Bulls Go for the Pin

It’s the best of times, it’s the worst of times. Happiness is a Chicago Bulls fan, with another title in sight and even the prodigal Dennis Rodman back from his latest shameless escapade to deliver a final insult to the reeling Utah Jazz.

Of course, not quite everyone around here is ecstatic . . .

From the desk of Jerry Reinsdorf

To: Jerry Krause, General Manager, Chicago Bulls

Re: Our rebuilding project

Dear Jerry:

What happened?

When we started the season 8-7, you said you saw it coming long ago. When Scottie Pippen sat out until January while vowing never to play here again, you said we were looking good. When you gave Jason Caffey away for some guy we cut, you said it was part of the master plan.

When the Jazz overhauled us to secure home-court advantage and beat us in Game 1, you said everything was right on track.

We just finished beating them to go up, 3-1. My face is numb from pretending to smile for 2 1/2 hours. By tomorrow, we’ll have school children marching around this place with picket signs, calling for our heads.

OK, Nostradamus, what do I do now?

Indignantly, J.R.

P.S. Have you ever thought of a return to baseball?

P.P.S. As a batboy?

Haven’t we seen this somewhere before? Oh yeah, all through the ‘90s.

Unless things change in a hurry, the Bulls will dispose of another finalist with a minimum of inconvenience. They may have been tired, they are certainly old, but they’re still the best. Nobody knows where they’ll be next season, but Friday, they’ll be here, with a chance to close out the finals and every intention of doing so.

“Tonight was like an appetizer,” Michael Jordan said. “Friday could be the entree.”

Unless things change in a hurry, the Bulls are more superior to the Jazz now, at their advanced ages, than they were a year ago. Scottie Pippen played on a sore ankle last spring. This year, he’s healthy and on top of his game--he had 28 points Wednesday--not to mention, as he constantly notes, on a salary drive.

As Pippen said when a Chicago writer noted sentimentally how good he was looking in that Bull uniform:

“No, it’s not. It just looks that way.”

Not that Chicago wasn’t getting its money’s worth while the dynasty was intact.

The two-day layoff was filled with the usual local favorites, including plans for the victory celebration (Monday morning at Grant Park) and the usual statement about quelling the annual riot (“They’ve got their agenda,” Police Superintendent Terry Hillard said of party animals, “but we’re going to be waiting for them.”)

The local TV stations jumped back into their All-Bulls-All-The-Time Format. Flash! Russia returns to Communism and the stock market collapses, but in the big news, the Bulls face the Jazz Wednesday in game 4!

Within one hour--really--the CBS outlet broadcast the plans for the celebration’s police staffing bulletins in the event of wins Wednesday and Friday (9,000 Chicago police, 270 Illinois State Troopers, etc.); Benny the Bull’s visit to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where the mascot was greeted like a conquering hero by traders who exchanged high fives with him in the pits; Gov. Jim Edgar, recovering from chest pains in a Springfield hospital (a spokesman said he watched the Bulls win Game 3 and found it “very therapeutic”); and a sports psychologist, warning the Bulls against overconfidence and advising the Jazz players to keep to their hotel rooms.

The Jazz had its own approach, which was more prosaic--they stuck to their usual routine as if this was only a game, hoping only to nullify that trick Phil Jackson had devised, finding a soft defensive assignment for Pippen, so he could roam and mess up their offense.

Instead of one of his non-scoring centers, Coach Jerry Sloan started Adam Keefe in Game 4. Didn’t work.

Sloan tried jumping up and down on the sideline and protesting that Pippen was playing an illegal zone. Didn’t work.

The swiss-watch Jazz offense looked like a car had run over it. The Bulls kept hounding them; once John Stockton got caught in the air at the basket and tried to put so much spin on a desperate layup, he wound up throwing the ball over the backboard.

After scoring 54 points Sunday, the Jazz managed 82 Wednesday. Still wasn’t quite enough.

“Well, he was sensational,” Sloan said of Pippen. “We have a very difficult job trying to guard him. Defensively, he puts tremendous pressure on you.

“We have to be perfect almost. We don’t have guys who will overpower you . . . We really have to be precise with our execution and we weren’t quite there.”

The Jazz isn’t quite gone, but it’s close. Of course, if the Bulls win Friday, no one will remember the Jazz is even around, for all the tears and the pleas.

In the interview room late Wednesday night, someone mentioned to Jordan the world was waiting anxiously to hear his plans.

“Well,” he said, “the world is going to basically have to wait and see what happens.”

By the looks of it, not much longer.