Presented by POOL SCOUTS.
This Day In Sports…April 16, 1996, 30 years ago today:
The Chicago Bulls become the first team in NBA history to win 70 regular season games when they defeat the Milwaukee Bucks 86-80. Michael Jordan scored 22 points with eight rebounds and four assists to lead the way. Chicago would finish the season 72-10 and would win the NBA championship in six games over the Seattle SuperSonics. The Bulls surpassed the 1972-73 L.A. Lakers, who won 69 games, for the record.
The Bulls started the season on fire at home in the United Center. And it lasted all the way through. They won their first 37 home games, and—coupled with seven victories to end the 1994-95 season—reached 44 consecutive home wins, an NBA record. It was a perfect storm, as Jordan was back in Chicago for his first full season since the 1992-93 season, after which he left for his two-year baseball experiment. Not coincidentally, that was the last time the Bulls had won the NBA title, completing their first three-peat.
But there were other catalysts, as Chicago had signed the inimitable Dennis Rodman as a free agent from the San Antonio Spurs. Rodman only played 64 games and was suspended six games during the season after head-butting a referee. But the “Worm” averaged 14.9 rebounds per game. Veteran Scottie Pippen was rejuvenated by the return of Jordan and the arrival of Rodman and led the Bulls with 150 three-pointers. Toni Kukoc was NBA Sixth Man of the Year, and current Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr contributed 122 three-pointers off the bench.
Coach Phil Jackson, in his seventh season as Bulls coach, was a constant. The “Zen Master” molded all the dissimilar personalities, and the second three-peat was underway. Jackson was a devotee of assistant coach Tex Winter’s triangle offense, and Jordan’s buy-in both before and after his baseball sabbatical made it lethal. Chicago’s standard for regular season victories would be broken in 2015-16 by Kerr’s 73-win Warriors, the subject of this feature on Monday this week. But these record-setting Bulls won a championship—those record-setting Warriors did not.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
