Dennis Rodman on the 1996 Chicago Bulls

[Lebron23]

"We could not have won 70 games playing against 1980's teams." Majority of the greatest NBA Teams of All time played in the 1980's"
- Dennis Rodman, 1996

[Real Men Wear Green]

https://firstsportz.com/nba-news-den...-kevin-durant/

[Jasper]

it is understandable ... it was an era the NBA will never forget : exceedingly physical with very tough defense , and low scoring games.

Some of the games had scores in the 60's.

[Gruppenführer]

The greatest NBA picture ever taken. Right in front of Gene Siskel.





This is the second greatest picture:

[Hey Yo]

it is understandable ... it was an era the NBA will never forget : exceedingly physical with very tough defense , and low scoring games.

Some of the games had scores in the 60's.

[Axe]

No pip, no chip.

[Soundwave]

It kinda goes both ways, if the Bulls had their shit together and gave Jordan a team as loaded as what Bird had for the Celtics or Magic had for the Lakers, could that team win 70 wins? Potentially sure.

The Bulls suffered due to overexpansion of the league too, they were never that deep especially scoring wise, the Celtics/Lakers/Pistons even always went like 4-5 guys deep in terms of impact scorers, the Bulls never had that.

Give Jordan the 86 Celtics to play or 85 Lakers and take Magic or Bird off and they could win 70 games.

Jordan always had to shoulder a large proportion of the offence by himself because the Bulls were never really that deep offensively, especially when Pippen's jumper wasn't going which was like every third game.

In all honesty Jordan kinda got screwed by the Trail Blazers being stupid and taking Sam Bowie (lol), if he had gotten drafted by the Blazers he immediately would've had a star no.2 in Clyde Drexler and other good scoring options like Terry Porter. That Blazers team with Jordan on it would've been deeper and better than the Bulls.

The Bulls were always a poorly ran franchise (and plainly have been since Jordan retired as they haven't done shit). Sure taking a chance on Rodman was nice, but they basically had no choice as San Antonio was giving him away for free and Jordan was the only alpha type of personality that could keep Dennis even kind of in check, David Robinson and Shaq/Kobe afterwards could not.

And even Rodman was a non-option offensively, the Bulls basically played 4 on 5 offence because Dennis wasn't going to shoot unless it was like plan D.

[L.Kizzle]

Rodman's Bulls career is very overrated. I remember him more in that time frame wrasslin and marrying himself.
Especially in the playoffs, he underperformed.

[Soundwave]

Rodman's Bulls career is very overrated. I remember him more in that time frame wrasslin and marrying himself.
Especially in the playoffs, he underperformed.

He was good in the 96 playoffs, but in 97 he got outplayed by Bison Dele and in 98 he was a freaking mess at times taking off to go wrestling in the middle of the post season and all kinds of random shit, just a total head case.

[CurryOverLebron]

Jordan couldn't dominate 1980s because he was too young. You need to play several seasons before you get a good roster built around you, hire the right coach, and learn from the experience of losing to improve on your deficiencies (losing fat, gaining muscles, improving skills). Only a few lucky superstars like Magic, Kobe, and Duncan win championships early in their careers. So they have to find new motivation like winning without Kareem, Shaq, or shortened season.

[Soundwave]

Jordan couldn't dominate 1980s because he was simply too young. You need to play several seasons before you get a good roster built around you, hire the right coach, and learn from the experience of losing to improve on your deficiencies (lose fat, gain muscles, improve your skills). Only a few lucky superstars like Magic, Bird, Kobe, and Duncan win championships early in their careers.

The Bulls were never that loaded to be frank even.

The Lakers/Pistons/Celtics all had like 5-6 legit scoring threats on the roster, the Bulls had realistically like 3 (Jordan, Pippen, Kukoc).

Losing Grant and Armstrong for the 2nd 3-peat really thinned out their offensive depth that they should have had by the 91-93 teams didn't have Kukoc, the 94 Bulls team should have been the most talented version of the Bulls, but Jordan retired. Ron Harper was a ghost of himself offensively and athletically by the time he got to the Bulls because of injury, if they had Ron Harper in his peak/prime ... that's now a different story.

[Airupthere]

Some good points brought up so far but one very important question not mentioned yet is, put Rodman on the 98 Jazz roster, how. many. ringz?

[Soundwave]

Some good points brought up so far but one very important question not mentioned yet is, put Rodman on the 98 Jazz roster, how. many. ringz?

lol, there'd be a team mutiny by game 30 as the Jazz wouldn't be able to control Rodman who'd probably be balls deep in some married mormon threesome or some other scandal by that point or him losing his mind in "boring ass Utah" and running off to Vegas every other week.

[sdot_thadon]

It kinda goes both ways, if the Bulls had their shit together and gave Jordan a team as loaded as what Bird had for the Celtics or Magic had for the Lakers, could that team win 70 wins? Potentially sure.

The Bulls suffered due to overexpansion of the league too, they were never that deep especially scoring wise, the Celtics/Lakers/Pistons even always went like 4-5 guys deep in terms of impact scorers, the Bulls never had that.

Give Jordan the 86 Celtics to play or 85 Lakers and take Magic or Bird off and they could win 70 games.

Jordan always had to shoulder a large proportion of the offence by himself because the Bulls were never really that deep offensively, especially when Pippen's jumper wasn't going which was like every third game.

In all honesty Jordan kinda got screwed by the Trail Blazers being stupid and taking Sam Bowie (lol), if he had gotten drafted by the Blazers he immediately would've had a star no.2 in Clyde Drexler and other good scoring options like Terry Porter. That Blazers team with Jordan on it would've been deeper and better than the Bulls.

The Bulls were always a poorly ran franchise (and plainly have been since Jordan retired as they haven't done shit). Sure taking a chance on Rodman was nice, but they basically had no choice as San Antonio was giving him away for free and Jordan was the only alpha type of personality that could keep Dennis even kind of in check, David Robinson and Shaq/Kobe afterwards could not.

And even Rodman was a non-option offensively, the Bulls basically played 4 on 5 offence because Dennis wasn't going to shoot unless it was like plan D.

I truly dislike this bit of propaganda Mj fans perpetrate now days. Mj did not shoulder that much of the scoring load because he HAD to, that's bs. He literally had teammates bitching and moaning behind the scenes of the 1st 3peat about shot attempts. He also actively pursued scoring numbers and scoring titles. A system literally needed to be put in place to limit his grip on the offense lol. Some of you guys claimed to have watched it live and for the life of me I can't see how you guys don't remember him going back into games well out of hand sometimes to jack up 7 or 8 shots in a row to get his average for the night. Whether hes your GOAT or right there up top doesnt really matter but its time to start calling it like it really was fellas. Mythology doesn't really work well in 2023.

[sdot_thadon]

And on topic? They could have possibly won that many in a season during the 80s, they were that great of a team. What would have likely been different is the amount of titles they'd have been able to win. Remember Mj has never beat Bird and they'd have hell dealing with the front lines of the 80s.