From the Sidelines: The once and future champs

By Dave Oppenheim

COURTESY BERNIE NUNEZ AND TOM ROBERTS Jerry Reinsdorf hopes the Jordan-less Bulls can rebuild quickly and return to the top.

The NBA season is finally about to start, despite the greed of David Falk, Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, et al., and something is different. For starters, Knicks fans think their team actually has a chance to win the championship. While that belief isn't shocking--they share the perpetual hopeless optimism of Cubs fans and gambling addicts--the fact that their hope is minimally credible is news. Without the Chicago Bulls in the picture any longer, quite a few teams are measuring their trophy cases.

As for the Bulls, they're preparing to join all of the other Chicago sports franchises. The Blackhawks are last in their division. The Bears finished last and have become so desperate that they've hired a Yale alum, Dick Jauron, PC '73, to run the team. The White Sox would have been last if they weren't in the AL Girl Scout Troop Division, and the Cubs prepare for another season of mediocrity after one magical near-miss. The Bulls had been the Windy City's one shining light, but no longer.

Or will they shine again? The truth is, the Bulls will probably still be the next Chicago team to win a title. While the other clubs show little promise of improvement in the foreseeable future--Jauron notwithstanding--the Bulls have made all the right moves for a quick rebound.

For all of Bulls and White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf's faults--and he has many--he is a realist. He realized that eventually the dominance of the greatest team in the history of the NBA, rivaled in sports history only by that of the pre-1960 New York Yankees, would have to come to an end. The Bulls, especially their starters, were the oldest players in the NBA. The time to replace them was rapidly approaching. This was not going to be easy.

Rebuilding a franchise is always a tall order. In the NBA, it's especially difficult. In baseball, the lack of restrictions on free agency means any old Steinbrenner, Turner, or Huizenga can purchase an instant contender. But the NBA free- agent system is far more restrictive and, by way of the Larry Bird exception, gives a player's current team a nearly insurmountable advantage in the quest to re-sign him.

In addition, far more uncertainty surrounds the baseball draft than the basketball draft: teams with low first-round selections in the baseball draft can still land a future star. This chance is much slimmer in the NBA. Mike Piazza was drafted by the Dodgers in the 56th round as a favor to Tommy Lasorda, but five NBA teams had to try actively to lose games down the stretch in 1984 in order to be in position to draft Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon. (And Sam Bowie too, but this is the New Jersey Nets we're talking about. They don't even have a fan base to alienate.)

In football, differences in skill level among players are less significant. The nature of the game itself, with set plays and 22 players on the field at once, reduces the impact of individuals. As Bill Parcells and Rich Kotite have proven, it's the coaches who win and lose games in football. Coaches in the NBA are far less significant. The only parallel figure to Parcells in the NBA is Pat Riley, but he has simply coached a series of good teams that played to the level of their players' potential. With Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and James Worthy, he won some championships. Later, with Patrick Ewing and John Starks, then with Alonzo Mourning and Tim Hardaway, he watched Michael Jordan hold press conferences and win countless NBA Finals MVP Awards.

So, how has Reinsdorf handled Jordan's departure? The Bulls have gotten rid of the rest of the team except for the youngest of their stars, Toni Kukoc. This unburdening has freed up money under the salary cap, secured future draft picks, and insured that the Bulls will have one of the NBA's worst records this year. While this last might seem like a bad thing, it will likely mean that the Bulls' next pick in the draft will be among the top three. If so, the Bulls will get a second top-notch player next year. This strategy resembles the scam the San Antonio Spurs pulled two years ago when the entire team got "injured." The remaining team's valiant efforts, which appeared to be centered around Vinny Del Negro (if that is his real name), were on a par with, say, the Belgian military, but the Spurs ended up with Tim Duncan and won 62 games the following year.

The money left under the salary cap--about $25 million--will allow the Bulls to sign two top-tier free agents after this season. The new restrictions on the Bird exception will aid them in their pursuit. The draft picks they got by trading Scottie Pippen, Luc Longley, and Steve Kerr will position them well as the franchise begins its second coming.

While I'll be the first to admit that the Knicks have a better shot than the Bulls at this year's title, I'd still say the Bulls have a better shot at winning a title in the next decade. After all, how can a team that's too dumb to avoid leaving the bench to join a brawl, a team whose coach is best known for clinging in the fetal position to Alonzo Mourning's leg on national television, seriously consider itself a contender?

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