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Interestingly Rodman only averaged 7.7rpg those NBA Finals.
Pippen was the star with 8.3rpg.
Jordan pretty good 7.0rpg.
And the Bulls minutes were very spread, other than Jordan/Pippen nobody played more than 27 minutes per game.
Rodman only ended up playing 7 more minutes per game than Bison, incredible.
I guess these numbers are a little surprising because I wasn't using the internet in 1997, so I just watched the games and didn't see stats other than what the tv showed.
Interestingly Rodman only averaged 7.7rpg those NBA Finals.
Pippen was the star with 8.3rpg.
Jordan pretty good 7.0rpg.
And the Bulls minutes were very spread, other than Jordan/Pippen nobody played more than 27 minutes per game.
Rodman only ended up playing 7 more minutes per game than Bison, incredible.
I guess these numbers are a little surprising because I wasn't using the internet in 1997, so I just watched the games and didn't see stats other than what the tv showed.
The totals are a bit misleading because the Bulls rolled through everyone to the finals.
When they got to the finals they had 3 bigs to try to slow down Malone and that was Longley-Rodman-Dele.
They had to worry about defending Malone (who was beasting on them), boxing him out and not chase down every loose rebound etc.
On top of that they had foul trouble.
Arguably, Dele may have been the difference in the finals that year because the series was incredibly close and the Bulls were painfully thin at the 4-5 slots.
I mean, whatcha going to do? Give Kukoc minutes defending Karl Malone? LOL
You're right, I didn't do a good job of fully explaining my point but I feel the totals can still misleading in some places.
I think that going through individual box scores when discussing a limited pool of games against widely variable competition levels tells a more complete story.
ie) Rodman fouling out against Malone and only playing 25 minutes is a totally different animal from the Bulls blowing out some first round team or playing a team with less paint talent and shifting minutes.
Also with 6 being the subset of 19 playoff games, that means Bison played about 4 minutes less per game in the 13 games prior to the finals...or about a 25% increase in minutes.
Yes, Bison Dele's 9 games he played for the Bulls was the stuff of legend.
Also Robert Parish was big time.
Why didn't you guys just say Brian Williams? I had to look up "Bison Dele," thinking that somehow a player on one of the most famous teams of all time slipped under my radar, only to find out you guys were talking about regular ol' Brian Williams. Guys like Chris Jackson, Lew Alcindor, Lloyd Bernard Free and Cassius Clay get to be called by their chosen names. Brian Williams does not.
Why didn't you guys just say Brian Williams? I had to look up "Bison Dele," thinking that somehow a player on one of the most famous teams of all time slipped under my radar, only to find out you guys were talking about regular ol' Brian Williams. Guys like Chris Jackson, Lew Alcindor, Lloyd Bernard Free and Cassius Clay get to be called by their chosen names. Brian Williams does not.
Well his brother Murdered him along with two other people so he’s not going to argue with ya.
Why didn't you guys just say Brian Williams? I had to look up "Bison Dele," thinking that somehow a player on one of the most famous teams of all time slipped under my radar, only to find out you guys were talking about regular ol' Brian Williams. Guys like Chris Jackson, Lew Alcindor, Lloyd Bernard Free and Cassius Clay get to be called by their chosen names. Brian Williams does not.
lol - kinda like calling Ron Artest “Metta World Peace”...no he’s Ron Artest.
Why didn't you guys just say Brian Williams? I had to look up "Bison Dele," thinking that somehow a player on one of the most famous teams of all time slipped under my radar, only to find out you guys were talking about regular ol' Brian Williams. Guys like Chris Jackson, Lew Alcindor, Lloyd Bernard Free and Cassius Clay get to be called by their chosen names. Brian Williams does not.
I see it both ways. It seems reasonable to refer to the guy by the name as he was known at the time-supporting your view. Lew Alcindor played for UCLA, Jabbar did not. Ron Artest played for the Pacers. No guy who goes into the stands to punch out a spectator can go by the name "Peace".
Certainly Bison would have liked to be remembered by his new name, so it's honorable to refer to him that way.
As I hazily recall, his performance as an active big man was important-arguably crucial- for the Bulls that year.
Why didn't you guys just say Brian Williams? I had to look up "Bison Dele," thinking that somehow a player on one of the most famous teams of all time slipped under my radar, only to find out you guys were talking about regular ol' Brian Williams. Guys like Chris Jackson, Lew Alcindor, Lloyd Bernard Free and Cassius Clay get to be called by their chosen names. Brian Williams does not.
I was honestly so confused reading this. I thought I was in some new Berenstein/Berenstain bear type of situation.
I think no question that the Bulls were better off with Pippen than with a star center. The Bulls, much like today's Warriors, were a deliberately and very well-structured team by GM Jerry Krause.
Jordan and Pippen handled the ball and provided most of the offensive firepower. The point guards (Paxson, Armstrong, Hodges, Kerr) were not really point guards, but were there to take kick-out passes for 3 pointers. The bigs were there to bang and to absorb fouls. They also like bigs to be able to hit the 12 foot jumper when the opportunity was there. Bigs I remember during the six title run: Bill Cartwright, Will Perdue, Joe Klein, Scott Wiliams, Bison, and Longley.
One reason the Bulls were so good for so long was that Krause could just plug new guys into the team and not miss a beat. They used Craig Hodges and Cartwright as pg at the start of the run, and Kerr & Longley at the end of the run.
I'm not sure this same structure would work today because of the stress on 3 pt. shooting.
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LOL
