Krause had to take, he was the architect of that great Bulls team
And he is the one who wanted Tex Winter and Phil Jackson
He's also the one that wanted Brad Sellers and Stacy King and broke up the team in 1998.
Not saying he is perfect, but he built that team
And he was the only one - along with Cartwright - who had the cojones to stand up to Jackson and Jordan
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