Bulls Are a Great Show, but Greatest Ever? Not Likely

The Chicago Bulls are not the greatest team in baskeball history.

With the Bulls looming on the horizon for the Knickerbockers, we’ve been hearing and reading that they are, haven’t we? I’m not givin’ it.

If history began around 1990 there’d be no argument. But then history goes back so far that at training camp last summer, Atlanta Hawks General Manager Pete Babcock had his players watch films of yesteryear. I went back to the original cast for research.

The Bulls are greatest? Is that because they set the record by winning 72 games this season? The Los Angeles Lakers who set the record of 69? The Philadelphia 76ers who won 68 in ‘67? The Knicks who won two championships under Red Holzman? Almost any of the Celtics who won 11 championships in 13 seasons? How about the Minneapolis Lakers?

Holzman’s title with the Knickerbockers is “basketball consultant.” So I consulted him. I’ve known him since I was 14 and renting chairs and umbrellas on the beach. His mind covers all of NBA history, although he lies that he has forgotten some of it.

And I consulted Al Attles, who has a 36-year unbroken line with the Warriors and a taste for the argument. “If you don’t like to argue, don’t get into it,” he said.

Holzman, the ultimate diplomat, insists on saying “one of the greatest . . . “ He says he’d say the same thing if the people paying him consulted him. But the thought emerges: “Any team that had Russell was . . . “

Attles related to growing up in Newark. There was no question to him that Duke Snider was better than Willie Mays or Mickey Mantle. That’s all there was to it. “We tend to make things better in our memory or denigrate the past,” Attles said. “Depends on your point of view.”

Then he said he thought Wilt Chamberlain was the greatest player ever. He was Wilt’s teammate.

Begin the argument with expansion. There are 29 teams today. There were eight and nine teams in the league the Celtics dominated. There was no such thing as an expansion team, let alone 20 of them to pad a schedule. The Celtics played the best teams a dozen times a season; how could they win 72 games?

And there were only 16 baseball teams and 12 football teams sharing the well of athletes.

What would the home-run record mean in baseball if a dozen players break it in a season when there are so few pitchers who can get anybody out? This is not an argument of yesterday against today, it’s a case of devaluating currency.

Of course, today’s players are better athletes. All athletes are better. So compare them to their times, and project a little. Count the number of likely Hall of Fame players on the Bulls. Compare that to the ‘62-’63 Celtics who won 58 games with KC Jones, Sam Jones, Bob Cousy, Frank Ramsey, Tom Heinsohn, John Havlicek--all in the Hall--backed up by Clyde Lovellette--also in the Hall--Tom Sanders and Jim Loscutoff.

Did you know that Oscar Robertson in 1962 averaged a triple-double for a whole season? What would Dolph Schayes have done with the three-point shot? Today’s players don’t know about Jerry West and Cousy. “If they played against them, they’d know,” Holzman said.

“Modern players don’t realize how good Russell was,” Attles said. “Maybe he couldn’t do all he did against Shaq or Hakeem, but what about the concept of what he was doing? The modern player wants to win, no question--but some of them want to win the way they want to win. They want to be out front. Martin Luther King called it the ‘drum major instinct.’ ”

Fundamentals are largely in the mind of the best players. Cousy showed how to pass off the dribble and a generation followed. Elgin Baylor introduced things other players tried to copy. “Players are trying things they can do once in 10 tries,” Attles said. “Their athleticism allows them to short stop fundamentals.”

The game has evolved; at least it has changed. “Size is better and shooting is better; the other guys had a better grasp of the game at that time,” Holzman said. “Russell changed the game with defense and shot-blocking. Nobody could do it like him--ever. He didn’t just block a shot; he sent it to somebody on his team.”

Attles, Warriors’ assistant general manager, said there was a higher premium on defense then. “I know you didn’t get all those easy layups you do now,” he said.

Chamberlain said they wouldn’t get those baskets in the lane they do today. His ego was in proportion. “If he says it, I tend to believe him a little bit,” Holzman said.

“Players today say they would have got the dunks because there’s greater athleticism today,” Attles said. “Russ and Wilt wouldn’t let you get through. Absolutely not!”

Now about the Celtics. Attles tells about a teammate coming off the court after his layup was blocked by Russell and saying that Russ had cackled, in his way: ‘I haven’t seen a layup in ten years.’ ”

His rebound and his block ignited the Celtics’ fast break. He passed out to Cousy. “Assists are cheap today,” Attles said. “Is it an assist when you see a pass to a fake and two or three dribbles?”

He cited two basic rules he liked for his teams:

One was that if the big man got a rebound and hustled downcourt and got open, get him the ball; it encourages him to do it again. Cousy’s eyes were open for that. The other rule was that if they could make the big man dribble two or three times, he’d lose it. Russell used to say, Cousy never gave him the ball when there wasn’t something he could do with it. “Russ was saying, all he had to do was put it in the basket,” Attles said.

Russell and Cousy made people around them better. Russell enabled them to run and play defense with impunity. West and Chamberlain made people around them better. Jordan and Pippen make other Bulls better; they enable Rodman to be a value with the most one-dimensional game; they enable Luc Longley to be an NBA center. Give the other Bulls credit for doing what a very smart coach tells them to do.

Could Longley have matched up with Chamberlain? Could he have matched up with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Could Jordan-Pippen-Rodman match up against Magic, Abdul-Jabbar, Byron Scott and Worthy? Could the Chicago Three match with Chamberlain, West, Gail Goodric and Jim McMillian?

Could the Chicago Three match with Jones and Jones, Heinsohn, Havlicek, Sanders, Willie Naulls, Larry Siegfied and John Thompson playing 10.5 minutes a game behind Russell?

The Bulls are great for their era. They beat everybody who comes to play. This is not an absolute; there is no scale for comparison. This is not an art form; this is rap, and rock and roll. It’s entertainment. The Bulls are a good show.

Give them credit, but pass me the beans.