"We could've won seven, we could've won eight, or we could've won nine, the LeBron thing" - MJ took a shot at LeBron when discussing how many titles would Chicago won if the 1998 team never broke up
But successful as the Bulls were during that period, Michael Jordan was still bothered by the fact that they never got to keep the dice rolling and see how far their luck took them. After achieving a second three-peat in 1998, the Bulls surrendered the Larry O'Brien trophy without losing it on the basketball court by going their separate ways.
Advertisement
"It was a very sad situation because we never lost in the Finals," said Michael in 2013 in an interview with good pal Ahmad Rashad. "I never knew what it felt like. At least, if you gonna…'Think I'll be the king of the hill?' Until somebody knocks you down there, you can shake the hand and say, 'You enjoy now, you gonna see how difficult it is,' but it never happened."
The Last Dance
The Bulls entered that 1997-98 season knowing that it would be their last. Phil Jackson was already told he wasn't coming back even if he went 82-0. And Jordan had declared that he'd rather retire than play for another head coach. Also, Scottie Pippen's controversial contract expired at the end of that campaign.
GM Jerry Krause also did not want the Bulls to get old. While he still had control over the pieces, he wanted to rebuild the team, even if that meant breaking them up while they were still at the peak of their powers. And so, despite winning a third straight Larry O'Brien Trophy in 1998, the dynasty team was disbanded, leaving Jordan and the crew thinking about the 'What ifs?'
Advertisement
"Now we have to live the rest of our lives with this idea that we could've won seven, we could've won eight, or we could've won nine, the LeBron thing, but we were halfway there. We could've done all that. But for whatever reason, it was not meant to be," added Mike and thus took a dig at LeBron James' statement that the Miami Heat would win eight or nine titles when he assembled the big three there with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, but only managed to win two.
Related: Isiah Thomas recalls his college recruitment: "My mom closed the briefcase and said, 'My son's not for sale"
Harp said the Bulls would've beaten the Spurs in '99
While MJ thought about the possibilities after the "Last Dance", Bulls guard Ron Harper firmly believed that if the 1998 Bulls squad was retained and carried over to the 1999 season, they would have beaten the San Antonio Spurs in the 1999 NBA Finals and captured a fourth straight championship and a seventh overall title.
Advertisement
"We felt we had a good enough team to keep winning — I don't think that the San Antonio Spurs would have gotten that championship, no way. Because they wouldn't have had to play against the New York Knicks, they would have had to play against that Chicago team. If we — the Bulls — had the same team, we would whooped San Antonio as*. I'll tell it like it is. We would whooped their a*s in five. Maybe four, but I'll say five," said Harper.
Looking back, the Bulls were still in their primes in '98, with Rodman as the oldest at 36 years old. With a team that was dominant and a unit that was cohesive, Chicago would still have been a powerhouse in '99. With MJ and Pip leading the way, there was a good chance they would've kept on winning and added at least another title in 1999.
Related: "He never beat Larry Bird, he never beat Magic and Kareem"- When Isiah Thomas reminded Stephen A. Smith he did what Michael Jordan could never do
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Miles Russell averts a free-fall, birdies the last to win second-round U.S. Amateur match
Miles Russell avoided a free-fall from a big lead to reach the Sweet Sixteen of the U.S. Amateur on Aug. 14. But it only means that he faces another seasoned college player in the round of 16. Russell, the 16-year-old from Jacksonville Beach, birdied the 18th hole of the Olympic Club Lake Course to beat Auburn sophomore Billy Davis 1-up in the second round of U.S. Amateur match play. Russell was three-up with four holes to play, but Davis, Russell's Junior Ryder Cup teammate in 2023 and a member of the All-SEC Freshman team in 2024, battled back to win Nos. 15 and 16 with birdies, then the par-5 17th hole with a par. But Russell rose to the adversity by draining a 15-footer for birdie and moved on. Miles Russell faces Pepperdine senior Russell teed off in the round of 16 at 6 p.m. on Aug. 14 against Mahanth Chirravuri of Chandler, Ariz., a senior at Pepperdine who won the West Coast Conference tournament individual title last year and posted the fourth-highest stroke average in team history. U.S. Amateur live scoring Chirravuri tied for ninth in the NCAA Championship and was a member of the All-NCAA team. Chirravuri topped Oklahoma senior Jase Summy 3 and 2 in his second-round match. Summy was second team All-SEC and second team Ping All-American. Embedded content: How to watch the U.S. Amateur on TV Aug. 15: Quarterfinals, Peacock, 6-7 p.m.; Golf Channel, 7-9 p.m. Aug. 16: Semifinals, Golf Channel, 3-6 p.m. Aug. 17: Championship match, Golf Channel, 7-10 p.m. This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Miles Russell birdies the last to win second round in U.S. Amateur
Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Can Dalton Kincaid finally be a dominant fantasy TE?
