Chet Walker

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Bulls.com

CHICAGO – Today, the Chicago Bulls named the inaugural class for the organization’s new Ring of Honor, which will recognize and celebrate past players, coaches and front office staff who made outstanding contributions and helped define the organization throughout its history. The Bulls will celebrate the first class, which includes 13 individuals and the 1995-96 team, with several events in January including a halftime presentation during the Bulls game against the Golden State Warriors on January 12 and a private gala at the United Center on January 11, both proudly presented by Magellan Corporation. Fans will be able to engage with the Ring of Honor through a United Center atrium experience that will be open to the public from January 10 through January 12, as well as a website that will launch in early January.&nbsp;

“The Chicago Bulls Ring of Honor will be a first-of-its-kind celebration honoring many of the legends who have helped shaped our organization over the past 57 years,” said Michael Reinsdorf, president and chief executive officer. “They have deep connections to our fans and community and represent a spirit of competition, hard work, and toughness.&nbsp; This January, we look forward to cementing their legacy in Bulls history and inspiring the future of our organization.”&nbsp;&nbsp;

The Bulls will add to the Ring of Honor every two years with the next class being inducted in 2026.&nbsp;

The inaugural class includes 13 individual Bulls legends and one team: Artis Gilmore, Phil Jackson, Michael Jordan, Johnny “Red” Kerr, Dick Klein, Jerry Krause, Toni Kukoc, Bob Love, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Jerry Sloan, Chet Walker, Tex Winter, and the 1995-96 team, which went 72-10 and won the 1996 NBA Championship.&nbsp;&nbsp;

The Bulls will honor the following players, coaches and staff from the 1995-96 team:&nbsp;&nbsp;

Chicago Bulls Ring of Honor Selection Criteria&nbsp;&nbsp;

Chicago Bulls Ring of Honor honorees must all meet a set of criteria:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

For the first class, in addition to the general evaluation criteria, all individual players have been honored by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame or have had their retirement banners raised at the United Center.&nbsp;&nbsp;

To learn more and sign up for updates, please visit Bulls.com/RingofHonor. To buy tickets for the January 12 game, please visit Bulls.com/tickets.&nbsp;&nbsp;

chicago-bulls-launch-ring-of-honor-and-announce-inaugural-class

Chicago Bulls Launch Ring of Honor and Announce Inaugural Class

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In the summer of 1969, prior to the start of the Bulls fourth season of operation, a majority of the team's ownership group voted to remove Dick Klein, the person truly responsible for team's existence, from his position as president and general manager. Taking over the basketball operations would be Pat Williams, an out-of-the-box marketing genius who had enjoyed a great deal of success with the Philadelphia 76ers.

Not long afterwards a number of those same investors let it be known they wanted to sell their stake in the team because Klein's original financial projections had proven faulty, as the Bulls were losing money every year. Arthur Wirtz, owner of the Chicago Stadium and the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks got wind of the news and together with his longtime friend, Lester Crown, formed an investor group of their own that included Phil Klutznick, James Cook, George Steinbrenner (yes, the notorious New York Yankees owner), and 25-year old Jonathan Kovler, a basketball enthusiast whose family money came from Jim Beam whiskey, to purchase the team. (Note: original Bulls investor Lamar Hunt didn't want to sell his stake, so he simply joined Wirtz's ownership group.)

The Bulls, with Williams running the front office and the fiery Dick Motta as head coach, hit their stride during the early 1970s. Beginning with the 1970-71 season, Chicago posted four straight seasons of 50+ wins and regularly drew crowds of 15,000 to 19,000 at the Stadium.

Wirtz, who died in 1983, had been a major powerbroker in town for many years before taking control of the Bulls. He was a self-made millionaire, amassing most of his fortune during the Great Depression by purchasing a number of bankrupt properties and businesses. In 1934 he teamed with James Norris Sr. and Norris' son to buy the Chicago Stadium, and then in 1952 he bought the Blackhawks. And although he was never much of a basketball fan, Wirtz recognized a good opportunity when he saw it. So once he came to believe the Bulls were here to stay and that they would annually fill 40-plus dates at his arena, he was all in.

When it came to his sports teams, Wirtz believed on-court performance was the most important thing. If a winner was put on the court and/or on the ice, fans would automatically turn out and he would make money. However, he also believed in keeping costs down and wasn't a believer in spending money on marketing or promotions. Thus soon after Williams and Motta began to bicker, it wasn't a surprise that Wirtz sided with Motta who was directing his basketball team to 50-plus victories every year over Williams, the guy who was always hitting him up for money to promote the team. As soon as Williams was let go, Motta's duties expanded to include those of a general manager.

Although Motta initially was left alone to run the basketball side of team, minority owner Jonathan Kovler began to push his fellow investors to allow him to become more involved in the team's overall operation. However, it became evident early on that Motta and Kovler weren't going to get along. In fact the very day Kovler became a minority owner of the team (Kovler owned seven percent) he showed up to watch practice and Motta, never having met him or even knowing who he was, had security throw Kovler out of the gym.

