POINT:
*Bulls will coast
to 4th title in five
By James Goldstein
Daily Sports Editor
The Chicago Bulls need not worry.
They won't have to stray from their normal lives for long.
They won't need to completely rearrange their schedules
in the upcoming weeks.
Mainly, the NBA Finals series against the Seattle
SuperSonics that gets underway tonight will not last long.
No need to worry, Bulls. You can go on with your lives
and enjoy the summer as you wish. Just think of this as a
slight detour from your lives.
The champagne is already on ice in the locker room of the
Key Arena in Seattle.
Bob Costas of NBC is practicing what he going to say to
Bulls' Vice President Jerry Krause and Head Coach Phil
Jackson. And to be safe, NBC already has someone in its
control room with one hand on the censor button for the
always-exciting Dennis Rodman.
The organizers of the ticker-tape parade to be held in
downtown Chicago have already decorated the floats and
ordered tons of paper.
Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune has his first-row seat
reserved in front of Chicago's City Hall.
Michael Jordan just called up golf partner Charles
Barkley and scheduled 18 holes at a Phoenix country club
not too far in the future.
Scotty Pippen spoke to fellow Dream Team III teammates
- Reggie Miller, Hakeem Olajuwon and Grant Hill - and
told them he will meet up with the team in Atlanta next
weekend to practice for this summer's Olympic Games.
Rodman already has another book signing to attend in
Chicago, but doesn't know which drag clothes he should don
and how many pieces of pierced jewelry he should wear.
Jackson is ready to lock himself in his home for a few
months to read some more Zen Buddhist books.
Oh, what about the series?
That's easy. It won't take me too long to analyze because
there won't be many games.
See BULLS. Page 15
SPORTS
The 1996 NBA Finals
Chicago Bulls
vs.
Seattle SuperSonics
Wednesday, June 5, 1996 - The Michigan Daily - 13
COUNTERPOINT:
Sonics will rain
on Bulls in seven
By Will McCahill
Daily Sports Editor
Okay, okay, so the Sonics' road uniforms are the same
shade of green you're likely to see on Dennis Rodman's
head.
And luckily for Wormy and the Bulls, they'll get to see
those stylish Seattle hues the maximum four times.
Yes, those streaky Sonics will take Chicago to ssen
games, despite how unlikely that might seem after it took
them that many snoozy contests to punch out Utah's finest.
Of those seven games, the Bulls will win three, and the
Sonics will win four.
Yeah, you heard me. Put your money on Shawn Kemp,
Gary Payton and George Karl, the man who, but for a cou-
ple Karl Malone misfires, is the new coach of the New
Jersey Nets.
I know, I know, do the math. Chicago has lost only 11 of
its last 2,131 games or whatever. But as a good many people
around here can tell you, numbers mean very, very little in
the crunch. The Bulls are the best regular-season team in the
history of the NBA. Whoop-de-damn-do. Check the obituar-
ies under "Wings, Red."
Take Chicago's long layoff, too. Ten days between gaies
this time. Sure, the vacation allows the aches and pains of the
long campaign to heal, but that's not really what the Bulls
need this time of year. Sure, Michael Jordan will be his usual
self, but the rest of that crew seems a little suspect.
Defensively, they're pretty tight, but where's the offense?
Scottie Pippen was maybe starting to come around, and Ron
Harper had a dazzling series against the Magic, but who's to
say that Da Pip won't crawl back under whatever rock he's
been peeping out from under this post-season. Or maybe
even get in under that planet-sized boulder Toni Kukoc is
calling home this June.
Then there are all those awards this Eastern Conference
juggernaut has been piling up. And nobody will deny that the
Bulls - coached by the Mystic of the Midway, Phil Jackson
- are a forbidding defensive spectacle. Two words that can
See SONICS, Page 15
Dennis Rodman and his Chicago Bull teammates will host the Seattle SuperSonics
tonight at 9 p.m. In Game 1 of the NBA Finals. The Bulls swept the Orlando Magic
to reach the championship series, while Seattle went to seven games with Utah.
--- ----y 1 -40- --
Wiigs need
I am a Detroit Red Wings fan.
Now, depending on your allegiance,
the above statement will either evoke
sympathy or laughter I can understand
both at this point.
For the second
year in a row,
Detroit unceremoni-
ously exited the
NHL playoffs minus
the hardware it has
gone without for so ~
long - the Stanley r
Cup. RYAN
But if you're read- WHE
ing this column you
probably already White
* know that, and on Target
again, you're either
laughing or looking for your bottle of
Prozac.
What everyone is still debating is
"why?" Why did a team that set a
league record with 62 regular-season
wins have such trouble in the playoffs?
And it was the playoffs, not just
Colorado, that gave Detroit troubles.
Anyone who says the Avalanche
eliminated the Red Wings last week
because it was more physical and beat
up Detroit, missed the Wings' series
against St. Louis and Winnepeg.
All three teams beat the Wings up,
to do some summer tiikenig to end Cup drought
leading to a compounded fracture, so same team that was picked apart by the offs. It has been proven two years in a in there.
to speak. Devils. row. In fact, the worst thing about this lat-
A point can also be made that the The Wings just aren't put together for At the same time, though, the Wings est letdown, at least here in Michigan, is
Wings were hurt by the lack of penal- the playoffs. There isn't enough grit and don't need to completely change the this: It's baseball season, and a lot of us
ties called in the playoffs, especially for determination. record-setting lineup from this season. are Tigers fans.
obstruction. The problem is that Detroit doesn't necessarily need guys It just needs to be tweaked a little. Everybody can laugh at that.
Detroit should have expected that to that can go out and hurt the opposition, As for my fellow Detroit fans, whose - Thankfully for all of us, Ryai
happen. but it does need players willing to go drinking binges are probably just end- White did not do to himself what h<
Hockey is the only sport where the into the corners and muck it up and dig ing, it will be OK. would have liked to do to Claud
rules change when the playoffs begin for pucks. You have to figure that eventually, Lemieux. For condolences and othe
(a fact Claude Lemieux should be very The fancy drop passes look good even by accident, the Wings will end words of wisdom, he can be reached of
thankful for). What is a penalty and all, but they don't work in the play- their Cup drought. Until then, just hang e-mail at target@umich.edu.
between October and April, isn't in
May and June.
One could also look at stars such as
Sergei Federov and Keith Primeau, OPAAIAIHLARM"rf
who were missing in action for most of
the ill-fated Stanley Cup run. v UR Iilo$Y215 5. STATE ST.
But when you get to the bottom line,
none of this matters. All that anyone Z
cares about is the fact that Colorado - '4~
and Florida are playing for the champi-
onship. A CUT THE REST 0
Detroit will go down in the books as
the greatest team never to win a thing.
The only question that really matters
now is this: What's next? BREAKFAST ANYTIME - LUNCH-DINNER
For starters, Scotty Bowman needs MON.-WED THURS.-SAT.
to do something he apparently didn't SAMTO 8PM 8AMTO 10PM 8AMTO4AM
do after last year's Jersey Turnpike
Massacre - make some adjustments.
With a few exceptions, the Detroitt""0EOF0OV $0
team that lost to Colorado was the Saarpy*O P