The 90's Bulls in the 80's

[Oliver P]

As you probably all know the 90's Bulls were one of the most dominant teams ever (I'd rather say two of the most dominant teams ever as, at the exception of Jordan, Pip and Jax, the first Three Peat team and the second Three Peat one were completely different). They won six rings during that decade and could even have won 8 or 9 rings if Jordan didn't retire in 93 and if there was no lockout in 98 (as a matter of fact even if it was more likely that Jordan would retire in 98, it wasn't for sure at the same time, Jordan wasn't 100% sure of his decision and the lockout just didn't let him any choice). A team so good that no one was able to beat them since they won their first ring in 1991 and only two teams forced them to play a game 7 : the 92 Ewing's Knicks (thanks to a Willis Reed like performance by Ewing in game 6) and the 98 Pacers.

 

And the 80's are considered by many people as the Golden Era of basketball, the best NBA decade ever (I am one of them even if I personnally prefer the 90's). So many great teams and legends played in that era, like the Bird/McHale/Parish/DJ's Celtics, the Jabbar/Magic/Worthy Lakers of course but not only, also the Malone/Erving/Cheeks Sixers, Twin Towers' Rockets, Harper/Aguirre/Blackman's Mavs, Thomas/Laimbeer/Dumars/Rodman's Pistons, etc...

 

So my question is what do you think those 90's Bulls teams would have done if they had played in this outstanding era, the 80's ? Do you think they would have dominated the same way that they dominated the 90's ? Do you think they wouldn't have dominated but would still have been up there with the very best 80's teams and manage to win at least a couple of rings ? Do you think they wouldn't have had a chance to beat any of the greatest 80's teams and would have ended up ringless ?

 

I have my idea about this topic but I won't give it as I don't want to influence anybody. I want to know other people's opinions about this.

 

Explain your choices.

[Oliver P]

Man I totallly forgot about this topic.. Well apparently the least that we can say is that this topic wasn't very succesful lol.

 

Anyhow I'm still gonna give my opinion about it ; here it goes :

 

I'd like to say that it's definitely impossible to give a 100% accurate answer to this topic. The 90's Bulls have not played in the 80's and never will so we will just never know... But I have to say that I agree with what's been said here, my personal feeling is that the Bulls would have won a couple of rings too. But I think that they COULD have dominate this decade the way they dominated the 90's though. The only thing I don't think that would have been possible is that they would have ended up ringless. I can't imagine that. But the other two possibilities could have happened IMO.

 

Yes I think that the Bulls could have dominated the 80's indeed. This because of this : defense. Now I want to precise that I know that some people think that there was no defense whatsoever in the 80's but I'm certainly not one of them. I want that to be clear. I've watched many games of that era and it is definitely absurd to me to say that there was no D back then. Some of the greatest defenders ever played in that era, players like DJ, Coop, Alvin Robertson, Dumars, Bobby Jones, Moncrief, Cheeks, etc... But the fact remains that the defense was not as good as what it became in the 90's. And the 90's Bulls were in my opinion, not only the best defensive team of the 90's but one of the very best defensive teams ever. A case could even be made for them as the best defensive team of All Time.

 

They had three of the very best defenders ever : Jordan, Rodman and Pippen. Many people even consider Pippen as the best defensive wing player ever and Rodman as the best defender ever. A strong case can be made for them indeed. They might be the two most versatile defenders ever. Pip could defend on any PG, SG and SF with the same efficiency, he could even defend on PFs. And Rodman could defend any player, no matter the position, from PG to C. And let's not forget about the Bulls' PF during the first Three Peat, Grant, who was a great defender too, he was the key player of the defense inside.

 

The defensive intensity that this team had was just outstanding. Especially during the second Three Peat. Even Ron Harper, who had never been known for his defense before (he was a pure scorer before his Bulls years) became a key defender during the second Three Peat. This team's defense could literally annihilate any offense.

 

Also I heard some people say (on other forums) that the 80's teams were too strong in the middle for the 90's Bulls, well I have to say that I don't entirely agree with that. Cause who were the truly best centers of the 80's ? Ewing and Olajuwon weren't in their prime yet, Jabbar started to decrease at the beginning of the 80's (ever watched the 84 Finals for example ? Jabbar was still valuable to the Lakers, don't get me wrong, but he was nothing to what he was in the 70's), Parish was a very good defender but on the offensive end his only weapon was his mid range jump shot (he was a star but clearly not a superstar), Gilmore was clearly not as dominant as he was in the 70's... Only Moses Malone was truly at his best. The centers were overall clearly better in the 90's to be honest, Ewing, Olajuwon, Robinson, Mourning and Mutombo were all at their prime and the young Shaq who was already a beast and, contrary to what most people believe, clearly dominated Olajuwon during the 1995 Finals (The Rockets won, but Shaq had clearly better stats than Hakeem, and to this day I still belive that had Nick Anderson made one free throw the Magic would have swept the Rockets). Yet the Bulls dominated easily despite that fact.

 

So because of that and of their great defense and, as we all know, defense wins the game, I definitely think that the Bulls could have dominated the 80's.

 

But as I said my personal feeling is that they wouldn't have though. Why ? Well because, as it's already been said, the best 80's teams were so stacked with talent that it's still hard to imagine any team dominating them... Besides, if the Bulls were clearly better defensively, it's the opposite on the offensive end. The 80's best offensive teams are IMO the best offenses ever. Especially the Lakers and Celtics ones of course. And I would like to add that the offense that impressed me the most is not the Lakers one, the showtime was the most spectacular one but I'm more impressed by the Celtics' offense, as a matter of fact the way that team played basketball is to me the way that basketball is supposed to be played.

 

Bird and DJ are two of the greatest bball IQs that I ever seen. Possibly the greatest IQs I ever seen. And McHale's post moves were literally outstanding, I don't think that any big men had better post moves than Kevin in the history of the game. There's a reason why Jordan and Barkley said that he was the best big man of the 80's.

 

I could talk about the Celtics, and the other best 80's teams offense for hours, there is no doubt in my mind that it's in this era that we've seen the best offensive teams ever. The Bulls offense was not as good IMO, I mean they still had a terrific offense (after all they had the best scorer of the history of the league) but their offense relied too heavily on Jordan and Pip. Contrary to the 80's teams who had overall a more collective game.