NBA Legends Explain Why the 96 Bulls were The Best Team Ever 

OMG can u imagine Jordan defending Steph with hand checking being allowed? Lmaooo jordan would probably hurt him by pushing him around

He'd go to the rack at will,no one would be able to guard him

You might as well just bring the rim to Mike! Because that is what it would be like, LOL!🤣

@@jeanferguson9063. Curry would be hand checked the hell out of. MJ would “direct” him where he c wanted him to go. He wouldn’t be able to get enough separation from MJ to avoid his 3’s getting blocked. Not allowed to hand check Jordan, the best athlete to play in the NBA? That’s just slam dunk contest for him.

@@frankiek2269 🤣😂😂

Nah they wouldn’t. How can you be ranked #1 in O when they wouldn’t have enough firepower. The 72 win season in the finals they used 7 players at least 18 minutes. Kerr at about 18 & Harp at about 18 or 19 then you have Mj, Pip, Rodman, Longley (no foot speed or quickness that in no way could defend in space) and Kukoc a good offensive weapon who has no D, no foot speed, no lateral quickness and also can’t guard in space. The only other guy with D that can guard in space would be Randy Brown was playing 8 minutes a game in the finals. Even if he got more minutes that’s less offense. They have 4 total players that could defend in space and Rodman could guard certain players in space but him guarding away from the basket hurts them. Even though the bulls at times picked up full they were not built to defend 3 line in regularly with more athletes on the floor than ever, more players on the floor that would shoot, that would handle and dealing with more spacing than they could imagine. The size of perimeter players increases tremendously as today’s players are best equipped to defend today’s game. When this bulls squad played there was probably 15 big guards which is why at times smaller guards had to guard Mj. Most small forwards back then could not guard in space. Pull up some old games and see how much weaker the D was. It wasn’t as sophisticated and the bulls were an athletic team but they only had a few athletes. Now every team has 7, 8, 9, 10 athletes. The bulls never faced anything like any of these teams. Kerr wouldn’t even be playing 20 minutes cause he would get cooked and he himself admits he couldn’t play today. If Harp is only playing 19 min a game in the finals (23 min a game regular season) he’s not equipped to guard these dudes in space. No matter how good anyone’s defense is from the past or any team in general, if you have to deal with more athletes than ever, more skilled players than ever, more players on the floor that will shoot and handle than ever, more spacing than ever than your defense is going to take a hit. The league then had a few 3 pt shooters if that on the floor at the same time. Guys are doing unheard of things today. GHill was killin’ Pip & Mj cause they weren’t used to 6’8 dudes going right to left like a guard and he wasn’t a shooter. It’s like when they say how past players would ball today, yeah I’m offense but they’d be getting cooooked playing defense. Mchale was a great defender, today he gets cooked trying to guard dudes 3 line in. Past games show dudes getting 5 feet of air space INSIDE the 3 line. Pull up “Michael Jordan shows full repertoire vs Suns”, the defense is horrible. It doesn’t even look like the finals. They try to dog today’s defense but good O beats good D and this is by far way more overall talent than any time in the past. Everybody has a stepback, cross you up, more guys with size doing it. They’d be facing players doing things they never imagined. How do you kill dudes doing things you’ve never seen. 1 dude I’m the past shot a step back. Way more dudes shoot 3’s and at a better rate. Those that make excuses, nah, the 3 line was there a long time ago and true shooters shoot with range 3 line or not so I’m talking players as is not “if this…if that”. Mark Jackson retired in 04’, the most 3’s he made in a game was 5 in 89’….

The bulls would be hoopin’ but people putting too much on it. Undrafted dudes would be 1st & 2nd rd picks any time in the past. There’s 3rd, 4th options that would be 1st options in the past. Credit to Mugsey Bogues who started most of his 14 yrs and averaged 10 a game 3 separate years with no J but with no J and without extreme bounce ain’t no 5’3 dude playing today. People like Carmelo, Kemba, Younger Isaiah, John Wall would still be starters any time in the past. The bulls never saw a lot of this but these dudes have seen Kobe (Mj clone), Giannis a bigger Pippen with less shooting or a PG who’s bigger with more shooting. Every team has multiple 6’6, 6’8 & up guys to throw at Mj & Pip, not stop them but the bulls just have 3 dudes to throw bodies but again Rodman on the perimeter playing D on certain guys hurts them. While it’s a hypothetical these things laid out are facts. If a player can’t guard in space then no matter what era they’re in they can’t guard in space. The bulls would score more than they did but some of that is due to more scoring they would give up….

