‘Sitting’ Bulls Poised for One More Title Run

They spent the summer as the Sitting Bulls.

Everyone else went out and spent megamillions trying to catch up with the NBA champions. The Lakers got Shaquille O’Neal, the Rockets got Charles Barkley, the Knicks got Larry Johnson, the Sonics got--well, the Sonics got Jim McIlvaine. But more on that later.

The Bulls, meanwhile, basically sat still and set themselves up for one more year of greatness by giving one-year contracts to Michael Jordan, Dennis Rodman and coach Phil Jackson.

The team that won an NBA record 72 games last season will look almost exactly the same when the season opens Friday and the league celebrates its 50th anniversary. But after this year, the Bulls as we’ve known them may cease to exist.

“Personally, I’m just here to do one more year with this team. It’ll be as enjoyable and creative, hopefully, as last year was,” said Jackson, who realizes the salary structure of the NBA has gone berserk, even for coaches.

He will be a free agent next summer, as will Jordan after his $30 million, one-year deal expires, as will Rodman after his $9 million, one-year deal is done.

“We understand the process of what’s going on in the game. All the players are attuned to it,” Jackson said. “I don’t think anybody in their right mind in the NBA these days really thinks in terms of multiple years or long durations. It’s basically what have you done for me lately and what can you do for me this year that matters.”

With that in mind, Jackson opened training camp this fall by setting a challenge: To somehow duplicate the season they had year, even though they won’t necessarily match or surpass the standard of success they set with their record-setting victory total.

“At the team meeting to start off the exhibition season, we talked a bit about how we have the capability and opportunity to do this--and that we have to make the most of it,” he said. “The players all responded with acknowledgement of that being the focus.”

It won’t be easy, especially if the Bulls start the season strong and get people talking about 72--or 73--victories.

“Everybody will be shooting for them again, and it only gets tougher for someone on top of the world,” Washington Bullets coach Jim Lynam said.

“If you had asked me last year if they could have won 70 games, I’d have asked you what league you’re covering. But they were up to the task last year, and they’re certainly the team to beat.”

Lynam’s team was one of several that made dramatic moves this summer to try to improve.

The Bullets acquired Rod Strickland and Harvey Grant from the Trail Blazers, signed free agent shooting guard Tracy Murray and re-signed Juwan Howard to a $101 million, seven-year contract after the NBA voided Howard’s earlier free agent deal with the Miami Heat.

With Chris Webber and Gheorghe Muresan around, the Bullets figure to be the most improved team in the Eastern Conference--if everyone stays healthy. Muresan has been sidelined by nagging injuries over the first three weeks of training camp.

The New York Knicks have added Johnson, Allan Houston, Buck Williams and Chris Childs, and the Orlando Magic, despite losing Shaq, still have Penny Hardaway, Nick Anderson, Horace Grant and Dennis Scott, who will be happy to divide up the 20 shots O’Neal used to take.

Before re-signing Reggie Miller, the Indiana Pacers also retooled some parts, replacing point guard Mark Jackson with Jalen Rose and Travis Best and adding Reggie Williams to the mix.

In the Western Conference, the SuperSonics demonstrated just how crazy the free-agent frenzy had become when they gave McIlvaine, a 24-year-old center whose career average as a backup is 2.1 points and 2.5 rebounds, a $32 million, seven-year contract.

Add Gary Payton’s $84 million, seven-year deal, and it’s no wonder Shawn Kemp--the best player on the team--was left feeling vastly underpaid at $3 million this season. To make his point, Kemp held out for the first three weeks of training camp.

Seattle, which quietly won 64 games last year and then buried its reputation for stinking up the playoffs, still appears to be the team to beat in the West--even with a discontented Kemp.

The Sonics’ strongest challenge should come from the Lakers, Rockets and Jazz.

Los Angeles signed O’Neal for $120 million to begin a new era that should finally make people stop longing for the days of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson. The Lakers won 53 games last season but self-destructed toward the end after Johnson came out of retirement and threw himself into an already volatile mix of young players.

Houston gave up several components of its 1994 and ’95 championship teams when it sent Robert Horry, Sam Cassell, Chucky Brown and Mark Bryant to the Phoenix Suns for Barkley.

Coming off one of the best years of his career, Barkley will team with Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler to form a trio of All-Stars that should match up with any other team’s three best players.

Only Karl Malone’s two missed foul shots in Game 7 of the conference finals kept the Jazz from making the NBA Finals.

If Utah can pull off a trade for a legitimate center, or if Greg Ostertag is as ready as Jerry Sloan thinks he is, the Jazz have a fair shot at duplicating--or bettering--last season’s success.

Malone and Jeff Hornacek are 33 and teammate John Stockton will be 35, but the rest of the NBA is younger than ever.

A pair of 18-year-olds will play in the Pacific Division straight out of high school--Kobe Bryant with the Lakers and Jermaine O’Neal with Portland.

Shareef Abdur-Rahim, a 19-year-old who left Cal after his freshman season, will play for Vancouver. Stephon Marbury, 19, who left Georgia Tech after one year, will play the point for Minnesota. And Kevin Garnett, 20, and Joe Smith, 21, will be veterans.

From time to time, their paths will cross with the Bulls.

They’ll play against Jordan, 33; Rodman, 35; Ron Harper, 32; and 43-year-old Robert Parish, who opted to put off retirement for a while longer in pursuit of another championship ring.

It’ll be old vs. new. And just like last year, Chicago should get the best of everybody. But it will probably be the last time we see the same Bulls together.