Best team ever? Maybe, maybe not.
Most incredible season in NBA history? Probably.From the October day Dennis Rodman arrived wearing red hair augmented by a black Chicago Bulls logo until Sunday night, when Michael Jordan was so overcome with emotion that he couldn't even celebrate his team's fourth NBA championship in six years, there has never been a season quite like this.
Eighty-seven wins, a record. Seventy-two in the regular season, another record. Thirteen losses in 71/2 months. Amazing.
"Who would have ever written this season?" said Jordan, who cried while thinking about his murdered father even as the Bulls wrapped up Sunday night's 87-75 victory over the Seattle SuperSonics in Game 6 of the NBA Finals.
"It happened on Father's Day, which makes it even more special," Jordan said. "There's no way you can really describe it."
Rodman, now sporting a hieroglyphics hairdo and a T-shirt reading "The Greatest Team Ever," tried to describe it.
"I think this was a fairy tale, like Goldilocks, like Snow White, you name it," he said. "I'll be doing my crying tomorrow when I realize what really happened tonight."
Later, in a locker room thick with the smell of cigar smoke and
champagne, Ron Harper wedged himself into one of the 3-foot-wide dressing areas. He sat quietly, away from the maddening mass of players, team officials, minicams and hangers-on, a smoldering stogie between his smiling lips.
"Joy was in getting here," he said. "Winning it, the feeling is very peaceful. Nobody can take this away. Ever. Ever. Ever."
Ever, ever, ever . . . will these Bulls be recognized as the best ever? They had a chance to claim that mythical title last week, but they weren't able to complete a sweep of Seattle that would have given them an unprecedented 15-1 playoff mark to go with their 72-10 regular season.
But even though Seattle won Games 4 and 5, sending the series back to Chicago, Scottie Pippen can't imagine a better team. Pippen and Jordan are the only holdovers from Chicago's 1991, 1992 and 1993 championship clubs.
"To bring this team together in one season, to bring back Michael, to bring Dennis here, this is very special," Pippen said. "We wanted to show the world that we were the greatest team. We have been dedicated all season to go out and win every game. Our team deserves a bow, a hats-off, because it is a heck of a job to win the number of games that we've won."
Jordan finished his first full season since coming out of retirement as a champion, just as he ended his last season before quitting for 21 months. He didn't want to compare this title to those the Bulls won before, but he acknowledged, "We have accomplished history."
It took Jordan awhile to fully appreciate the historic aspect to the Bulls' accomplishment.
When the final horn sounded, he grabbed the basketball and hugged it as he dropped down to the United Center court. First Randy Brown, then Rodman joined him on the floor, but Jordan didn't move. Finally, after about five minutes, he rose slowly and staggered off the court. He walked with shaky legs through the hall and stepped into the locker room. Again he fell to floor, still cradling the ball, sobbing.
He wasn't celebrating his team's fourth title. He wasn't celebrating his fourth NBA Finals MVP award. It was Father's Day, and he was thinking of James Jordan.
"I had to get out of the gym and be by myself," said Jordan, whose father was killed in 1993. "I just had a lot to think about . . . what was most important to me, which was my family, and my father not being here to see this. This was for dad."
Though Jordan was chosen finals MVP - making him the first to win four such awards in a career and only the second (along with New York's Willis Reed in 1970) to be selected MVP of the finals, regular season and All-Star Game in the same season - Sunday's game was one of his worst of the playoffs.
He missed 14 of 19 shots and committed five turnovers. And he scored only 22 points, 12 fewer than his NBA-record career playoff average.
While Jordan was the obvious choice as series MVP, more valuable on the clinching night were Rodman, Harper and Pippen.
Rodman had 19 rebounds, 11 on the offensive end, and provided boundless energy. Harper, after barely playing the previous three games because of a sore knee that will require arthroscopic surgery, scored 10 points in 38 gutsy minutes and contained Sonics star Gary Payton. Pippen, terrible most of the series, had 17 points, eight rebounds, five assists and four steals.
The Bulls shot only 40 percent, but won by playing as intensely as they have in any game this season. They got big contributions from Toni Kukoc and Steve Kerr, players who had struggled off the bench. Their defense was smothering, forcing 20 turnovers. They outrebounded Seattle 51-35.
Rodman, acquired just before the season to provide rebounding even though he didn't fit the Bulls' conservative image, was a major factor all series.
"As you evaluate the series," Sonics coach George Karl said, "I think Dennis Rodman is the reason they were successful."
Karl was pleased with his team's effort despite the defeat.