Time goes back to early June 1997, the Finals, Chicago Bulls against Utah Jazz.
The Bulls were obsessed with facing the Portland Trail Blazers in the Finals to avenge past humiliations; Michael Jordan wanted a "real championship," one that must be achieved over the corpse of Gan Guoyang.
From Phil Jackson to Jordan, from Scottie Pippen to Dennis Rodman, each of them longed to defeat the Trail Blazers and Ah Gan to be crowned; it would be the sweetest championship.
This year's Chicago Bulls were stronger than in 1996; Jordan played in all 82 regular season games, and despite Pippen and Rodman missing more than 20 games, the Bulls secured 70 wins.
Consecutive 70-win regular seasons, something no other team has achieved.
Although regular-season performance only grants home-court advantage in the playoffs, reaching a certain level of regular-season success indicates that a team's strength has reached a place where entering the playoffs with intensity isn't enough to threaten them.