Not to mention Pip's wingspan is 7'3"

@@Real_Michael_Jordan 🎯🎯🎯

Cool story lol, let me guess you are around 60 and still live in 90s. Bulls are complete and utter garbage bins compared to any playoff team in modern nba

soft NBA's equivalent to women's netball

I can’t watch modern basketball. I’m happy I lived in the era of men’s basketball, not this wimp European garbage we are watching nowadays.

​@@TheLuminousOnedon't be sexist, bruh

Facts👍🇺🇸

​@@kifacoreaget outta here with that basketball is a man sport

Dude, I agree that the 96 Bulls are most likely the best team ever, but slow your roll on some of these role players..Jud Buechler played like 7 min per game and shot 36% from 3 but 53% from FT in the playoffs..he basically made less than 1 shot per game ! Kerr could help space the floor and hit a 3 or two..but couldn't defend anyone ! Kukoc was like Hedo Turkoglu ..he could shoot (but actually shot very poorly in the 96 playoffs) but was a poor defender..still, a good scoring option from the bench, but he wasn't dominating anyone..Wellington..less than 10min and made 1 or 2 shots per game and didn't even averaged 2 rebounds and couldn't block shots ! The truth is..besides Kukoc and Kerr, they didn't really have depth..that's why Pippen and Jordan played 40min ...still their starting 5 was so strong and the pieces complemented themselves so well, no team (now or then) could beat them in a 7 games series !

⁠​⁠@@Herbalizer28I hear what you’re saying; they didn’t have a glut of talent around MJ/Pippen/Jordan. Not like Russell had, Magic/Kareem had, Bird had, Lebron had, Steph had, etc. After watching more games of the ‘96 Bulls, I think their overall chemistry and complimentary parts are better than I thought they were. I always thought MJ/Pippen/Rodman was the best defensive trio ever. Still do. I always thought Kukoč was a very good 6th man, a versatile x-factor. I still do. I guess I always thought their defense drove a lot of their offense, with Pippen and MJ doing all the ball-handling/facilitating and scoring with very marginal contributions from anyone other than Kukoč. I think the way they punished defenses with their team offense is better than I previously thought is all I’m saying

Kukoc had handles? 🤔😂 OK... I remember watching him play and thinking, yo pass wtf was that? But hey, if it worked it worked. 😅

'85 Celtics Bird,McHale,Parrish,Dennis Johnson, Ainge,Walton, '87 Lakers Magic,Jabaar,Worthy,Scott, Cooper,Rambis,McAdoo. I don't think any team could beat those two teams in a 7 game series. That's why they went to 7 twice.

6-0 in the Finals.

Rodman is a Piston. So Is Sally.

@@allenmoses110 Rodman played for the pistons, spurs, bulls, Lakers and possibly another team. Sally also went on to different teams. Wtf are you talking about? How old are you?

@@useyourthirdeye9083dallas

Not just individually but their ability to switch was key. Even when Rodman would switch on a guard it wasn’t that big of a mismatch. And then if you had a quick small guard, they had Randy Brown who came off the bench. Or the early years they’d have BJ Armstrong. He did a heck of a job on Kevin Johnson in the 93 finals

After those four greats having Kokoc on your roster ain't no joke!

Draymond Dreen

Me too, and I’m from Chicago. The celebrations were great

Plus he was at it with Jordan at one time or the other way around

I agree,he was in the middle of the Bull's play and he coached the Warriors so he had a great perspective of both teams and he knows what the deal would be if these teams played each other.

@@Jimmy-ik2kc 86celtics would stomp both of them

​@@dp233332if we are going there then the '83 sixers crushes them all. Remember them sweeping the Showtime Lakers...the same Lakers who went back n forth with the Celts for years. Just sayin'.

@@allaboutcash439 86 cektics woulda killed theb83 76ers its 5hofers vs 3 even if toney should be a 4th the 76ers are still outmatched...they swept the lakers who were missing j.worthy and had injuries to norm nixon and mcadoo

lol!

And Jordan fans need to get off Jordan nutsack and accept the fact that they are delusional fanboys stuck in Nostalgia that want to hear nothing negative about Jordan. 🙄

It also to make it balance, mj already can score 30 40 50 60 without 3 what will happen if he is also deadly in 3s😂😂😂😂😂

Jordan still holds finals record for 3 point shots in a half.

@@kenneths.perlman1112 I think Ray Allen broke that record in 2010.

It was all that and then some. He completely willed the team to victory. Everybody was waiting in anticipation and it looked like they were just too old and tired to pull it off in that decisive game 6 of 1998...until Jordan dropped more than 50% of his teams points and put on a clinic on both sides of the floor for the win

You ain't neva lied there. I remember that last shot in Utah. It was poerty in motion.

Shut up we had tvs in the 90’s…..

