(With this column Ted Cox returns to the Sports Section. Three and a half years ago, Cox was forced to curtail his free-lance writing, and his close friend Alan Boomer took up the column in his stead. Cox now finds himself in a new situation, and Boomer has graciously agreed to step aside. Both trust that the transition will be smooth and uneventful.)
When Jackson stepped in, in 1989, the Bulls had just taken the Detroit Pistons to the Eastern Conference finals the previous season. When he won his first championship, at the end of the 1990-’91 season, the Bulls were then expected to repeat. Two championships after that, this time a year ago, the Bulls lost Michael Jordan, but they were still the defending champs; what’s more, Jackson and the rest of Jordan’s “supporting cast” were under the pressure of proving once and for all how good they really were without Jordan.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Yet none of this addressed the issue of how Pippen felt about returning to a team that seemed to want no part of him most of the summer. And there were doubts about how strained relations really were between Pippen and Jackson. Media day–an evening designed for puff pieces and for reporters to renew old acquaintances, both with each other and with the players–was most newsworthy in the way Pippen and Jackson reestablished their working relationship.
This season the Bulls’ hopes that they can make a smooth transition back to the top are based in large part on new rules supposed to open up the game. The three-point line has been made a consistent 22 feet around the basket–supposedly drawing the big men out to guard against it–and there are new rules on hand checking and defensive shifting. Rules changes in the NBA, however, are no more precise in their effect than rules changes in the National Football League, and shortening the three-point distance could actually have the opposite effect, causing guards to fire away from the outside as big men clog the lane for rebounds. It’s wait and see.