Then after going up 3-2 in a best of seven series and then dropping the next two games and losing the 1975 Western Conference title to the Golden State Warriors, Wirtz gave into to Kovler's relentless urging and installed him as team's managing partner — the person in charge of the team's day-to-day operations.

The 1975-76 season was a disaster from the start. Motta and All-Star forward Chet Walker got into a bitter contract dispute that ended up with Walker deciding to retire rather than play another season with the Bulls under Motta. Jerry Sloan badly injured a knee during the preseason and ended up being able to play just 22 games. Future Hall of Fame center Nate Thurmond, whom Motta had acquired the year before, looked old and got off to a horrendous start and was traded to Cleveland after just 13 games. In fact the Bulls started the season 3-13 and never recovered. By the end of the year they owned the league's worst record at 24-58, and thus for only the second time in franchise history the Bulls missed the playoffs.

On the morning of May 28, 1976, Motta quit by submitting a letter of resignation to Wirtz. Then by two o'clock that afternoon the Washington Bullets announced they had hired Motta to be their new head coach.

Soon after Motta's departure Wirtz decided to bring Jerry Krause back to the Bulls as the Director of Player Personnel. Krause had been with the team as a scout for a very short stint at the start of the 1969-70 season, but he and Motta eventually had a major falling out, and Krause was dismissed. Because of the Bulls poor showing during Motta's final season Chicago ended up with the 2nd overall pick in the 1976 Draft, and Krause pushed to take 7'0 center Robert Parish out of Centenary College (LA), who in time would end up being inducted into the Hall of Fame after playing 20 seasons, mostly with Boston. However, with Kovler making the final call the Bulls selected Indiana University All-American forward Scott May because Kovler believed May would be easier to sign.

Krause's luck didn't turn for the better after the Draft as he also ended up getting into a public spat with Ray Meyer, the legendary head coach of DePaul, who leaked to reporters that Krause had offered him the Bulls head coaching job. The story created quite a stir, both locally and nationally. Krause denied he had made an offer to Meyer, but Meyer insisted he did. It didn't take long for Wirtz to then decide to show Krause the door, with Kovler happily holding it open.

So if Ray Meyer wasn't going to coach the Bulls, who was? Motta let it be known that he wanted to take his Bulls assistant, Ed Badger, with him to Washington, but Motta's departure left such a bad taste in the mouth of Wirtz, he refused to let it happen as Badger was still under contract. Twice Wirtz refused letters of resignation from Badger who also wanted to join his old boss in DC. Finally with the start of the season nearing, Wirtz offered Badger the Bulls head coaching job, but Badger said he would only accept if Wirtz gave him a guaranteed two-year contract, which the Bulls owner did.

A couple of weeks prior to Badger becoming head coach, Chicago acquired the rights to 7'2 center Artis Gilmore in the ABA dispersal draft, which consisted of players from the now defunct American Basketball Association (ABA) other than those already rostered on the four teams that were being absorbed into the NBA (New York Nets, Indiana Pacers, Denver Nuggets and San Antonio Spurs) before the start of the 1976-77 season. Gilmore had led the Kentucky Colonels to the 1975 ABA Championship and was considered to be one of the very best big men in all of professional basketball.

1976: Scott May, Ed Badger, and Artis Gilmore

Naturally Gilmore's arrival sparked a great deal of fan excitement, but much of that enthusiasm disappeared after the Bulls suffered a 13-game losing streak that began just five games into the season. It also didn't help that the team's top draft pick — Scott May — contracted mononucleosis and had to miss the first month of the season. Bob Love, who was now 34 years old and had previously been a three-time All-Star with the Bulls during the early ‘70s, was a shell of his former self and was hastily traded to the Nets for a draft pick. That meant only Norm Van Lier and Tom Boerwinkle, Gilmore's backup at center, were left from the franchise's best days. Chicago's new lineup now consisted of Gilmore in the middle, May and third-year player Mickey Johnson at forward, and Van Lier and second-year free agent pick up Wilbur Holland at guard, with Boerwinkle, John "Crash" Mengelt and Jack Marin as the Bulls' top reserves.

By the time February rolled around, it looked as if Chicago was destined to miss the playoffs for a second straight year. Then after losing 90-87 at home to Portland on February 18th, falling to 24-34 on the season, the Bulls somehow caught fire. It started with the next game, a 118-102 thumping of Golden State in front of a little over 8,000 fans at the Stadium. That victory sparked a seven-game winning streak.

All of a sudden the Bulls could do no wrong, and a year that once looked lost all of a sudden became known as "The Miracle on Madison Street," as the team went on to win 20 of its last 24 games. In fact, nine of the Bulls last 10 home games at the Stadium were sellouts, with the Chicago Fire Marshall looking the other way as more than 20,000 fans packed the stands.

Badger ended up blending some of Motta's old school, forward-oriented offense with some clever plays designed to take advantage of Gilmore's size and unique post-up skills, and suddenly everything came together. Gilmore's (18.6 points, 13.0 rebounds) power and Boerwinkle's nifty-passing skills dominated the middle, Van Lier (10.2 points, 7.8 assists) directed the offense from the point, while Mickey Johnson (17.3 points, 10.2 rebounds) and Wilbur Holland (14.9 points, 2.1 steals) provided extra scoring and plenty of grit, while May (14.6 points, 6.1 rebounds) came on strong down the stretch and ended up making the NBA's All-Rookie Team.

