The 1980s dawned not so great for the United States with 444 hostages still being held in the embassy in Iran and the U.S. about to boycott the summer Olympics over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. But it looked like a renaissance for the Bulls, who went on to have their second winning season and first playoff series win since 1975.
Jerry Sloan was the coach, reviving memories of the great 1971-75 run averaging more than 50 wins per season. The 1980-81 Bulls won 13 of their last 15 to be the hottest team coming into the playoffs and swept the Knicks in the first round; Reggie Theus and Artis Gilmore were All-Star game starters. The Bulls were only defeated in the second round of the playoffs by the champion Boston Celtics.
It seemed like perhaps if not overcoming the Great Disappointment of the 1979 draft, maybe the Bulls could persevere in the Eastern Conference, where they had just been moved for the 1980-81 season. In the 1979 draft, the Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers flipped a coin for the No. 1 draft pick. Back then teams with the worst records in each conference flipped a coin to determine the top pick. That changed with the 1985 lottery. The Lakers had the pick of the then New Orleans Jazz, who were in the East. It came from a previous signing of Gail Goodrich. The Bulls were then in the West. Magic Johnson was the consensus first pick. His Chicago-based agent George Andrews said Johnson wanted to play with a center and was ready to leave Michigan State after winning the 1979 title as he then knew he'd go to the Lakers with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or Bulls with Artis Gilmore. Andrews said Johnson was even leaning toward Chicago to be closer to his family in Michigan. The Bulls had a fan contest and the vote was to call heads. It was tails and the Bulls selected David Greenwood with the No. 2 pick.
But then after that successful 1980-81 season, the Bulls lost defensive stopper Bobby Wilkerson in free agency, touted rookie Orlando Woolridge held out, free agent prize Larry Kenon feuded with Sloan and was benched and at 19-32 Sloan was fired with general manager Rod Thorn finishing the season as coach.
"Bobby Wilkerson, to me in my career, was my best backcourt mate because we complemented each other," said Theus. "He liked to rebound and play defense and I handled the ball and scored. He made the game easier for me. And then they let him go."
The chaos seemed like it was just beginning.
Paul Westhead was hired to coach. He'd won a title with the Lakers replacing Jack McKinney, injured in a biking accident. He then clashed with Johnson and was fired and came to the Bulls with an arrogance about coaching such lesser talent. The popular Gilmore even after being an All-Star the previous season was traded for Dave Corzine and Mark Olberding because Westhead said Gilmore did not fit his system. Free agent guard Ricky Sobers also left and the Bulls won 28 games.
The next season in 1983-84, Kevin Loughery replaced Westhead, but Loughery feuded with Theus and benched the team's leading scorer. Theus went on to play just a few minutes in occasional games and was traded for Steve Johnson. The team won 27 games.
"I was averaging like 28 points a game and made the All-Star team (the previous season) and Kevin Loughery decided he wanted to change," said Theus, now the coach at Cal State Northridge. "I was the team's most popular player; my relationship with Chicago always was great. I can never to this day think why he did that or what he was trying to accomplish. My relationship with Chicago as a young player was great and for him to come in and do that to a young, developing player, runnerup rookie of year, average 18 to 20. My first five years in Chicago I had six coaches. It was wild."
So the Bulls came to the 1984 draft and there wasn't the anticipation there was in 1979. Well, a little for a while as Hakeem (nee Akeem) Olajuwon was seen on a level of Johnson. Teams appearing to lose on purpose to get into that coin flip led to the NBA creating the draft lottery the following year. Houston won the coin flip from Portland, which had the pick from Indiana from a previous trade, and selected Olajuwon. Seeking a center, the Trailblazers took Sam Bowie.
Michael Jordan was left for the Bulls.
Ho hum. Well, not completely, but it was no great excitement at the time.
"There wasn't at all much anticipation for Jordan," said Corzine, now back working for his alma mater at DePaul. "Everyone was worried about their own success, their own careers the way the team was going. We were trying to win with the guys there. There always were new rookies coming in. We'd had plenty of high draft picks and guys who could score. Michael, we felt he was a skilled player.
"But Quintin (Dailey) was a very, very good player, talented guy. He had his personal issues, but as far as basketball and on the floor ability he was an All-Star caliber player. Without the personal issues he would have been a perennial All-Star. He and Michael had some of most monumental showdowns in practice.
"They were looking for answers, to come up with chemistry, put the right people together," said Corzine. "They had some players. Quintin, Orlando, Sid Green. But they went through Westhead, Loughery, Stan (Albeck), Doug (Collins). Westhead had just come off winning a championship and had been known for being the point scoring guru. We didn't have a half court offense with him. On dead ball situations, he wanted us to all line up on the defensive side and run at them. He had his own ideas.
"I was real happy coming back to Chicago," said Corzine. "I really enjoyed my time in San Antonio; we were winning games, good chemistry, coming into my role and then came to the Bulls with Mark and we had a lot of individual players, some high draft picks as they weren't winning a lot. They were acquiring a lot of individual talent, but we weren't coming together as being a cohesive unit."
