1996 Overview
From Hoopedia
1995-96 NBA Season
Quite simply, this was The Year of the Bull, when Chicago’s team rolled across the landscape gathering crowds and converts in every city on its way to a record 72 wins and a fourth championship.
The campaign was largely the fruit of Michael Jordan’s offseason conditioning work, driven by his desire to prove that he wasn’t washed up after returning to basketball from an 18-month layoff during which he played minor league baseball.
The season offered many changes. Two new teams were added to the NBA family – the Toronto Raptors and Vancouver Grizzlies -- and extended the game’s international reach. Alonzo Mourning, the All-Star center of the Charlotte Hornets, was traded to the Miami Heat. Pat Riley had left the Knicks to take over as the coach/part owner of the Heat and made the Mourning trade his first big move on the way to 42 wins.
In another turn, Magic Johnson attempted a comeback with the Lakers, but their season ended badly amid player unrest and confusion.
Certainly one of the strangest couplings was the Bulls’ trading for their sworn enemy, Dennis Rodman, who prospered under the guidance of Coach Phil Jackson. Rodman won his fifth consecutive rebounding title (14.9 rebounds per game) while giving the team what Bulls executive Jerry Krause called “the nasty factor” in the frontcourt.
During Chicago’s wildly successful season, Rodman’s cross-dressing, tattooed persona scored a huge hit with Chicago fans, to the point that he stopped traffic with a late-season appearance at a downtown book store wearing a feather boa.
The real issues, though, were settled on the court where 13 teams averaged better than 100 points per game. Jordan reclaimed his status as league scoring champ with a 30.4 average. Houston’s Hakeem Olajuwon, in his last truly fine season, finished second at 26.9 points per game.
Whatever gains Eastern Conference teams made were quickly lost in a playoff haze. Chicago’s pressure defense, which featured NBA All-Defensive First Team performers in Pippen, Jordan and Rodman, simply discombobulated opponents. The Bulls swept the Heat in the first round, ditched the Knicks 4-1 in the second, then rolled past Orlando 4-0 in the Conference Finals, a loss that contributed to the departure of Magic center Shaquille O'Neal for Los Angeles in the offseason.
In the West, San Antonio posted 59 regular-season wins only to stumble in the playoffs, while Houston was felled hard by injuries, and the Lakers imploded.
Magic Johnson criticized teammate Nick Van Exel for shoving a ref. But then Magic, too, bumped a man with a whistle, and was forced to apologize. Before L.A. was ousted by Houston, Johnson publicly questioned Coach Del Harris’ strategy.
The survivors were the Sonics, who rode Gary Payton through the playoffs only to run aground against the Bulls in the NBA Finals. Chicago took a 3-0 lead, then watched the Sonics lash back for a pair of wins at home. The Bulls closed out their fourth championship when the series returned to Chicago for Game 6.
“All we do is go out and play hard and play smart,” Rodman told reporters, “and everyone thinks there’s something special going on.”
