Chicago Bulls
Six Finals, six titles. The Chicago Bulls won six titles in eight years in the 1990s behind Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Phil Jackson, and never lost an NBA Finals.
Bulls warmups: Mark Ordonez, CC BY-SA 2.0
Before Jordan
The Bulls joined the NBA as an expansion team in 1966 and made the playoffs in their first season, a rare feat for a new franchise. Through the 1970s they were tough and defensive, with players like Jerry Sloan and Bob Love, but never reached the Finals.
Everything changed with the third pick of the 1984 draft: Michael Jordan.
Artis Gilmore and later Reggie Theus kept the team competitive into the early 1980s, but crowds were small and the franchise struggled for attention in a busy sports city.
The first three-peat
Jordan made the Bulls exciting right away, but it took Scottie Pippen, Horace Grant and coach Phil Jackson's triangle offense to make them champions. After losing to Detroit in the playoffs three years in a row, Chicago swept the Pistons in 1991 and beat the Lakers for the title.
They repeated against Portland in 1992 and Phoenix in 1993. Then Jordan retired to play baseball.
The 1991 Finals were billed as Jordan against Magic Johnson, and Jordan's mid-air switch from right hand to left on a layup in Game 2 became one of his most famous highlights. In Game 1 of the 1992 Finals he hit six threes in the first half and shrugged toward the broadcast table.
72 wins and the second three-peat
When Jordan returned and Dennis Rodman arrived for the 1995-96 season, the Bulls went 72-10, a record that stood until Golden State won 73 in 2015-16. They beat Seattle in the Finals, then Utah in 1997 and again in 1998.
That made six titles in six Finals appearances, and the Bulls remain the only franchise with multiple titles and no Finals losses.
Rodman led the league in rebounding in each of his three title seasons in Chicago, and Toni Kukoc won Sixth Man of the Year in 1996.
After the dynasty
The team was broken up after 1998. The brightest moment since came in 2011, when Chicago native Derrick Rose became the youngest MVP in league history at 22. A statue of Jordan stands at the United Center, which opened in 1994.
The Bulls logo, Jordan's sneakers and the 1990s championship jackets are still everywhere in street style. For Fly Baller, the Bulls are proof that a dynasty can define fashion as much as basketball.
General manager Jerry Krause, who assembled the dynasty, and owner Jerry Reinsdorf chose to rebuild after 1998, a decision fans still argue about.
- Bulls warmups: Mark Ordonez, CC BY-SA 2.0
- The United Center: Gavindow at English Wikipedia, CC BY 3.0
Text written by Fly Baller.
