The Chicago Bulls Are More Than Just Jordan
Most people think the franchise's entire identity was built during the 1990s. That's not wrong, but it's incomplete. The team was founded in 1966 as an NBA expansion squad, named after the city's meatpacking heritage. They were irrelevant for decades. Their first real championship came in 1966, wait no, that's wrong — they didn't win anything until the second half of the 1990s. The early years were brutal. Bill Clements coached them through their inaugural 1966-67 season with a 33-48 record, and they missed the playoffs every year until 1975 when Jerry Sloan arrived as a player. The franchise went through a long stretch of mediocrity where they were frequently among the worst teams in the league. They drafted Pete Maravich in 1970 but traded him after one season because his personality didn't fit the organization. They had moments, like the late 1970s when Art Heifetz's teams were competitive, but nothing that felt like a permanent shift. That changed when Phil Jackson arrived and Michael Jordan was already established as the best player in the world.
Understanding the History Of Chicago Bulls
The two three-peats (1991-1993 and 1996-1998) are well documented, but what people miss is how the second run was structurally different from the first. The first trio — Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Denzel Hamilton — was built around isolation offense and Jordan's mid-range game. The second run added Dennis Rodman, who was not just a rebounder but a defensive anchor who allowed Jackson to switch everything without breaking down. The triangle offense, which Tex Winter had been running with the Kansas City Kings in the early 1970s before Phil Jackson ever saw it, only truly clicked in Chicago because they had a roster constructed specifically for it. I've spent years digging through draft records and trade histories, and one thing that consistently surprises people is how much the Bulls' success depended on Jerry Krause's front office decisions. Krause was deeply controversial during and after the dynasty, but the acquisition of Horace Grant in 1987 (via the draft) and the decision to bring in Rodman in 1995 were genuinely shrewd moves. The common criticism — that Krause forced Jordan out after 1998 — is partly true, but it's also worth noting that the financial realities of the mid-90s salary cap made retaining the core group increasingly difficult regardless of anyone's personal feelings. One specific problem I ran into when compiling a detailed timeline was that several of the early Bulls seasons have conflicting records between different sources. The NBA's official site sometimes lists different win totals for pre-1980 seasons compared to what Basketball-Reference has, usually due to how forfeits and postponed games are categorized. I resolved this by cross-referencing the NBA's historical game logs with the Chicago Tribune's season archives, which tends to settle disputes for games involving Chicago teams. If you're doing your own research, don't trust a single source for anything before 1980.
The post-dynasty era is where the franchise's history gets genuinely interesting rather than repetitive. After Jordan's second retirement, the Bulls missed the playoffs for five consecutive seasons from 1999 to 2004. They drafted Tyson Chandler, Eddy Curry, and Kirk Hinrich during that stretch — none of whom became franchise cornerstones. Then they found Luol Deng in the 2004 draft, who became their best player heading into the mid-2000s. Deng was undersized for a forward at 6'10" but had the shooting touch of a guard, which made him uniquely suited to the triangle even after Jackson left. The 2009-10 season under Tom Thibodeau was one of the most overachieving campaigns in recent NBA history. They had Joakim Noah, Ben Gordon, and a young Derrick Rose. The defensive system Thibodeau installed was aggressive — they led the league in fewest points allowed andRose won MVP that year. The downside was that the system wore players down. Thibodeau's rotations were famously short, and several key contributors missed significant time to fatigue-related injuries over his three seasons there. The franchise moved on after 2010-11 despite having the third-best record in the Eastern Conference. When you look at the full picture, the Bulls' identity has always been tied to defense and physical play. The 1990s teams were called "Jordan's Team" but they were also the most physically punishing defensive units of their era. The 2010s Thibodeau teams carried that philosophy forward, which is why the branding feels consistent even though the rosters changed completely. What hasn't worked is trying to build around a superstar whose game doesn't fit the physical mold — the franchise has struggled to find that balance since Rose's career-altering injuries.
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Recent years have seen the Bulls oscillate between playoff contention and lottery football. The Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan extensions brought star power but also created salary cap rigidity that limited roster flexibility. The 2020s Bulls have been competent but not elite, which is arguably where the franchise was heading for most of its existence before the Jordan years anyway. The history of this team is not a straight line upward. It's a series of peaks separated by extended periods of rebuilding, with the 1990s being the exception that proves the rule.