Despite their awful start, the Bulls finished 44-38, tied for second place in the Midwest Division. That set up a best-of-three first round playoff series against the Portland Trail Blazers, who were led by Hall of Fame center Bill Walton and power forward Maurice Lucas, a one-time Chicago draftee (Lucas was taken by the Bulls with the 14th overall pick in the 1974 NBA Draft) who ended up jumping to the ABA instead.

The Blazers took the opening game of the series in Portland, 96-83, but the Bulls stormed back to take Game 2, 107-104, in front of a raucous, standing room only crowd of well over 23,000 at the Stadium. The series deciding Game 3 was played back in Portland and it went down to the wire, with Chicago having the ball and trailing by just two in the final minute of the game. During a timeout, Badger designed a trick play where he ordered Mengelt to inbound the ball by tossing it hard against the backboard with Gilmore, who had been fronted the entire game by Walton, rolling to the basket. With nobody standing behind him, Gilmore was to grab the carom off the glass and dunk the ball to tie the game. However, Mengelt's throw-in ended up going through the hoop, a violation that not only cost the Bulls the ball, but also the chance to knot the score. Portland went on to win the game, 106-98.

From that moment on there was no stopping the Trail Blazers. They defeated the Denver Nuggets in six games in the next round and then swept the Los Angeles Lakers, 4-0, to capture the Western Conference title, before knocking off the Philadelphia 76ers in six games to capture the franchise's only NBA title.

Portland's legendary Hall of Fame Head Coach, Jack Ramsay, remarked afterwards, "The Chicago Bulls gave us the toughest time that year. Fortunately we had home court advantage against them, otherwise it might have been a very different story."

the-miracle-on-madison-street

The Miracle on Madison Street

The American Basketball Association (ABA) didn't last any longer than former Bulls guard John "Crash" Mengelt's playing career. But, from 1966-67 to 1975-76, the ABA revolutionized professional basketball in America by giving fans loads of thrills, the three-point shot, the Slam Dunk Contest and ultimately four present-day NBA franchises. But this story isn't about the rich and wonderful history of the ABA. The tale being spun here covers the somewhat forgotten account involving the ABA and the Chicago Bulls.

Some may only remember the ABA as the Santa Claus who gifted the Bulls with one of the all-time greatest centers in basketball history — Artis Gilmore. But did you know that while the two leagues repeatedly battled each other for talent and media attention, they also met on the hardwood for more than 150 interleague preseason games between 1971 and 1975 — and that the ABA won the all-time series, 79-76?

The Bulls played in 10 such exhibitions, going 4-6 overall. Specific game details are hard to track down — especially in contrast to today's extensive coverage via television, radio and newspaper write-ups. However, back in the early-to-mid 1970s, oftentimes the preseason was ignored by the media, as it was fairly common for beat writers to stay home when the teams they covered hit the road prior to the start of the regular season.

A good number of NBA players during that time period also weren't in tune with what the ABA had to offer. Hall of Famer Nate Thurmond, a veteran of interleague games while a member of both the Golden State Warriors and Bulls, said years ago, "We all thought the ABA was a joke. But once you got past the fact that they played with a [red, white, and blue] Harlem Globetrotter ball, you learned pretty quick that the ABA was loaded with a lot of fantastic players."

"From the beginning, basketball fans from NBA cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago looked upon the ABA as minor league," recalls basketball historian Arthur Hundhausen, who developed and continues to administer the definitive ABA Web site, www.RemembertheABA.com. "Most ABA teams were located in small cities and towns — Louisville, Norfolk, Virginia, Memphis, Greensboro, North Carolina, Denver, San Antonio — places the NBA didn't consider to be very important at the time."

And, if you were alive and a Bulls fan back then, you really can't be blamed for drawing a blank when it comes to remembering the particulars of the Bulls vs. the ABA. Interestingly enough, none of the Bulls' 10 interleague exhibitions was played in Chicago, and none were ever broadcast locally to fans.

Because the two leagues played under slightly different rules (the NBA had no 3-point shot; there was a personal foul limit of six in the NBA, but ABA players didn't foul out; and the NBA shot clock was 24 seconds, compared to the ABA's 30-second shot clock), the interleague exhibitions adhered to a guideline where one half was always played under NBA rules, and the other was governed under the ABA's. Furthering the circuslike atmosphere was the fact that it was usually the host team that provided the referees, a notion that often annoyed Bulls Head Coach Dick Motta.

Basketball back in the 1970s was fast and loose, especially when the ABA came to play. And one of the craziest chapters in the history of the Bulls stemmed from the first interleague exhibition the team ever played.

October 2, 1971: Pittsburgh Condors 123, Chicago Bulls 121; at Sarasota, Florida

The very first Bulls vs. an ABA team — only the 10th interleague exhibition ever — boasted a sinister subplot.

It centered on 3-time All-American Howard Porter, who had secretly (and improperly) signed a contract to play for the ABA's Pittsburgh Condors in December 1970, halfway through his final college season at Villanova. While many collegiate stars inked ABA contracts prior to the NBA Draft, no other player had ever signed a deal while still playing for his college team.

