Chapter 2: The God of Basketball, the Chicago Bulls
The Bulls officially began their NBA journey in the 1966-1967 season, and in that year's draft, the Bulls selected a player with a face longer than Li Yong with the first pick in the second round, his name was Jerry Sloan, who later became the head coach of the Jazz and taught for 23 years, and was inducted into the Snays Hall of Fame in 2009.
Sloan is the first rookie selected in the history of the Bulls, because of Sloan's outstanding performance on the court, he has earned the reputation of "born Bulls", Sloan is a screw-like player, and a big screw, in 1966-67 season, Sloan is the team's rebounding king, in the 1968-1969 season, Sloan is the player with the most playing time on the team, in the 1973-1975 season, Sloan is the team's assist king, in general, in a word, where the team can't work, close the door, let Sloane go!
A jack-of-all-trades type of Sloan obviously can't get the team far, so the team has a large network of young talents, Tom Polwinkel - the No. 4 rookie in 1968 who once grabbed 37 rebounds in a single game, Chet Walker - a seven-time All-Star, Bob Boozer - a member of the 1960 U.S. Olympics men's basketball team (the team has been inducted into the Hall of Fame along with the Dream Team), Ardis Gilmore - ABA status is only inferior to Julius Irving, The team formed by these people gave the Bulls a qualitative leap in performance, but they were never able to win the championship.
During the 1975-1976 season, Sloan retired, and on February 17, 1978, his No. 4 jersey became the first jersey to hang over the United Center arena. From 1979 to 1982, Sloan picked up the coaching whip and began to coach his parent team, the Chicago Bulls, but it was not successful, in these three seasons, Sloan's winning rate was only 33%, which was obviously unqualified, and was fired by the management at the beginning of the 1983 season, Sloan went to the Jazz to become a scout, and slowly grew into a Hall of Fame level coach, perhaps, Sloan, who stepped on the Jazz floor for the first time as a head coach, would never have thought that he had coached this team for 23 years, with a winning rate of more than 60% , has the third-most wins in NBA history, has two Hall of Famer-level stars, Karl Malone and John Stockton, but he has never won a championship ring, because of the Bulls, because of Jordan, this matter is not on the table for the time being.
In the 1983-1984 season, the team only had a pitiful 27 wins, which was the second worst record in the history of the Bulls, the future of this team looked bleak, after the end of the season, most of the team's players were traded, including star players, the team's rebuilding ambitions were obvious, in the 1984 draft, the Bulls' selection was rewarded, they were the No. 3 pick in the first round, and selected Michael Jordan from the University of North Carolina, who was already the best player in the American college at the time. Perhaps the Bulls at that time, including Jordan himself, would not have imagined that in the future, this year, players in this position would become the signature of the NBA and the idol of basketball fans all over the world!
In Jordan's first season, he showed unstoppable strength, averaging 28.2 points, 6.5 rebounds and 5.9 assists per game, shooting 51.5% from the field! On February 12, 1985, Jordan scored a team-record 49 points against the Pistons, and also won the Rookie of the Year award at the end of the season!
In this year's draft, the Trail Blazers management, who drafted Sam Bowe with the second pick, had collectively cried and fainted in the toilet.
Jordan played just three games in his second season due to a left-footed injury, and the team's record improved slightly, with eighth place in the East barely making the playoffs, but was swept out of the first round by the Boston Celtics with Larry Bird and Kevin McHale. Despite the team's loss, Jordan, who returned from injury, played an amazing performance, averaging 44 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists per game in three games! Among them, in the second game, Jordan made 41 crazy shots, hit 22 goals, and scored a full 63 points! Jordan's ungodly performance did not bring the team even a victory, which also shows that Jordan needs help.
In the 1985-1986 season, the team brought in the league's famous tough guy (villain) Charles Oakley, the person who Yao Ming fought more than he played, Oakley stayed with the Bulls for three years, although he averaged 13 rebounds per game on the defensive end, but he was never able to help Jordan more on the offensive end, Jordan averaged 37.1 points, 5.2 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game this season, and led the team to the playoffs again, but in the face of last year's opponent, the Boston Celtics, the Bulls were still swept out 0:3, Jordan contributed 35.7 points per game, 7 rebounds and 6 assists per game still can't bring the team even a win.
It seems that one Oakley is not enough.
So in the 1987 draft, the Bulls traded No. 8 rookie Oden Polynes from the Seattle SuperSonics for a player with a face longer than Sloan, Scott Pippen.