MJ pushed off. It should have been a foul.

then u know they could be beat

The 1970's NFL Was awesome!

Your right, teams did not like each other n would often fight. Hockey was nuts!

What is NFL and MLB?

Hockey isn't a sport, it's just an activity. Agree with everything else you said though.

Yesss

Nobody "humiliated" MJ. He'd only been back in the league for 17 regular season games before that '95 playoffs began. No training camp, nothin'. None of us were expecting him to lead that year's Bulls team to the ring.

@@mj23goat3 he was never the same or as unstoppable after baseball...lost the top end of his handles his quickness and his ups and wasnt the same tireless defensive force more or less picked and chose his moments and rested alotta the time to conserve self for 4th qtrs. Maybe he wasnt in basketball shape yet but he had been back just as long if not longer than hed been back from the foot injury in 86 b4 scoring 63pts against Boston. B4 baseball he didnt need a 3rd HOFer-especially a rebounding and defense specialist-on his team in order2win 3championships in a row... He never regained those handles which orlando exploited the deterioration of in 1995...he changed his style quote a bit from 96 on relied far more upon the triangle the fadeaway and upon posting up. Didnt attack the rim after returning from baseball anywhere near as often or effectively.

@@dp233332 Wow, so much wrong with this nonsensical statement. Now I will take your comment into my operating theater and dissect: "...he was never the same or as unstoppable after baseball..." Huh? In the three years he played directly after returning from his father's death he won three scoring titles, two All-Star MVP's, two regular season MVP's, three Finals MVP's...and three RINGS. What exactly is it that anyone stopped him from doing? "...wasnt the same tireless defensive force..." And yet he was chosen 1st Team All-Defense during each of his three post-baseball years and finished 6th, 5th, and 4th (at age 35!) in the voting for Defensive Player of the Year, respectively, over those three seasons. "...more or less picked and chose his moments..." He'd been picking and choosing his moments ever since PhilJack got there. That was the tactic that Phil and his staff taught him which is why they started winning championships. Everyone knew MJ could dominate from the opening tip to the final buzzer but the problem was that when he did that it meant his teammates never got a few good looks throughout the game so they could hit some shots and be confident/in the groove when "winnin' time" (as Magic would say) rolled around in the fourth quarter. What Money learned how to do was to get his points more _in the flow of the game_ while still keeping his teammates involved too. THEN they were ready when the time came to hit a big shot as, say, Kerr did in the '97 Finals. "... he had been back just as long if not longer than hed been back from the foot injury in 86 b4 scoring 63pts against Boston." A man's body bounces back _way_ faster from injury/inactivity at age 23 than it does at 33. "He never regained those handles which orlando exploited the deterioration of in 1995..." The only thing deteriorating is your memory. All Orlando "exploited" was the fact that they were lucky enough to be facing a 60% MJ rather than a 100% MJ. By the 1996 season he was back to 100% and we all know how that went.

I'm picking Bulls all the way but that Warriors team used to crush 3rd quarters too

​@@thegipps true that.

No lies detected.

Pippen and Jordan resting after big lead in 4th quarter is the only reason Lebron has more FG in losing games in 4th quarter 🤣.

95-96 bulls had 3 players on the 1st all-defensive team Jordan, Scotty, and the worm. Curry would be squashed offensively, KD would be guarded by Rodman and would frustrate him quickly because today’s league is soft and he frustrated 80s-90s guys. If it was a 7 game series bulls would win in 5.

Imagine if Harper didn't shred his knees during his early years with the Cavaliers. The man was Jordan-like pre-knee injury.

Kukoc was a defensive liability who wasnt even able to retain a starting roster spot on toronto after mj retired became a starter for the bulls avgd merely 18.8ppg at 42%fg% and 5.3apg he never made an all star team...with all due respect u are absolutely out of your mind for suggesting he was a potential franchise player in the nba

⁠@@dp233332Toni Kukoc is a Hall of Fame basketball player. He was a key member of a team that won a 3-peat.

@@bradjpeter stop being an idiot hes in because he was a foreigner and the hof created a policy which leads to at least 1 foreigner being inducted every yr... he never made a single all star team and couldnt retain a starting job even after mj retired again and scottie went to houston...nothing about his career was HOF worthy at the nba level if he deserves it on actual merit so do 50-70%of players whove been in the nba including everyone who unlike him was avle to retain a role as a starter on any team for more than 2-3yrs

@@bradjpeter stop lying he got in because the hof inducts a foreigner every yr...if he deserves to be a hofer based on what he did in the nba so does every player who unlike kukoc was actuslly able to retain a role as a starter for more than 2seasons...he never made an all star team and wasnt even able to maintain a role as a starter for more than a yr even after mj retired and scottie left. He was a role player on a team that had 9 role players and 3 legit HOFers...The fact that he won 3rings means very little he was never one of the 3 best players on that team he was a role player he sucked on defense same as Kerr cept Kerr was far more reliable as a spot up shooter in the playoffs...toni was always more of a wildcard who might be hot or might be absolutely stone cold as a shooter from 1night2the next...