Porter's situation was unusual in two key ways. First, Villanova came out of nowhere and went on an incredible run that season, making it all the way to the 1971 NCAA National Championship game against perennial power UCLA. In the Championship game, Porter scored 25 points, but the Wildcats still lost, 68-62. Afterwards, he was named the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player. Second, news of Porter's secret contract with Pittsburgh had been publically leaked a couple of months earlier after the document was discovered inside the briefcase of then-ABA Commissioner Jack Dolph at the league's All-Star Game!

"I was just a kid who wanted to make a living," Porter recalled back in 2006. "At the time, signing with Pittsburgh sounded like a good idea. But, once the contract became public, I figured all bets were off, and so I was open to the idea of going to the NBA instead."

Motta was a huge fan of Porter's, going so far as to equate the 6'8" forward with all-time great Elgin Baylor. The Bulls had an extra second-round draft pick in 1971 and used it on Porter, triggering the first and only trade between the NBA and the ABA as Chicago agreed to send journeyman center Paul Ruffner to the Condors for the rights to Porter.

As part of the Porter trade, the Bulls also agreed to play two exhibitions against Pittsburgh, with the Condors keeping all gate receipts. The first contest took place in Sarasota, Florida, where Porter grew up and played high school basketball. [NOTE: The Condors folded after the 1971-72 season; thus, the second exhibition between the two franchises was never played.]

"Before the game, Pittsburgh General Manager Mark Binstein offered a bounty on Porter's head," remembers former Condors public relations executive Fred Cranwell. "In front of Porter's hometown crowd, Binstein thought the kid should be taught a lesson for wanting to ditch us. So Binstein told the team in the locker room before the game that whoever could knock Porter out of the game that night would get a $500 bonus."

George Thompson led the Condors to victory by scoring 43 points, while Bob Love chipped in 23 in a losing effort for Chicago. But it was ABA hit man John Brisker who came away with a pocket full of cash, claiming Binstein's $500 bounty after exacting a hard foul on the Bulls rookie that sent Porter to the bench for the rest of the night. "I don't remember much about the game, but I know after Brisker hit me pretty good I had to sit down," said Porter. "It was our first preseason game, and Coach Motta didn't want to risk me getting hurt anymore."

October 9, 1971: Chicago Bulls 124, Dallas Chaparrals 113; at Dallas, Texas

A rare exhibition played in the host team's actual home arena, the Bulls evened their interleague record at 1-1 behind 24 points from Love and 19 from Chet Walker. Steve "Snapper" Jones tallied 30 points, and Donnie Freeman chipped in 29 for the Chaps.

As a young player out of Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Love had attended the very first training camp of the ABA's New Orleans Buccaneers back in 1968, in a sense his "hometown" team. "My dream was to always play in the NBA, against the best," says Love. "Still, even though I'd already played my first year for the [NBA's] Cincinnati Royals, I was looking for a better opportunity with the Bucs. But at that time, the ABA just didn't measure up, so I went back to Cincinnati."

September 21, 1972: Chicago Bulls 90, Utah Stars 86; at Honolulu, Hawaii

Love, seeing rich contracts awarded to Porter ($1.5 million) and Kennedy McIntosh ($375,000), considered holding out at the start of the 1972-73 season, which for Chicago opened at the Honolulu International Center Arena. But, before training camp opened, Love opted to report on time and make the trip to Hawaii with his teammates. Only 1,832 fans showed up for the Bulls victory over the Utah Stars. Chicago's Bobby Weiss shot seven of 10 from the field, while McIntosh led Chicago in scoring with 16. Jerry Sloan was in midseason form, floor burning himself through 29 minutes and picking up a technical foul with 1:54 remaining in the first half. Utah's "Wondrous" Willie Wise led all scorers with 22 points.

Motta was never a fan of interleague games, often complaining, "If we're going to play ABA teams, we'd better merge. This is like the Vietnam War, where your friends are your enemies. To play them now weakens our bargaining position. Let's either get them in our league, play a championship series at the end of the season or forget it all together."

Likewise, Bulls beat writer Bob Logan of the Chicago Tribune at the time wasn't all that enamored with the idea of playing the ABA, and clearly wasn't mellowed by a trip to the beach, describing the ABA ball as "funny-looking," and questioning whether or not it was "borrowed or stolen from a circus seal."

Logan also termed the game a "hate-in," commenting that the ABA had an "inferiority complex," and claimed the ABA referees "awarded their league five free trips to the foul line." Logan concluded his coverage saying that, by winning, the Bulls "upheld the greater glory of the National Basketball Association."

September 21, 1973: Chicago Bulls 107, Indiana Pacers 94; at Indianapolis, Indiana

While the Bulls could lay claim to being one of the NBA's most feared teams, the Indiana Pacers packed a bigger boast as they were the ABA's only three-time titlists and back-to-back league Champions. So it is Indiana and not Chicago who might have been excused for taking this preseason get together lightly.

