Going back to 1995-96, when zone defences were still outlawed, would heavily favour the Bulls. If analytics aren’t your thing, then how do we choose between them? Having watched both, to answer the question we have to go beyond the numbers.įirst, we need to reach some agreement on which era to play the series. Considering their record since, they haven’t slipped much. They posted the second-best number ever recorded (1,839) last December, shortly after opening the season 24-0 with a 124-119 win over Boston. Golden State came into the season after winning the fourth championship in franchise history and the second since the Warriors lit out of Philadelphia to head west. Small wonder: That team boasted three aging Hall of Famers on the floor (Jordan, Pippen and Dennis Rodman) and a fourth on the bench (Phil Jackson), as well as a smallish, sharp-shooting guard who might turn out to be a Hall of Fame coach himself (the Warriors’ Steve Kerr) someday. The 1995-96 edition recorded the highest Elo rating ever (1,853) peaking on the same night they beat the Seattle SuperSonics to build a 3-0 lead in the NBA Finals. Those teams won six championships in eight seasons, stringing together three-peats on either side of Jordan’s first “retirement.” The Jordan-led Bulls of the 1990s came out on top. When the website used that metric to chart the league’s history, the teams posted the highest two ratings all-time. hold serve in their home finale against Memphis, the teams’ regular-season records couldn’t be much closer.Īnd the best analytical tool - the Elo ratings - gives the Bulls a slight edge.Įlo ratings are a fluid measure of a team’s strength that allows for comparisons of teams decades apart. The take here is that the Bulls would win a best-of-seven series in six games, but you’ll have to read on to find out why.) ( Spoiler Alert: For those of you who don’t want to wade through the numbers in the next few paragraphs, Pippen isn’t that far off. He and Michael Jordan were less Batman and Robin than Andy Griffith and Barney Fife. But there’s a reason Pippen rarely wound up in charge, especially at crunch time. That’s easy for him to say, considering who was always there to back him up. So never mind that nonsense Scottie Pippen spewed last week guaranteeing a Bulls sweep. Absent a time machine outfitted with extra-long, lie-flat beds - because that’s how NBA teams roll - we’ll never know whether these Golden State Warriors are as good or better than the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls.
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