Yahoo Fantasy analyst Matt Harmon and NFL analyst Nate Tice explain why there are more questions than answers for fantasy managers when it comes to the Buffalo tight end. Hear the full conversation on the 'Yahoo Fantasy Forecast' podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen. View more Video Transcript What is Dalton Kincaid? Like, is he good? Like, why, why, why have things not worked out for him so far? I just don't know what to make of him. He's like a... He was, or I should say, he was overdrafted. I think his role hasn't been exactly what they envisioned, uh, because he's more or less a slot receiver for the Bills, you know, catching flats and RPO bubbles and a lot of those, and he's getting used, you know, it's a cool part of their offense and how they, we talked about this, about the inverse roles, receivers block and tight ends with pass catchers and kind of do a little bit of everything in that offense. But he's just not, again, this is the red zone thing. He's not overly big, you know, he's an undersized tight end, and I think he's a good athlete, but he hasn't been just that game changer with the ball in his hands. He's more just a fine efficiency guy. He's more just a fine efficiency guy. He's almost like a shrunken TJ Hawkinson. He's almost like a shrunken TJ Hawkinson. Like, that's kind of what Kincaid is kind of end up feeling like as a football player, where it's like, yeah, it's a nice role, a role player to have on your offense. But I'm not making this guy #1 or #2. I don't want him. I want him as more of a #3 target. I want him as more of a #3 target. They got kind of like, like Khalil Shakir is also that #2, and we talked about this. They have a lot of number 2s and 3s and 4s on this offense. That works when you have one of the dudes, the reigning MVP at quarterback, so they can make it work. But that's the problem, fantasy wise. He feels capped out because, talked about the original point where it's 20%, 20%, 20%, 20%. That's how the Bills' offense kind of feels. Everybody gets a little bit of touches. All right. All right. Okay, you're gonna, you're worried about Josh so much. All right, we're just everybody gets their underneath stuff. Everybody blocks for each other. It's great normal football or real football, but fantasy wise, like, I just think he's capped out. It's just that's his style of play. Um, I just don't think he's that overwhelming size or overwhelming athlete. He's just a nice player, a nice role player in the offense. He is another one of those guys that it goes back to what we talked about at the top, like he has some of those problems of why this position is really difficult in fantasy because if you're gonna be that dominant target earner as a tight end, you've got to be an overwhelming talent, and it doesn't matter where he was drafted so far, he's not proven to be that sort of overwhelming talent. Close
Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Is Colston Loveland the best late-round gem at TE?
Yahoo Fantasy analyst Matt Harmon and NFL analyst Nate Tice decide in the No. 10 pick in the NFL Draft is being highly undervalued in fantasy drafts. View more Video Transcript Colson Loveland going this low is stupid, and I I'm not, I'm usually not mean about the ADP, but folks, the number 10 overall pick, I had, look, and I look, let me be clear. I, I understand. The Bears' offense is the Bears' offense. We're all counting on a lot of improvement there. It might not be immediate, and this is a very crowded group. I, I said in the previous segment that Colla more like a higher snap percentage than any other tight end last year. He's still on the roster. They've got Roma Doonsay, who I think is gonna have a big breakout season. They still have DJ Moore. They draft Luther Burton. I get that it looks crowded on paper, but we're talking about late round tight ends. We're looking for ceilings here. I think Colson Loveland has a great ceiling. I, I, I have him ranked a bunch of, I haven't ranked 11th among my tight ends ahead of several of the dudes we've talked about in not just this last section, but even like I would rather take Colson Lovelin over David Njokku. Like, do I, I know who David Njoku is, and he's gonna probably get more targets, but I'm, I'm shooting for a ceiling here with my late round tight end. I think this Colson, I think Colson Loven going this low is, is kind of ridiculous. Yeah, it's, uh, you mentioned the Cole Clemet thing. I think they're, you know, Cole Clemet's going to be on the roster and he's going to play a little bit, you know, they're going to use two tight end looks, but it's, it's Colson Lovelin's show. Like, and, and I think Colson Lovelin is, it's the upside of him. I mean, dynasty wise, it's like I'm in love with him, but it's as far as just even a redraft this year, it's, I'm right there with you, especially in the tail end of the second half of the year. I know they have an earlier by, but That he's going to get that upswing. He can catch the ball, he's a yak guy, he can catch the ball in the red zone, so you can get touchdowns out of him. He's going to be a safety valve as well. And then this offense, I mean, how many times do you see that Lions offense with Ben Johnson, all those throwbacks to the tight ends. OK, all those kind of big-play, play-action plays that really take advantage of, you know, overflowing defenses. Well, those are just cheapies for the tight end as far as fancy terms. You get that one catch for 45 yards and a touchdown. Like those are part of the offense though. It's not like a, like a thing I have to really be abstract about. It's like, nope, I've seen it and I can, you know, Ben Johnson, who has tight end history, anointed this guy as his number 10 overall pick. If he thought Cole Comet was OK, he wouldn't have taken another tight end. He would have waited till day two or later. There's a reason they're taking this guy at number 10. So I think they love in Doonsday by all accounts. It seems like, you know, Cale Williams does too, but I think they love Loveland. I love Loveland. He was my number one tight end going into this draft, um, and that was some more projection down the road, but I still think he's going to impact. I mean, you, even the projected stats that just came up on the YouTube show, uh, you, his stats were near Warren. So even if that's just more of a neutral stance on this, it's like, but I think there's a lot of upside here even this year because he's just so talented and a good player. Close