"Oh, yes, we believed we were better than the Bulls, no question," longtime Pacers forward Darnell Hillman recalls. "Unlike Chicago, we won titles. People were calling us the ‘Boston Celtics of the ABA.' We wanted to win every time out, of course, but we didn't believe we needed to beat the Chicago Bulls in a preseason game to validate just how good we were."

Norm Van Lier scored 20 to lead Chicago, as the Bulls took command of the game early and never trailed. The Pacers did mount a comeback, knotting the game at 74 by the end of the third quarter, but the Bulls went on a 12-0 run to start of the fourth to put the game away.

Again, indicating that any claim of casualness on the part of Chicago was pure bull, both Motta and Sloan were ejected during in the second quarter.

Pacers guard Billy Keller led all scorers with 27 points, and Indy's George McGinnis chipped in 19 in a losing effort.

October 4, 1974: New York Nets 96, Chicago Bulls 78; at Uniondale, New York

The ABA long had to fight the notion that it was somehow "bush" league. Potshots about the tricolored ball were common, and its high-flying style of play, while proving popular with fans, was frequently dismissed as amateurish by NBA executives. But it was the Bulls who literally looked unprofessional in their first and only game against the ABA's New York Nets and the amazing Julius "Dr. J" Erving. It wasn't bad enough that Chicago was blown out right from the start, as Erving tallied 14 points in the first quarter, or that New York cruised to a very comfortable 57-38 lead by halftime.

It's that the Bulls looked bush league. Both Van Lier and Love were no-shows as they were holding out in hopes of forcing the team to fork over more money and sign them to a multiyear contract extension. All-Star Chet Walker also hadn't yet signed a new deal with the Bulls, so he wasn't there either. Worse, Chicago's top offseason acquisition, future Hall of Famer Nate Thurmond, was forced to play while wearing a nameless jersey. Ditto for newly acquired guard Matt Goukas. Rookie Mickey Johnson sported an old Garfield Heard Bulls jersey on the night as well — Chicago had traded Heard two seasons earlier. Journeyman Bill Hewitt wore Walker's No. 25 uniform; while rookie Bobby Wilson donned Van Lier's familiar No. 2 shirt.

"We were just not all there. It's hard for me to visualize that this was the Chicago Bulls," an aggravated Motta said afterward.

October 5, 1974: Indiana Pacers 95, Chicago Bulls 86; at Evansville, Indiana

In this obvious tip of the cap to University of Evansville alum Jerry Sloan, the second ever Bulls-Pacers game was played in what might be considered true, small-town, ABA territory. Indiana exacted revenge from the previous season's trouncing with its own runaway victory, as Pacers All-Star guard Billy Knight led all scorers with 20 points, and the awe-inspiring McGinnis powered his way to 19 points and 15 rebounds.

October 12, 1974: Kentucky Colonels 93, Chicago Bulls 75; at Louisville, Kentucky

The Kentucky Colonels pretty much had their way with the Bulls in both exhibition meetings between the teams. The first time they met, Kentucky, who was coached by the energetic Hubie Brown, would go on to post a 58-26 regular season record and capture the 1974-75 ABA title.

This particular contest turned into an eye-opener for Thurmond, who was playing his third game in a Bulls uniform: "Before the Kentucky game, I thought Artis Gilmore couldn't match up with me, but I learned quickly he could hold his own against anybody. Artis was one of the strongest guys I've played against. He was a man in the pivot. Artis, Dan Issel … those guys were serious ballers. At first I didn't give them any respect — that is, until we played against them."

In this game, Gilmore led all scorers with 24 points, Issel added 15 points and Wilson led the Bulls with 20.

October 1, 1975: Kentucky Colonels 95, Chicago Bulls 86; at Cincinnati, Ohio

The Bulls and Colonels christened Cincinnati's brand new Riverfront Coliseum in front of 4,219 fans to open the next season, with each team headed in distinctly different directions. The Colonels took the floor as the defending ABA Champions, and after the final buzzer few would've argued they couldn't have beaten the reigning NBA Champion Golden State Warriors if ever an interleague title would take place. Chicago was still reeling from its crushing Game 7 Western Conference Finals loss to the Warriors from five months earlier, and was playing without Walker, who later ended up deciding to retire rather than play one more season under Motta.

Beforehand, Motta made the claim, "Our main job down there [in Cincinnati] will be to get out alive. There is no way they're going to let us win tonight with ABA referees and a home crowd rooting for Kentucky."

Motta needn't have worried, as his veteran squad was grossly overmatched from the opening tip. While Thurmond won the battle of the boards over Gilmore, 14-7, he struggled from the floor, shooting just two-of nine. "The ABA ball always threw me off," Thurmond said years later. "I just hated it. It was a little smaller than our ball and those spinning colors … there was a different feel to it, too."

The Bulls in fact dominated Kentucky on the glass, 59-40, with Mickey Johnson backing up Thurmond at center due to an injury to Tom Boerwinkle. Gilmore and Wil Jones led Kentucky in scoring with 22 points apiece, while Love paced Chicago with 14 points in only 17 minutes of action. Per usual, the stormy Sloan got in referee Ed Rush's face and was ejected after only 13 minutes.

