![]() ![]() Going into the 1998 playoffs, oddsmakers stood pat with the Bulls’ odds at +140 to win it all and that likely was due to the status of Scottie Pippen, who was nursing a back injury, leaving his availability for the playoffs up in the air. The odds below are courtesy of .Īfter Chicago defeated the Utah Jazz in six games to win the 1997 NBA championship, oddsmakers opened the Bulls at +140 to win the title for a third straight year, which feels like disrespect in hindsight considering they had just won back-to-back championships. Chicago Bulls 1997-98 FuturesĪt the start of the 1997-98 NBA season, the Chicago Bulls were in a class of their own when it came to futures odds to win the NBA championship. He obviously had some future Hall of Famers to lean on with forward Dennis Rodman pacing the league in rebounds (15.1) and Scottie Pippen being his usual underappreciated self by averaging 19.1 points, 5.8 assists and 5.2 rebounds despite playing only 44 games.Īnyone and their grandmother would’ve picked the Bulls to three-peat for the 1997-98 season and Jordan’s will to win was evident, playing 82 regular-season games for the third straight year. ![]() MJ was on the way to his 10th NBA scoring title, leading the league in points per game (28.7). To put that into perspective for millennials: as dominant as the Warriors looked in 20, the Bulls still had a better regular-season record over that two-year stretch and didn’t choke in the NBA Finals with a 3-1 series lead. That mark was an NBA record that has since been broken by the Golden State Warriors. ![]() Chicago was a spectacular 69-13 SU in 82 games in the 1996-97 season, which is impressive considering they went 72-10 SU the year before in the 1995-96 season. Going into the 1997-98 season, the Bulls were coming off back-to-back championships and five titles in seven years. Background on the Bulls’ 1997-98 Seasonįor anyone who didn’t get to see Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls play live, here’s a refresher on what the basketball landscape was like back then. If you didn’t catch the live broadcast, ESPN has been re-running it routinely with Netflix also having streaming rights each Monday after the episodes’ debut in certain regions. ![]()
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