@@dp233332 It's not just the NBA HoF. It's the Basketball HoF. He was a key member of a team that won 3 straight NBA Championships, following a spectacular career in Europe.

Man, being in chicago that 7 game series against the pacers in 98 was the only time I started to have doubts

@@thegipps I died on the inside after that game 7. Even when they finally did get through, to the Lakers in 2000, they were a spent force.

Indiana beat Chicago on the Bulls' 2nd to last regular season game that year... By then, the Bulls had locked up the best record in the NBA, and probably didn't give their full effort in that game.. The Bulls would've still beat Indiana if they played in the 1996 playoffs. No one was going to beat the Bulls in a best of 5 or best of 7 series that year.

1)Why are you talking about the '86 Celtics 2)They only played 41 home games so how did they win 50?

@@kevinstaggs5048 I guess you will have to figure that one out. I am not busting you. I think the 86 Celtics were NBA camps. Lol. Then in the 91 or 92 season. MJ coming off his best season. The beat up same Celtics took the regular season from the Bulls. Bird out dueled MJ.

That's the hypothetical matchup I always wanted to see. The '96 Bulls versus the '86 Celtics.

@@kevinstaggs5048 you need to add the playoffs my bad.

That documentary has started many tall tales too about Jordan and the kids who never watched him are hyping it to another level

@@eddieG667 yeah but if it wasn't for this Scottie wouldn't have snapped and talk trash about MJ like that and they would have still been close friends. Now who knows if they will ever bury the hatchet.

@@willn8664 we don’t know if it has more to do with his ex. But I wonder if it was inevitable that he’d show his true colors. Those emotions were always brewing not only from that Kukoc last shot, but in the later Laker series when he was a Blazer. He’d often be downright childish when he was supposed to be the vet on the team

@@eddieG667 yeah true because he wanted to prove that he could win a chip without MJ. Honestly that Blazers team was underrated and it could have went either way between them and the Lakers. But yeah Scottie was tad bit out of hand for calling Phil a racist for giving Toni the winning shot instead of him.

@@willn8664 what's more interesting is that Scottie said on Dan Patrick's show "I don't have a relationship with Phil and haven't seen him since the 98 season." Phil had him work with Kobe and the Lakers after he retired. He's even in some of the training camp videos. He sure has a selective memory.

Lmao 🤣 Cool story bro 😎

@@younglove3362 it's not a story it's a fact

Well said

the record is still broken tho unlike the 86Celtics HC record of 40-1 which still stands unbroken 37yrs later and counting.

i was thinking about kukoc on kd too, he definitely had the height and length.

I think they are actually about the same height. Durant would get his, but it would be on low efficiency. We've seen it happen against teams today with less defensive prowess than the '96 Bulls.

​@@cyber6sapiennah man u gotta put rodman on KD and switch off to pippen once in a while. Jordan on Steph and rin Harper on klay

Durant ??? Lol 😂 The same durant who was known to making fake accounts on social media and confront people who made comments about him that he didn't like ?,, . Do you mean tge durant who was shut down by jayson tatum 2 yrs ago. Do you mean the same durant who admitted he left the warriors because of what draymond greene said to him ??? 😂 LOL DO YOU WHAT RODMAN WOULD HAVE DONE TO DURANT'S MIND 😂 LOL 😂 KEVIN DURANT ??????? 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 😂 96 BULLS FOREVER !!!

Man Ron Harper in his clippers days was a 22 and 8 player before his knees went out

The Cleveland Cavaliers beat those Warriors in a playoff series. It's no question; Bulls in four.... maybe five, if they have to throw game four to win game five back in chicago.

RU-vid searches and you can find most of the playoff games.

3am?!!👀 Where do you live!!??

@@cyber6sapien eastern hemisphere

I agree with this. Anyone can look like the GOAT if you only see their highlights.

Yooo I pictured the same scenario bro lol. Except it was Jordan guarding Steph as soon as the ball gets inbound . I think mj would literally injure Steph because of the hand checking and Jordan's big hands. Also I think Jordan would probably get frustrated if Steph hits a big 3 on him and that would make Jordan play even more aggressive

With these defensive rules Jordan and Pippen would be even more lethal. Jordan could average 45 PPG in today’s game if he wanted.