Ironically, Thurmond would appear in only a handful more games for the Bulls before being traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers, while Gilmore would end up attending his next preseason training camp in Chicago where he would man the center position for the Bulls at the start of the 1976-77 season.

October 12, 1975: Virginia Squires 105, Chicago Bulls 102, Norfolk, Virginia

Despite the Virginia Squires entering the game with only one preseason victory under their belt, Virginia's Luther "Ticky" Burden hit for 28 points on the night to lead all scorers in the ABA's final triumph over the Bulls. Willie Wise, this time playing for Virginia, chipped in 19 as Burden's co-star.

Initially Chicago came out uninspired, going four minutes without scoring a point to start the game, eventually digging themselves into a 13-0 hole. However, the Bulls stormed back to lead 29-28 after the opening quarter, and later overcame another double-digit deficit late in the game to take a 100-98 lead with just 1:30 left on the clock.

The Bulls were led by Mickey Johnson's 17 points and rookie Cliff Pondexter, who pumped in 15. With Sloan sitting this one out thanks to a knee injury, the passionate Van Lier took up the referee-bating slack by earning an early technical foul, which most likely gave Sloan something to smile about.

The game was played in front of 3,992 fans at the Scope in Norfolk, Virginia. Later that year, the Bulls filed a law suit against the Squires for failure to pay $13,000, which Virginia had guaranteed Chicago for playing the game on the Squires' home floor.

October 14, 1975: Chicago Bulls 122, Utah Stars 119 (OT), Salt Lake City, Utah

Two nights later, Chicago's final interleague contest was also one of its wildest. The Bulls again were minus Sloan and Boerwinkle, as well as veteran forward John Block, due to injuries. Late in the game, a grouchy Van Lier was forced to sit after fouling out, as the Bulls overcame a 10-point deficit midway through the fourth quarter, and eventually upended the host Utah Stars, 122-119, in overtime.

Ron Boone drilled the Bulls for 43 points, matching Pittsburgh's George Thompson's brilliant effort in Chicago's first-ever interleague game for the most points scored in interleague play. Bobby Wilson led Chicago with 20 points and second-year guard Leon Benbow chipped in 16.

As with Virginia, the wobbly Utah Stars later reneged on payment for hosting the game in Salt Lake City, inviting a $17,000 law suit which was never settled. Both the Squires and Stars folded before the finish of the 1975-76 season.

red-white-bulls

Red, White & Bulls

In the early days of the Chicago Bulls and the Milwaukee Bucks, a rivalry was born

The two cities are strikingly similar. They share a Great Lake (Lake Michigan) and an unabashed love of beer and brats. They also are home to a countless number of basketball fanatics, many with ample waistlines and merciless vocal cords.

"Back in the '70s NBA teams played each other a lot more than they do today," remembers Bulls icon Bob Love. "A lot of Chicago fans used to hop on buses to Milwaukee to see us play up there, and the same thing would happen with Milwaukee fans when the Bucks traveled to Chicago."

"Those games were always physical, hard-fought," remembers former Bucks guard and current Milwaukee TV analyst Jon McGlocklin. "We used to say we could swap uniforms with the Bulls and run each other's offenses because we always knew what the other team was going to do. The Bulls and Bucks were a great rivalry, but I don't think it ever reached the point where everybody hated each other. I don't remember feeling angry at those guys before or after playing them. I knew most of their players off the court. Heck, I used to room with Bob Love when we played together in Cincinnati and I also use to go up against Jerry Sloan in high school — although sometimes I will admit I got mad at Jerry because every now and then he would pop me in the mouth with an elbow!"

Right from the start, the Bulls were a playoff team, becoming the first expansion team ever to make the NBA playoffs in their first year of existence (1966-67). By the time the Bulls turned five-years old they'd been to the postseason three out of four years and then began a string of four straight 50-win seasons beginning in 1970-71.

The Bucks debuted at the start of the 1968-69 NBA season and by the end of their sophomore campaign they too had made the playoffs, jumping from a 27-55 record in their inaugural year to 56-26 the next. In their third year Milwaukee got even better, winning 66 games and went on the sweep the Baltimore Bullets, 4-0, to capture its first and only NBA championship.

Despite Milwaukee owning a 23-15 regular season advantage over the Bulls between the 1969-70 and 1974-75 seasons, sweeping the only playoff matchup between the two (1974), the Bulls and Bucks battles were often legendary. Up and down the rosters, the two teams boasted several All-Stars and All-NBA players and eventually five future Hall-of-Famers.

At point guard, Chicago was directed by Norm Van Lier who would make three All-Star teams, eight straight All-NBA Defensive Teams, and one All-NBA team while with the Bulls.

Norm Van Lier driving in for a Bulls bucket against the Bucks

"Norm was the Energizer Bunny," former teammate Clifford Ray recently remembered. "He was always hyper. He needed to be calmed down all the time. But Norm always gave it everything he had."

Teaming with Van Lier in Chicago's starting backcourt was the aforementioned Jerry Sloan who was an NBA All-Defensive honoree for each of the first five seasons of the 1970s.

