Some members of '96 Bulls will celebrate if Warriors lose 11 games
Members of the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls may take a page out of the 1972 Miami Dolphins' book if the Golden State Warriors fail to top their NBA record for most regular-season victories this year.
"It might be a little champagne flowing when (the Warriors) lose that 11th game," former guard Randy Brown told ESPN's Nick Friedell. "I wouldn't mind."
The Bulls went 72-10 in the '95-'96 season, going on to win their fourth NBA championship in six years. Twenty years later, the 2015-16 Warriors fell off a 73-win pace with Saturday's loss to the Detroit Pistons.
Golden State visited Chicago Wednesday, hammering the Bulls 125-94.
"I've thought a lot more this year about the 72-10 season than I have in the past because they're so close to doing it," former Bulls center Bill Wennington said. "Now they've just picked up their fourth loss ... I'd lie to you if I say I wasn't happy about it. But records and rules are made to be broken. It's going to happen one day. The longer it lasts the better it is. But they're a great team."
Of course, one of those '96 Bulls is now-Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, who has yet to make his return to the bench from offseason back surgery.
"I think Steve knows exactly what it takes and the focus that you need to have," Wennington, now the Bulls' radio analyst, said. "The second half of the season is a lot harder than the first half of the season ... in the end he's going to remind them that the record doesn't matter. It's the ring at the end that matters."
The seeds of the Bulls' juggernaut were planted in the team's loss to Shaquille O'Neal's Orlando Magic in the second round of the 1995 playoffs. The recently un-retired Michael Jordan came into the following season on a mission, his infamous competitiveness rubbing off on the entire locker room.
"I remember Michael in training camp, he said every game was going to be like a playoff game to him," Brown said. "And that's the way we approached it. We had a veteran team. We had a system in play. We had limited injuries, we were lucky with that, and I just remember we were more serious than we were from the other two title teams.
"That '95-'96 team was all business."