Corzine also was as these things go becoming the face of team despair as the guy they got Gilmore. "It was a tough time," Corzine agreed.
And then here came Mr. Jordan, the initial advertising campaign to welcome Jordan from the old movie title.
"I remember when he first came to camp he was just jumping out of the gym and everybody was saying that won't last to midseason, and at midseason it seemed like he was jumping even higher and scoring more points," recalled Green. "That's when I went public and said ‘He's the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.'
"He was phenomenal," said Green. "He just not only challenged himself to be the best that he could but he also challenged us. We used to play games of shooting free throws. I was in the 70s. He was in the 80s. He'd say, ‘We're gonna shoot 10 free throws and if it hits the rim its no points. It must not hit the rim.' I used to lose every time against him because he was always challenging. He was always kidding me saying that I didn't have hands: ‘You better catch my pass!' He always wanted perfection even as a rookie.
And then him and Quintin.
‘Of all the practices I ever experienced in my 10 years, those two guys used to really go at it more than anyone," recalled Green, now a Bulls ambassador. "I think it prepared Michael; he was just phenomenal and I saw greatness in him. I remember his rookie year they said he could score points but he can't pass, wait until he plays against T.R. Dunn. I think that game he scored over 40 and then the next game they said well he can't pass and the next game he had 20-something assists. There were players on that team who didn't want to accept how great he was, but I knew we had greatness right there upon us. But we couldn't win as much as he wanted."
Jordan was one of the big stories of the NBA his rookie season with his spectacular, high flying game, the tongue sticking out and the hanging slam dunks. He was rookie of the year as the Jerry Reinsdorf group finalized its purchase of the team. Thorn was fired and replaced by Jerry Krause and then Loughery was let go after the season when it appeared he was trying to push the Bulls into a favorable playoff matchup by giving up a game.
The Bulls were eliminated by the Bucks 3-1 in the playoffs. But before the 1985-86 season, the Bulls traded Greenwood for George Gervin, who was being relegated to the second unit with the Spurs and was skipping practices.
"George didn't play a significant role," recalls Corzine.
"I played with him two years in San Antonio and I still say he was the greatest scorer I've ever seen as far as ease of scoring. People ask me to compare George to Michael. George scored so effortlessly it was incredible. Michael's baskets at the end of games you'd remember because they were spectacular plays and he was that type player; Gervin was the opposite. A lot games I wouldn't remember him scoring much, wonder if he still had that streak of games scoring 20 and he'd have 40."
And he still had the attitude.
"I remember Michael's first all star game a reporter went in and asked George Gervin how are you going to defend against Michael Jordan," said Green. "And George sent the reporter back into the East All Star locker room and said ask Jordan how would he like defending the Ice Man?"
That was the game when Jordan believed there was a conspiracy against him by some veterans with Gervin taking part. So Jordan wasn't happy with the trade, and then three games into the 1985-86 season Jordan broke his foot and was out for much of the season. Then came the awkward return with limited playing time that led to Albeck's dismissal.
"They were told to play him I believe 20 minutes and Stan – God bless Stan – he wanted to try to win," said Green. "He knew with Jordan we had much of a better chance than winning without him. And the boss didn't like (Albeck challenging the staff's guidelines)."
Jordan then scored 63 points against the Celtics in an overtime loss in the 1986 first round as the Bulls were swept in the playoffs, but the legend was growing. Doug Collins was hired as coach for the 1986-87 season, Jordan's greatest and most spectacular scoring season ever as it was Collins' style and passion that began the run that led to the championship era.
"I put my heart, my soul into it," recalled Collins, now an ESPN broadcaster after a long coaching career. "I just wanted to help instill that love for the game."
After being swept again by the Celtics in the 1987 playoffs, Jordan's individual domination of the NBA grew as he was named the league's Most Valuable Player in 1988 even with a team tied for third place in the Eastern Conference. The Bulls finally broke through in the playoffs for the first time since 1981 with a first round 3-2 series win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. Though their frustration with the rival Detroit Pistons would begin with a 4-1 playoff loss in the conference semifinals. Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant were rookies and the question was not only when and whether they could be ready, but whether you could win with Jordan. Really.
"Remember back then it was all about Michael can't win, that he's just a scorer," noted Corzine. "That was being asked everywhere: Can you win with a guy who scores that much and is that much of a focal point?"
The next season, 1988-89, came the dramatic Jordan shot to beat the Cavaliers, and then the first trip to the conference finals in 14 years. Though with another loss to the Pistons even after taking a 2-1 lead in the conference finals. Collins shockingly was fired and replaced by lightly regarded assistant Phil Jackson.
"We were at a point to possibly break through and it didn't happen," said Corzine, the Heresy High School standout who was traded to Orlando after the 1989 season. "It was a matter of Pippen and Grant having to mature. The team was searching for answers when I got there. The world changed when Michael showed up and then it was a matter of putting the pieces together. But they finally had a direction they were going and a player to focus the franchise around."