"Jerry wasn't blessed with the most natural talent, and he'd be the first to admit it," former Bulls center and teammate from back in those days, the late Tom Boerwinkle, explained a number of years ago. "But he made up for it in guts and dedication. Jerry never gave up on a play, and he would never back down from any challenge."

Opposing Van Lier for the Bucks was the legendary Oscar Robertson, who many argue to this day is the greatest all-around point guard in league history. Although the Big O's best days were in the rear view mirror by the time he arrived in Milwaukee at the age of 32 in 1970, "Mr. Triple-Double-Trouble" was still pretty darn good, posting averages of 37.5 minutes, 16.3 points, 7.5 assists and 4.9 rebounds over the final four seasons of his career.

Early on sharpshooter Jon McGlocklin, a perennial plus-.500 shooter and double-digit scorer, started at off-guard for the Bucks. Eventually he gave up his starting spot up to a young understudy, Lucius Allen, who was always good for 15 points a game and possessed quick hands on defense.

While Robertson could command a game like no other, and McGlocklin and Allen could light up the scoreboard, Chicago's original bruise brothers were unlike any backcourt the NBA had ever seen.

"Jerry and Norm were the best pair of defensive guards any team ever had," Bob Love continues to proclaim. "That ball was like a piece of cheese, and they were two hungry rats. If the ball hit the floor, watch out! I was so glad they were on my team."

"Jerry and Norm were really good, but as an opponent all anyone ever saw were their gritting teeth, and a bunch of cuts and bruises on their arms and legs and a couple of balled up fists. You had to wonder whether you were going to play basketball of get into a fist fight," former Bucks forward Bob Dandridge laughs. "Those guys were forever stepping in front of you and taking charges, playing rugged, hard-nosed basketball. Nobody ever enjoyed playing against those two."

Oftentimes Sloan and Van Lier would swap defensive assignments with Sloan shadowing Robertson who stood 6'5, and the 6'1" Van Lier going up against McGlocklin and Allen.

"Jerry was the best, as tough as anyone I ever played with," Van Lier, who passed away in 2009, reminisced a number of years ago. "He was a tough guy with a nasty attitude. I came to work with the exact same nasty attitude he had. We were great together. We knew we always had each other's back. Night after night, we were ready to play, and if our opponent wasn't ready, we'd look at each other and smile and then tear them up."

Says Dandridge: "Oscar vs. Jerry was always a fun battle. Oscar would get so worked up and tell us that if Sloan tried to step in front of him to draw a charge, he was going to get his money's worth. Oscar said he was going to try to lay Jerry out and make him see stars."

Even Robertson, a player who was renowned for fearlessness, knew there was something different about going up against the Bulls.

"That Chicago backcourt, Sloan and Van Lier, those guys were junkyard dogs. You could always see hunger and determination in their eyes.

"Now I was always very intense, I loved to compete and hated to lose. Of all the players I went up against, I'd say Sloan and Van Lier came closest to matching my intensity."

Norm Van Lier getting tossed out of the game by Don Murphy

When it came to frontcourt play, Chicago held an advantage over the Bucks thanks to a couple of virtually interchangeable star forwards.

Hall of Famer Chet "The Jet" Walker was considered to be washed up at age 28 by the Philadelphia 76ers, who inexplicably dealt him to Chicago prior to the start of the 1969-70 season for two players (Bob Kaufman and Jim Washington) who were good, but not anywhere close to his level. Walker was among the best open-court forwards of his day, adept at driving to the basket and drawing fouls. He was also remarkably durable, never missing more than six games a season throughout a 13-year career. At the time of the trade Walker had made three All-Star teams in seven seasons with the 76ers, and had proven to be a key player in their winning the 1967 NBA title. He averaged 16.2 points and 7.9 rebounds in Philadelphia, but upped his game after the trade, making four All-Star teams and averaging 20.6 points and 6.1 rebounds over six seasons with the Bulls.

"Chet was Mr. Clutch," Van Lier recalled years ago. "Whenever we needed a basket we looked to Chet and he seemed to always deliver."

The second Chicago superstar forward was the team's best all-around player, Bob "Butterbean" Love. While most remember him as a smooth scorer, the three-time All-Star also was also named to three All-NBA Defensive teams while with the Bulls.

"Bob could put points on the board, that's for sure, but he played both ends of the floor," remembered the late Nate Thurmond a couple of years ago, who teamed with Walker and Love on the Bulls during the 1974-75 season. "Butterbean always guarded the other team's best, Hall of Famers like Rick Barry, Elvin Hayes and Spencer Haywood. He always made it tough on them to score."

Milwaukee's best forward during this era was Dandridge, a crafty, 6'6" silky-smooth slasher who seemed to always put up 18 points and grab eight rebounds a game against the Bulls.

"The competitiveness of the rivalry. He always worked me hard on both ends of the floor."

LEFT: Bob Love rolling off a defender, RIGHT: Clifford Ray holding the ball

Milwaukee's Curtis Perry came a little late to the Bulls-Bucks rivalry, joining Milwaukee during the 1971-72 season. But, if there was one bruiser who brought that Van Lier/Sloan mentality to the Bucks' frontcourt, it was Perry, who wasn't much of a scoring threat but he sure could grab rebounds and draw fouls.

