Hall of Fame Chicago Bulls small forward Scottie Pippen recently predicted the outcome of a hypothetical NBA Finals series clash between his own record-setting 1995-96 Chicago squad and the team that broke the Bulls' 72-10 regular season record, the 2016 Golden State Warriors, who went 73-9.
During a new conversation with Jorge Quiroga of Marca, Pippen explained that his Chicago teams came up in a much tougher 1980s and 1990s NBA era.
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"Basketball in the late 1980s and early 1990s was as physical as it got," Pippen said. "It's not the same today; the hard fouls they used to be aren't allowed anymore. Teams played with a different mentality."
The NBA game has evolved
Pippen notes that the NBA has pivoted its focus towards offense over defense. This was made somewhat explicit with the league's rewritten handcheck violation rules, which punish contact as fouls that wasn't formerly appraised that way.
"Over the last 15 or 20 years, offense has been promoted more. They changed the rules to increase scoring," Pippen observed. "But it's been good for the game. Big players now shoot three-pointers. There are no longer pure centers. The game is positionless now; it's more open, more shot-based."
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The very nature of offense in basketball, too, has evolved, Pippen noted. The 3-point shot is now king, whereas in the Bulls dynasty days scoring was mostly done at the rim or from the midrange.
"Today, the game is more open, less physical. The game is played faster, and that has changed and improved the game in some ways. Universities and schools are following the NBA's example," Pippen said. "The style now is to shoot three-pointers and score as much as possible. The data and statistics say so."
Like the 1996 Bulls, the Warriors boasted some terrific two-way talent. In addition to that year's MVP (Michael Jordan for Chicago; Stephen Curry for Golden State), both teams boasted at least two other future Hall of Famers (Pippen, Dennis Rodman and Toni Kukoc for the Bulls; Klay Thompson and Draymond Green for the Warriors). There was also, of course, some direct personnel overlap: reserve Bulls sharpshooter Steve Kerr became Golden State's head coach.
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Still, if both teams were playing under the league rules of the 1990s, the winner of a hypothetical encounter isn't in doubt for Pippen.
"If you play by today's rules, it would be one thing. But with the rules of the '90s, Curry wouldn't be the same," Pippen said. "If we played in his era, it would be like playing freely: no one holds you, no one stops you. I don't know who would win. We weren't built to shoot 25-50 three-pointers per game. They would probably win that way because they have two of the best shooters in Steph and Klay. But we played physical, we defended hard. We made teams score only 75-80 points. Today, that's almost impossible."
Of course, the 2016 Warriors didn't actually win anything. Yes, they bested Chicago's 20-year regular season record. But they became the first NBA Finals team ever to fumble a 3-1 advantage, ultimately falling in seven games to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Pippen's 1996 Bulls, meanwhile, won their first of three straight titles — the team's second three-peat that decade. They're generally considered one of the greatest teams ever.
Would the Bulls have been able to survive the 2017 Warriors, who swapped out Harrison Barnes for superstar forward Kevin Durant, in his absolute prime, and throttled the playoff competition for the first of two straight championships (and three more consecutive NBA Finals appearances, marking five straight for Golden State since 2015)? That's a horse of a different color.
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