[Review_04] Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.

For six years since his debut, Jordan had kept the promise with himself that he would take the Bulls to the playoffs every season but never made to the championship. It was unquestionable that Jordan would stand shoulder by shoulder with legendary players like Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. The absence of a championship title, however, made the name Jordan always come after Bird and Johnson. The Bulls led by Jordan fell short of not only titles but impression to convince medias and basketball fans of that their prowess paralleled the Celtics by Bird and the Lakers by Johnson. The Bulls were eliminated by the Bad Boys, Detroit Pistons, in the Eastern Conference playoffs for three straight years, which marked clearer distinction between the Jordan’s Bulls and the previous champions. The Bulls  underwent a pivotal change in the 1989 pre-season when the general manager Jerry Krause promoted the assistant coach Phil Jackson to the head coach. Jackson taught Jordan how to take advantage of his teammates more efficiently, and thus the Bulls improved the integrity as a top contender for the championship.

 

Larry Bird(top left), Magic Johnson(top right), and Michael Jordan(bottom) shared the MVP titles from 1984 to 1992.

Jackson was not a type of coach whom Jordan favored. The new coach did not expect Jordan to achieve scoring based solely on the individual performance. Jackson rather ordered the Bulls’ franchise star to share the ball with teammates under Jackson’s beloved offensive tactic: the triangle offense. The triangle offense requires every player on the court to form a triangle with other two, producing three triangles in total with five vertexes. A ball moves incessantly from one vertex to another, from one triangle to another, in order to create an instant space for shooting or lay-up when defenders fail to catch up the swift ball movement. This strategy distributed spotlight to every Bulls member, which used to spend most of four quarters on the No.23. Jordan had believed that the ball should belong to a player who could put it through the basket, and he qualified that condition better than any other Bulls. “Everybody has an opportunity to touch the ball, but I didn’t want Bill Cartwright to have the ball with five seconds left. That’s not equal opportunity offense, that’s f—ing bulls—,” said Jordan in his early period to adapt to the strategy that defied his conventional role.

 

Michael Jordan did not welcome the new head coach Phil Jackson at first, but they became the best coach and player in the league.

“He(Jackson) was coming in to take the ball out of my hands. Doug was putting the ball in my hands.”

(Micahel Jordan)

 

While struggling to fit themselves in the new cloth during the first season with Jackson, the Bulls completed the transformation to earn the first NBA championship in the following year. The ball still went off from Jordan’s hands in many times, but he was no longer leading the offense alone. There were always Scottie Pippen, John Paxson, Horace Grant, and Bill Cartwright standing on each triangle, positioning themselves to catch the pass from Jordan, and shooting for scores. In the 1991 Eastern Conference finals, the Bulls seized the second opportunity to pay the Bad Boys back for eliminations in the last couple of years. The Boys needed to set up a harsh defense only against Jordan in the last finals, but this time it was insufficient to discourage the fierce Bulls coming altogether from every direction. The challengers dominated the entire series and sent the Bad Boys back to Detroit only in four games. It actually took less than four games for the Bulls to beat the Pistons who admitted the end of their era and cleared the floor when 7.9 seconds of game clock were still remaining. The new Eastern Conference champion faced the Lakers led by Magic Johnson from the west in the league finals. Although losing the first game to Magic, Jordan and the Bulls swept the next four games, winning the championship for the first time in the team’s history.

 

Jordan said it took six year to have this[trophy] while crying after the fifth game of the finals against the Lakers led by Magic Johnson.

The ballistic performance on the court had already raised Jordan on the same level with the NBA superstars. From the moment his emerging as an outstanding bull, it had been the question of whether he could but when he would win the championship. The Bulls had been strong team but not the best until Phil Jakcson requested the best player in the league to let go off himself from scoring spree. Jordan was not a fan of Jackson's methodology - triangle offense - at first, but soon he became the fervent player who admires the head coach's tactics as well as his philosophy in the basketball. The most memorable moment to Jordan was the end of Game 5 of the 1991 finals. Jackson asked Jordan to pass the ball to Paxson who remained in free position throughout the game. Jordan followed the coach's instruction, and Paxson answered that with beautiful shots. It was the beginning of their six titles in the decade with Phil Jackson.

 

Phil Jackson had scored zero point, zero rebound, and zero assist in total eight years in the Bulls. However, he always stood next to Jordan, Pippen, and other bulls like a stout pillar of the team. 

 

* Related Articles

Saketh Kandadai, "I Wasn't a Fan": Michael Jordan Admits He Didn’t Approve of Phil Jackson or His Methodology as a Coach Initially. Essentially Sports, April 28, 2020

https://www.essentiallysports.com/nba-news-chicag-bulls-i-wasnt-a-fan-michael-jordan-admits-he-didnt-approve-of-phil-jackson-or-his-methodology-as-a-coach-initially/

"I Wasn’t a Fan": Michael Jordan Admits He Didn't Approve of Phil Jackson or His Methodology as a Coach Initially - Essentiall

 

[BS 4-1] Triangle Offense

Ted Winter was the founding father of the triangle offense, which is still widely used in the NBA games. Phil Jackson had been immersed in this offensive tactic and become the fervent follower of Winter. Jackson mastered the drills Winter had invented but did not get an opportunity to adopt them in real games. Doug Collins, whom Jackson had assisted for two years in the Bulls, put most of offensive load on the Jordan's sholder. Finally, when Krause decided to replace Doug with someone who had strategies to make the Bulls great, Jackson began to install the triangle offense system in the Bulls. Although the system required upadates in the first season, the upgraded version in which Jordan recognized the importance of team playing had dominated the league for the next eight years, bringing six trophies to the Bulls.

Phil Jackson talks about the Bulls' triangle offense on the TV show.

[BS 4-1] The Bad Boys left the court without shaking hands with the Bulls

In the episode, Isiah Thomas, the Jordan of Detroit Pistons in the 80s, commented that it was a common act to leave without hand shake. The Boston Celtics with Larry Bird did the same to the Bad Boys, when they met in another final. Isiah said the Bad Boys were victims of the first title of the great Bulls Dynasty. Michael Jordan clearly stated his opinion that their act was against sportsmanship.

https://sports.yahoo.com/isiah-thomas-regrets-laimbeer-does-013043820.html