By now you're probably wondering if the Bulls had better players overall how in the world did Milwaukee average nine more wins a season and consistently outpaced Chicago in the playoffs?

"Kareem Abdul-Jabbar — he was the difference," Van Lier used to shout. "That guy killed us."

Chicago boasted a pair of centers that most teams would have been thrilled to call their own. Tom Boerwinkle was a unique and rather unsung player in his day. He stood an imposing 7-feet tall and possessed a 265-pound wide-body physique that helped clog paths to the basket defensively. Offensively, he wasn't much of a scorer but was an excellent passer, adept at threading the needle in finding both Walker and Love cutting to the basket for easy scores.

"Without a doubt Big Tom was the greatest passing center in the history of the NBA," Love says. "I still dream about all the backdoor cuts I scored on, and Tom finding me with a nifty bounce pass."

Boerwinkle's primary understudy, Clifford Ray, was a hardnosed defensive force who regularly produced close to nine points and 11 rebounds in limited minutes. He was a 3rd round pick out of Oklahoma in 1971 and was named to the NBA's All-Rookie First Team that season. He often outrebounded and outhustled bigger and more heralded players he went up against on a nightly basis.

But, no matter what Chicago's bigs brought to the floor, it was never enough against Abdul-Jabbar, arguably the greatest NBA player of the 1970s (and many would contend the 1980s as well). Averaging 40-plus minutes a game, Abdul-Jabbar dominated just about every contest, averaging more than 30 points and 16 rebounds against the Bulls during the early '70s. In fact, it wasn't just Chicago he subjugated, as he was named the league's MVP six times between 1970-71 and 1979-80.

"[Bulls head coach] Dick Motta used to tell me to just go out and do whatever I could to stop Kareem on my own," Boerwinkle recalled. "He wasn't going to sacrifice another defender [with a double-team]. Kareem was so good, that no matter what I tried, he still got his points, grabbed a ton of rebounds and blocked a bunch of our shots."

"I had a lot of respect for what the Bulls tried to do with me, overall, especially Tom and Clifford Ray," says Abdul-Jabbar today. "They played me straight up, physically. However, the Bulls had another guy who joined the team a couple of years into our rivalry, Dennis Awtrey, and he was a different kind of guy. Awtrey always tried to bait me into getting into a fight, and sometimes we did."

"Oh yeah, I remember one time Awtrey spun Kareem around and hit him in the mouth," McGlocklin laughs. "We should have all thanked Dennis for that, because all it did was fire Kareem up even more. He went crazy that night."

Players being held back from one another during a Bulls/Bucks game in the 72-73 season

While the Bucks were the team that often prevented Chicago from getting an easier draw in the playoffs, it was the Los Angeles Lakers with Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West who routinely extinguished Chicago's postseason dreams, knocking off the Bulls in 1971, 1972, and 1973. By the time the Bulls tipped off their eighth NBA season in 1973-74, Chicago had made the playoffs six times — and had been eliminated by the Lakers in four of those years.

That would change in 1973-74. Chicago stormed to a then franchise-best 13-2 start en route to a 54-28 record. By the time the playoffs rolled around, the Bulls were flying high, ready to erase the misfortune of the year before. Chicago won its first playoff series ever, in seven games vs. the Detroit Pistons, despite Sloan suffering a serious foot injury in Game 6 that knocked him out for the rest of the playoffs.

Next up was the Bucks who finished five games ahead of Chicago in the regular season standings. The Bulls may have thought they smelled blood, but Milwaukee came into the series healthy after fighting off a series of nagging injuries that dogged Robertson, Allen and Dandridge during the regular season.

"Our 1973-74 team had a purpose," Dandridge says. "We all knew that it was probably going to be Oscar's last year, and so we were on a mission for him. At the time, we felt we had the two best players in the league at the two most important positions — Kareem in the middle and Oscar running the show from the point.

"When we met Chicago in the playoffs the Bulls really focused trying to shut those two down, which then freed me and a few other guys on our team to step up our games."

"Kareem was Kareem. He was unstoppable [Abdul-Jabbar averaged 32.2 points and 15.8 rebounds during the 1974 playoffs]. As always he was the difference," McGlocklin says. "Because of all the injuries we dealt with during the year, the Bulls thought they had an opening. But as smart and as big and as physical as Chicago's centers were, Kareem was just too much."

The Bucks bulldozed the Bulls in four straight by an average of 14 points a game, with only one of the contests being close. By Game 4 Chicago's frustration had grown so passionate that Motta, Sloan (in street clothes) and the team's mascot, Benny the Bull (who gave "the hoof" to the referees as he left) were ejected before the end of the game.

Benny getting ejected from a Bulls vs. Bucks game in 1974

Convinced it would take a big-name center to finally push its way to the NBA Finals, the Bulls decided to trade Ray to the Golden State Warriors for future Hall-of-Famer Nate Thurmond prior to the start of the 1974-75 season. And although both the Bucks and Lakers fell from grace that year, Chicago failed to take advantage, as they lost to Golden State in seven games in the Western Conference Finals. Ironically, it turned out to be the Warriors, with ex-Bull Clifford Ray manning the middle for them, who captured the NBA title that year.

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