The NBA has seen quite a lot of great teams during its 67 years of existence. Teams like the Bill Russell led Boston Celtics that won 11 NBA championships, the Showtime Lakers of the 80’s, the 1983 Philadelphia 76ers, and even the Boston Celtics of the 80’s. However none of these great teams will ever come close to the 1996 Chicago Bulls, the only team in NBA history to amass 70 wins in a season. No other team has ever won 70 games ever since the Bulls did it all those years ago.
Fresh off a disappointing loss in the Eastern Conference Finals against a young Orlando Magic team, the Bulls were determined to set things right and with Michael Jordan returning in his first full season since his retirement, they were set to take the league by storm. The Bulls also decided to add one of the most important pieces of their championship puzzle in 1996 by acquiring forward Dennis Rodman in a trade.
Rodman was no stranger to Jordan and the Bulls as he used to torment them back when he was with the Detroit Pistons. With Rodman, the Bulls finally had a defensive anchor and a pure rebounding machine inside the paint. By the time the 1996 season began, the Bulls immediately sent a message to the entire league by becoming the fastest team in NBA history to reach the 41 win mark. They also set an NBA record by amassing 33 wins on the road and falling just one game shy of breaking the Boston Celtics record for best home record in history.
Many fans and analysts highly regard the 1996 Chicago Bulls as the greatest team in the history of the NBA and one of the greatest in all of professional sports. With the number of accomplishments that they had that season, it would be hard to argue with them. During that year, the Bulls had 3 players in the All NBA 1st Defensive team (Jordan, Pippen, Rodman), the league MVP (Jordan), the Coach of the Year (Phil Jackson), and set several NBA records along the way. And not to mention that Dennis Rodman won the rebounding title that year as well.
This historic Bulls team would cap off their nearly flawless season by winning the NBA Championship in six games against the Seattle Supersonics and forever cemented their status in the annals of sports history.