Chicago Bulls: Overcoming Detroit was a big key to success
The Last Dance continues to go over the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls team. It goes over how defeating the Detroit Pistons early on was huge.
The Chicago Bulls had to overcome some adversity before they were able to take the next step and ultimately become one of the great dynasties in North American sports. The biggest was the elite team that was the Detroit Pistons. It happens all the time in sports before teams become great. They need to overcome a team that was elite before them to get to that level.
The Detroit Pistons were known as the “Bad Boys” for a reason. They, similarly to the Bulls, had to get passed the Boston Celtics in order to get to where they were. Well, they did and won the NBA title in 1989 and 1990. They went through the Bulls in both title runs and a total of three straight seasons.
The Last Dance documentary on ESPN had episode three debut on Sunday night. It focused on Dennis Rodman‘s role in the Chicago Bulls run. Well, he played for the Pistons during those days that they were the “Bad Boys” team before he came to Chicago. He was super important to their second run of titles but he was on the other side for the first half. Then in episode four, there was more detail given about how the Bulls-Pistons rivalry reaching new heights.
Well in 1991, the Chicago Bulls finally slew the dragon. They remarkably went from losing to them in three straight postseasons tournaments to sweeping them in the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals. The Bulls finally got past the arch-rival team that made life hard on them for years. They took that beating they put on the Pistons and used the momentum to defeat Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers for Chicago’s first-ever NBA title.
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Michael Jordan and company defeating the Magic and the Lakers were certainly cool and he was finally on his level in terms of being an all-time great but beating the Pistons was the key. Isiah Thomas and most of his teammates couldn’t even stay on the court and shake hands with their opponent that just owned them. The Pistons, as a result of all this, are now one of the most hated teams in Chicago sports history. Since sweeping them in that series, the Bulls have gone on to win six titles and the Pistons only have one.