Well Pippen Peoples, we have made it. We have scaled the mountaintop in our Chicago Bulls Trade Talk series. Pippen Ain’t Easy just finished counting down the top five best trades in Chicago Bulls history, recognizing the 1987 draft night trade that brought Scottie Pippen into the fold as the major piece in the Chicago Bulls dynasties in the 1990’s supporting Michael Jordan. The Bulls got a Hall of Famer and a top 50 player in NBA history. The Seattle SuperSonics got a center.
With this series, I hope that all of you have a better understanding that it’s more to a winning organization than what goes on the court. The front office has to be on point and do what is best for business (read…San Antonio and Miami). With all of the rumors that float around the Bulls, maybe Bulls fans can use this information to discern some of these rumors on trades in the future to see if they are fake or not.
As we could all see in the five best trades that the Bulls made in their history, all of them had a definite effect in the success of the franchise during the 90’s.
Trade number three back in 1984 with Reggie Theus being traded to the Kansas City Kings placed the first piece to the foundation by tanking the season and drafting Michael Jordan.
Trade number four set up the first three championships. Charles Oakley gets traded to the New York Knicks for Bill Cartwright.
The first round pick in that trade gets flipped for Dennis Rodman.
As you can see, the Chicago Bulls in their history have done a masterful job in making smart trades building one of the most dominant dynasties in NBA history…
Then they do this.
January 21-23, 1999
The Chicago Bulls shut down the dynasty after six championships in eight years.
During the NBA lockout during the 1998-99 season, it seemed everyone in the Bulls organization was dancing around the inevitable decision.
Either put the band back together for one more run at a fourth championship or blow it up and start over.
Then Phil Jackson got the ball rolling…in the wrong direction if you are a Chicago Bulls fan.
Phil Jackson decided that one year away from basketball was better than putting up with Jerry Krause for another year. He quit and rode away from the United Center on his Harley Davidson. The smoke that came out of those pipes symbolized any chance of the Chicago Bulls ever getting back to the NBA Finals again. (Editor’s note…Thanks Jerry, if it wasn’t for your arrogance, Phil Jackson might be in the Bulls front office instead of the Knicks.)
The Chicago Bulls dismantle the dynasty…AFTER six NBA championships in eight years. Boy how dumb can you get.
Boy a lot of Pippen Peoples talk slick about me being a New York Knicks fan. They talk about how the Knicks haven’t won in so long (I’ll admit they are right, 41 years is a long time). But there is one thing about the Knicks I can always say. They weren’t dumb enough to dismantle their championship team because of egos, arrogance and backbiting. The Knicks would have ridden that gravy train until the wheels fell off.
Check out the chain of events.
1) Phil Jackson quits.
2) Michael Jordan was never going to play for Phil’s replacement, Tim Floyd who was Jerry Krause’s puppet…I mean lackey…I mean hand-picked man for the job. So on January 13, 1999, Michael Jordan retired for the second time from the NBA.
3) On January 21, 1999, the Bulls renounce the rights to Michael Jordan and Dennis Rodman. Soon after that, they traded Steve Kerr to the San Antonio Spurs for Chuck Person and a future first round pick. By the way, Kerr went on to win yet another championship with the Spurs that season. Oops!
4) The Bulls traded Luc Longley to the Phoenix Suns for Mark Bryant, Martin Muursepp, Bubba Wells and a future first round pick.
Oh, but we save the best one for last.
The Bulls did a sign and trade deal and dealt Scottie Pippen to the Houston Rockets for Roy Rogers and a second round draft pick. After getting royally screwed only getting paid $21 million dollars over seven years, the Bulls signed Pippen to a five-year $67.2 million dollar contract before trading him. Better late than never, I guess.
Some dynasties like the Celtics of the sixties and eighties or the Lakers of the Showtime era, players just got old and younger teams broke through and ended their run at the top.
We have the Kobe and Shaq era in Lakerland that they royally screwed up over egos and infighting.
Then there are the Bulls, who in the course of two weeks blew up possibly the greatest dynasty in sports history. Oh they would have walked to another championship in 1999. The Spurs has NO CHANCE in beating that Bulls squad had they stayed together.
Lets take a look at what the Bulls got back in return for their “great deals”.
“The Rifleman” Chuck Person was out bullets and on his last legs as a NBA player. Roy Rogers had bad knees BEFORE he even got in the NBA. He was a bust. Mark Bryant, Martin Muursepp and Bubba Wells, ever heard of these guys? If anyone says Mark Bryant, cool. You are a true NBA fan. Now ask yourself, was he worth a dynasty?
As for those picks. Let’s take a look at how those turned out. Well that research was easy. Nothing.
So the Chicago Bulls cleaned house and set the franchise back nearly a decade. To put this debacle in perspective, this year is the Bulls best shot to make the NBA Finals since this trade. To all fans thinking the Bulls had a shot in 2011, forget it. The Bulls were not beating the Heat that year. LeBron had Derrick Rose on lock. Dwyane Wade had knees. Wasn’t going to happen.
There you have it Pippen Peoples, Scottie Pippen was the best trade in Chicago Bulls history bookended by the worst. It’s funny that the namesake of this website helped start and end the fortunes of the Bulls, both with trades. To check out all of the trades on the list, please check them out on Pippen Ain’t Easy, your best choice for all things Chicago Bulls.
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