The Bulls opened the 1994 season by saying goodbye to their home of 27 years Chicago Stadium and moving into their current home (as of June 2007) the United Center.
In 1994, the Bulls lost Horace Grant and Scott Williams to free agency and Bill Cartwright and John Paxson to retirement, but picked up shooting guard Ron Harper, the seeming heir-apparent to Michael Jordan in Assistant Coach Tex Winter's triple-post offense, and small-forward Jud Buechler. The Bulls sported the look of Armstrong and Harper in the backcourt, Pippen and Kukoc at the forward spots, and Perdue at center. They also had sharpshooter Steve Kerr, whom they acquired via free agency before the 1993-94 season, Myers, and centers Luc Longley (acquired via trade in 1994 from Minnesota Timberwolves) and Bill Wennington. However, they were slumping during the season, when on March 17, 1995, they received the best possible news: Michael Jordan was coming out of retirement. He was soon among the best in the league again, scoring 55 points against the Knicks in only his fifth game back, and led the Bulls to the fifth seed in the playoffs, where they upset the Charlotte Hornets. However, Jordan was too rusty, and the Bulls were unable to overcome the eventual Eastern Conference champion Orlando Magic, which included Horace Grant, Anfernee Hardaway, and Shaquille O'Neal. When Jordan returned to the Bulls, he initially wore No. 45 (which was his number while playing for the Birmingham Barons, a minor-league affiliate of the Chicago White Sox). He chose the No. 45 because his older brother Larry wore that number in high school. Michael wanted to be half as good as his brother so he chose 23 which is half of 45 (22.5) rounded up. This was because during his first retirement, his jersey had been retired. However, Jordan switched back to the familiar 23 before game 2 of the Orlando Magic series. (There is also a rumor that his 23 jersey had been stolen before Game 1.)
In the offseason, the Bulls lost B.J. Armstrong in the expansion draft, but Krause pulled off a masterful deal by trading Will Perdue to the San Antonio Spurs for the aggressive and often controversial rebounding specialist Dennis Rodman, who had won the past four rebounding titles, and who had also been a member of the Detroit Pistons' "Bad Boys" squad that served as the Bulls' chief nemesis in the late 1980s.
With a lineup of Harper, Jordan, Pippen, Rodman and Longley, and perhaps the league's best bench in Kerr, Kukoc, Wennington, Buechler, and guard Randy Brown the Bulls posted one of the best single-season improvements in league history and the best single-season record, moving from 47-35 to 72-10,[1] which remains the best record in NBA history. Jordan won his eighth scoring title, and Rodman his fifth straight rebounding title, while Kerr finished second in the league in three-point shooting percentage. Jordan garnered the elusive triple crown with the regular season MVP, All-star Game MVP, and Finals MVP. Krause was named Executive of the Year, Jackson Coach of the Year, and Kukoc was the Sixth Man of the Year. Both Pippen and Jordan made the All-NBA First Team, and Jordan, Pippen, and Rodman made the All-Defensive First Team, making the Bulls the only team in history with three players on the All-Defensive First Team.
In addition, the 1995-96 squad holds several other records, including the best road record in a standard 41-road-game season (33-8), the all-time best start by a team (41-3), the longest home winning streak (44 games, 7 from previous season), the best start at home (37-0). The Bulls also posted the second-best home record in history (39-2), behind only the 1985-86 Celtics 40-1 home mark, and the 2nd best point differential in history, trailing the 1972 Lakers by 3 points over the course of an entire season. However, the significantly lower scoring by the Bulls and their opponents makes the Bulls' margin of victory more impressive. The team triumphed over Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp and the Seattle SuperSonics for their fourth title. The 1995-96 Chicago Bulls are widely regarded as the greatest team in the history of basketball.[citation needed]
In the 1996-97 season, the Bulls narrowly missed out on a second consecutive 70 win season by losing their final two games to finish 69-13, and repeated their home dominance going 39-2 at the United Center.[2] The Bulls capped the season by winning their fifth NBA championship over John Stockton, Karl Malone and the Utah Jazz. Jordan earned his second straight and ninth career scoring title, while Rodman earned his sixth straight rebounding title. Jordan and Pippen, along with Robert Parish, were also honored as members of the 50 greatest players of all-time with the NBA celebrating its 50th season. Parish, whose single season with the Bulls would be his last year in the league, was nominated for his stellar career with the Boston Celtics.
The Bulls achieved the "repeat three-peat" by winning 62 regular season games and the 1998 NBA Finals. Jordan bagged his third straight scoring title and tenth overall, and his second triple crown with his fifth MVP award, third all-star game MVP, and sixth Finals MVP award. Rodman earned his record seventh straight rebounding title, as the Bulls upended the Jazz for the second straight year. In the sixth and final game of the championship series, Jordan stepped back and buried a controversial game winning jump shot over Utah Jazz forward Bryon Russell with five seconds left on the clock - his final shot as a Chicago Bull
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