One of the biggest what-ifs in the NBA in the 90s and even during these days is what would have happened with the Chicago Bulls had they stayed together. It’s well known that Jerry Krause didn’t get along with the most important pieces of the team, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and coach Phil Jackson.
The team was dismantled after the 1997/98 NBA season, but for the third-best player of that team, Dennis Rodman, the Bulls could win the championship in 1999, the 4th consecutive for the Bulls. In an appearance on ESPN’s “First Take,” Rodman made the case for the Bulls, saying they ‘easily’ would’ve won that championship instead of the San Antonio Spurs, one of the dynasties that came after the Bulls in the NBA.
“I wanted to win championships with these guys,” Rodman said. “I would go to war with these guys any time of the day. It was just sad in the fact that we could have come back and won a fourth championship very easily.”
It’s hard to give a definite answer on that matter, but it’s easy to think that way given all the good things the Bulls did from 1995 through 1998, getting a second three-peat, led by Jordan, Pippen and Rodman.
That title was the first of five in the Spurs history, but it could have been the 7th for the Bulls. Unfortunately, we’ll never know.
