Dude that shit was terrible. I was there. Bulls were getting their asses kicked by double digits, and the offense looked like shit. This is when people realized how good pippen was and the true general of the team, and begging for his return. The bulls were scoring
just 87 points a game, last place in scoring.


9-7 from a team that went 72-10 2 years prior and how they were getting their asses locked. That’s was unacceptable from the bulls at the time. Just like shit is unacceptable from the lakers in this day and age.

If you were there in Chicago or from Chicago, then you would have an understanding of the constant expectations of that team. The team was already being written off ...that’s how bad it was, and the purpose of the documentary to showcase that.


“. Chicago Bulls coach Phil Jackson has been around the NBA long
enough to be able to identify a crumbling dynasty. The telltale
signs include an aging roster, a sudden inability to win on the
road, nagging injuries to key players and a general malaise.
"When it goes, it goes quickly," says Jackson, who experienced
such a decline as a member of the New York Knicks, who won a
championship in 1973 but couldn't make the playoffs three
seasons later.

Are Jackson's Bulls on a similar downward spiral? After losses
on consecutive nights last week, 101-80 in Cleveland to the
Cavaliers and 90-83 at the United Center to the Washington
Wizards, the defending champions were mired in mediocrity with a
4-4 record (0-3 on the road). After those two defeats, Chicago,
which tied with the Utah Jazz for the NBA lead in scoring last
season with an average of 103.1 points, was producing 87.5
points a game, last in the NBA, and had not broken 100 in any
game. Perhaps more ominous, the five-time-champion Bulls' aura
of invincibility had evaporated. Losing to the Cavaliers by 21
points? Could a squad that still included Michael Jordan have
deteriorated into just another team?

The answer may have come, in part, last Friday and Saturday in
Bulls' wins at the United Center over the Charlotte Hornets,
105-92, and the Cavaliers, 79-70. In those victories Jordan
exhibited some of his trademark swagger, dunking and shooting
and playing defense with an exclamation point. Crisis
averted--for the moment, anyway.

Still, the Bulls' worries for the long term lingered. Although
Jackson conceded that Chicago had reached "its lowest ebb in
three years" last week, he reserved final judgment until
seven-time All-Star Scottie Pippen, who underwent surgery on
Oct. 6 to repair a soft tissue injury to his left foot, sees his
first action of 1997-98, probably in mid-December. "I'm not
going to beat these guys up over losing games we would have won
with Scottie," Jackson said last Friday.



ORIGINAL LAYOUT
Pippen's absence, however, has shown how vital a cog he is in
the Bulls' machine. While Pippen has long been recognized as one
of the game's top players, his accolades customarily have come
with an addendum: He couldn't have done it without Jordan. What
hadn't occurred to many observers was that perhaps Jordan
couldn't have done it without Pippen.

Pippen is central to the delicate balance of Chicago's triangle
offense. He's the primary ball handler and an unselfish
distributor who often passes up his own scoring opportunity to
create a better one for a teammate. Moreover, as a perimeter
threat, he makes opponents pay for double-teaming Jordan.