Former NBA player Ron Harper was part of two of the greatest teams in NBA history, the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls and the 2000-01 Los Angeles Lakers. There are few more qualified to speak about those teams than Harper, and so, The Makeshift Project’s Zach Misischia asked him who’d win a seven-game series between them.
“I’mma have to go with the ’96 Bulls because they was a little better defensive wise,” Harper said. “… The one player that we would have a hard time with would be Shaquille O’Neal. But I think that my boy [Dennis] Rodman could handle him.”
Harper was then asked how far the series would go, and he initially picked the Bulls to win in five games. He quickly changed his mind, though.
“Nah, I’mma take that back ’cause Shaq will get mad,” Harper stated. “I’mma go a seven-game series. It’s going to come down to two minutes to go in the game and [Michael Jordan] gonna will us to win.”
Harper also made it clear that the 1995-96 Bulls are the greatest team in NBA history. They certainly have a strong argument, as they went 72-10 and won the title.
Getting back to Harper’s comments, he is on point when talking about defense being an area where the Bulls were better. They were actually a lot better in the regular season.
According to StatMuse, the Bulls had an offensive rating of 115.2 and a defensive rating of 101.8, both of which were the best in the NBA that season. The Lakers, meanwhile, had an offensive rating of 108.4, which ranked second, and a defensive rating of 104.8, which ranked 21st. They weren’t a great defensive team, but to their credit, they took things up several notches in the playoffs.
The Lakers had the best offensive and defensive ratings in the 2001 playoffs at 111.6 and 97.9, respectively. They were utterly dominant in that title run, going 15-1. It was the best record in a single postseason in NBA history until the 2017 Golden State Warriors went 16-1.
As for the Bulls, they were 15-3 in the playoffs in 1996. Their 111.5 offensive rating was the second best, but the 99.4 defensive rating was the best.
As great as they were defensively, Harper admitted that Shaquille O’Neal would cause problems for the Bulls. O’Neal averaged 30.4 points and 15.4 rebounds per game in the 2001 playoffs. He elevated his game in the NBA Finals, putting up 33.0 points and 15.8 rebounds per game against the Philadelphia 76ers.
The 76ers had Dikembe Mutombo, who won DPOY in 2001, and even he wasn’t able to slow down O’Neal. Would Dennis Rodman have been able to pull that off? Probably not.
O’Neal only ever faced off against Rodman in the playoffs once in his career. He was playing for the Orlando Magic at the time, and they were going up against the 1996 Bulls. The Magic would get swept, but O’Neal averaged 27.0 points on 64.0% shooting from the field. He was a much better player by the time 2001 came around, and you’d back him to put up even better numbers.
You’d expect this series to go the distance, as Harper stated. He believes Michael Jordan would help the Bulls get over the line, as he did on so many occasions in his storied career.