Pippen acted as the team's No. 1 defender and lubricant for the team, and the team's record quickly rose to 50-28, and in the first round of the playoffs, the Bulls finally stepped into the second round of the playoffs after five games against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Bulls' opponent in the second round is the Detroit Pistons, known as the "Bad Boy Army", the head coach of this team is Chuck Daley, and the players are "Assassin" Isaiah Thomas, "King of Kung Fu" Bill Ranbir, "Gangster" Dantley, "Big Bug" Rodman, "Veteran Hitters" Rick Mahon and Joe Dumas, this team basically has no superb tactics at all, and the offensive end relies on the famous three rules - find the right opportunity to shoot, quickly return to defense and get stuck, and on the defensive end, It's all about muscles, strength and fists.
Bill Lambier will not introduce too much, he is definitely the king of trouble on the field, all kinds of tricks, damage moves constantly, but as long as there is a fight, Lambier is always the one who is beaten, but he is very satisfied, or very smart, as long as the opponent's star player swings his fist, his goal is achieved, for this reason, I don't care about taking a few more hits, but Mahon is different, when there is an argument on the field, Mahon will be the first to rush up, no matter who is right and wrong, directly knock the opponent down with a fist, before this series, Jordan was once one of Mahon's victims, and Ranbir's most proud protégé, Danny Rodman, yes, he would not have thought that he would play with Jordan in the future and win 3 championships together, this is Rodman's only belief in his heart, that is, what head coach Daley instructed - kill Jordan!
In that series, Daley came up with a set of very, very, very famous "Jordan Rules", which made countless descendants worship them, there are two essences of "Jordan's Rules", one is that if you can't prevent Jordan, you can put Jordan and strictly guard against the other four, and second, the team has a maximum of three people to cover Jordan, Daley has studied Jordan to the bones, including Jordan usually uses that hand to shoot the ball first after receiving the ball, and there will be any feints to shoot, as long as Jordan moves, the "bad boys" push, pull, kick, and do everything, It is to prevent Jordan from scoring, every time Jordan rushes into the interior, he rushes in at the risk of career reimbursement, the "Bad Boy Army" has a clear division of labor, the outside defense shooting, and even disrupts Jordan's shooting rhythm at the cost of fouls, the inside line Rambier and Rodman are responsible for collecting the body, killing irresponsible, and the remaining player is responsible for covering the referee's sight......
All in all, the core of "Jordan's Law" is one sentence, if you dare to come, I will kill you.
In the previous NBA league, there has never been a person who has been able to receive such a degree of care, Jordan was "lucky" to be the first, but even with such defensive intensity, Jordan still handed over an average of 27.4 points, 8.8 rebounds, 4.6 assists, and a shooting rate of 49.1% per game, but the performance of others was poor, except for Jordan, the team's highest score was only 40.7% Sam Vincent, who scored 12.8 points on shooting percentage, was eliminated by the Bulls 1-4 after five big games.
In the 1988-1989 season, Pippen officially took the position, sat firmly in the starter, and became more and more proficient with Jordan, and Jordan averaged 32.5 points, 8.0 rebounds and 8.0 assists per game this season, shooting 53.8%, the first in the playoffs, the first bull eliminated the Cavaliers 3:2, Jordan averaged 39.8 points per game, defeated the Knicks 4:2 in the second round, Jordan averaged 35.7 points per game, and in the Eastern Conference finals, Jordan averaged 29.7 points per game, and the Bulls lost to the Detroit Pistons again 2:4.
"We're still an improvement from last season because we've got one more win [against the Pistons in the playoffs]."
This is what Jordan said after the game, he was eliminated by the Pistons for two consecutive years, Jordan was not frustrated and disappointed to find his thighs, but was full of fighting spirit!
From 1989 to 1990, Jordan averaged 33.6 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 6.3 assists per game, and Scott averaged 16.5 points, 6.6 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 2.5 steals and 1.2 blocks per game, allowing him to successfully squeeze into the league's first-line small forward position, and the Bulls entered the playoffs again under the leadership of two people, eliminating the Bucks 3:1 in the first round, with Jordan 54% 's shooting percentage averaged 36.8 points, 8 rebounds and 7 assists per game, and in the second round, Jordan averaged 43 points per game to lead the team to a 4-1 victory over the 76ers.
It took seven big battles in this series to decide the winners. Jordan averaged 32.1 points, 7.1 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game but did not let the team achieve the final victory, in the tie-break, the two teams that should have been evenly matched ended in the defeat of the Bulls, Jordan hit 13 shots from 27 shots and scored 31 points, 8 rebounds and 9 assists, which is an excellent result for ordinary players but very average for Jordan, but the most important thing is that in addition to Jordan, the most scoring is Horlot Grant, who scored 10 points and used 17 shots to make only 3 shots.
"We've done well this year because we've won one more game [than last year]."
The fighting spirit in Jordan's chest is about to burn himself to the ground, and after being a loser for so many years, it's time to explode! The truly strong will not be willing to succumb to the rule of others, I want to create my own era!