Originally published June 16, 1997.
The drive for five?
Done.
The coronation of the Bulls of Jordan, Jackson and Pippen as one of basketball’s all-time greatest contingents, now without question worthy of mention in the same clauses and pauses with the original New York Rens, the Russell-Auerbach Boston Celtics and the great UCLA championship teams of the John Wooden era?
Done, officially, later today in Grant Park.
A sometimes joyless, often tense, eight-month cruise on seas of change, distraction, loathing and uncertainty, never really tranquilized or finalized until Friday night’s title-clinching 90-86 win over the Utah Jazz at the United Center.