Pretenders To The Throne?

Da Realist:

uh oh... i officially care about the nba regular season now... check this out.

BEAT DA-LLAS BEAT DA-LLAS BEAT DA-LLAS! :-)

Gangsta D:

Somebody's encroaching on his turf. Now he has to hope somebody pulls a JR Henderson on Dirk, JT, and Josh Howard...preferably in the same game. Actually, where's Juwan howard when you need him. I don't think Derek Anderson ever recovered from that shoulder:)

Waldini:

LMAO...yea he was never the same player after that 'injury'.

Realist only cares b/c they might become the 2nd team to win 70 games :-)

Da Realist:

Actually i don't care. when dallas is creeping on "6 of 8", THEN i'm in full hater mode.

And damnit, i STILL think we should have won a few more. we should have at least been in the finals in '94 if it wasn't for that horrible call on pip in game 7 against the knicks. and this was WITHOUT jordan. we definitely would have won the title that year. i also like my chances in '95. and we would have killed the '99 spurs team. don't know about the '00 lakers, cause best case scenario we would have won 9 straight titles going in. usually the weakness is complacency against a young, healthy athletic team like the 00 lakers. BUT (big ass BUT) you wouldn't have had phil jackson. that might be the difference.

We would have eventually lost, probably to one of those laker teams, but we would have as many rings as bill russell. but it wasn't meant to be. so i'll be happy with "6 of 8".

Gangsta D:

You definitely would've beaten Houston? Huh? Exactly who was gonna match up against Hakeem. You went to 7 against Ewing, and if you won it would've been by the slimmest of margins. I'm not saying the Bulls wouldn't have, but you can't say "definitely," unless you mean with Jordan.

Da Realist:

Yeah, i meant if jordan had never retired those 2 years.

Of course, i just thought of a counterpoint. those 2 years off gave him a break. they would have probably lost sooner because of burnout with all the games, traveling and complacency. so we probably wouldn't have won 9. but at least 7 or 8....

Gangsta D:

How were you gonna stop Sam I Am and Kenny The Jet? Houston in 5....WITH Jordan!!!!

Da Realist:

Now you just talking crazy.

In my view, we would have beaten houston both times to win 5 straight. there's a good chance seattle would have bitten us in the ass in 96. then we would have beaten utah (twice), san antonio, then the lakers. the run would have been over by then. the lakers would have beaten the champs in 01 and taken over the league from that point. the lakers would have still won 3 straight because they wouldn't have been as complacent in 04 and would have beaten the pistons that year.

But this is the "rose colored glasses" view of a old time bulls fan. ;-)

Waldini:

Actually D sounds like the crazy Houstonians whenever I talked about the paper years (94-95). I told one Rockets fan the Rockets were paper champions and he went ballistic (verbally) on me. Said that Mad Max owned Jordan in the regular season, no one could stop Hakeem, yada yada yada....I was like the Raptors beat the Bulls in the regular season during their record setting season. Dont remember it mattering when it counted....

Anyway, I wasnt a Bulls fan but after they beat the Suns, I said to myself, aint NOBODY effin with Jordan and crew, not while he is still in his prime. They were considered underdogs to both the Knicks and Suns that year. this was before I started realizing that when teams have that "it" factor, doesnt matter if they have homecourt or not That's why I (and D) were so confident about the Lakers. After they came back to win Game 7 in 2000, I knew it was a wrap. Mentally they obtained "it" and no one was gonna fuck with them when it mattered. It's why the 2001 Conf Semis and 2002 Conf Finals were so satisfying. I just knew they were gonna win.

Da Realist:

(sigh)... yeah, i knew it too. that's why i was hating so much. all the champions had the "it" factor except for the '99 spurs. but a title is a title. even the rockets had it for those 2 years.

Gangsta D:

I'm glad you put that caveat on at the end. I think Jordan's tires would be slowly deflating by '00. Of course I thought the '98 Lakers would beat the Bulls. i piss on you Del Harris.

BTW I was kidding about Houston. I'm not criminally insane.

Da Realist:

'00 is iffy. i could see the wheels falling off in '98. this is why i was glad he retired and hoped he stayed that way. but i know we would have beaten the '99 spurs.

Now the '00 lakers... on one hand the bulls would have been old at all the skill positions that year. the lakers young and hungry.

But WE would have had the best coach in history. you guys would have had del harris or some other retread. we may have had just enough to beat you guys in 7. and hopefully mike would have been smart enough to "leave the building" after that game.

Waldini:

Remember hombre Del was fired mid-way thru the strike season. I think Jeannie would have seduced Phil and gotten him to switch over to the dark side of the force for the '00 season.