Ranking the Chicago Bulls' 6 NBA championship wins

The 2nd Chicago Bulls three-peat

After Michael Jordan returned to the NBA, and after some struggles to get it all back to NBA championship form, the Chicago Bulls' winning continued at the highest level, as the Chicago Bulls completed their second three-peat of the decade. Who'd they beat?

#3 1997 - Chicago Bulls defeat the Utah Jazz pick and roll

The flu game turned out to be the food poisoning game

The Chicago Bulls in 1997 had to fly past the Utah Jazz to claim their 5th NBA title of the decade. As we learned in the excellent documentary, The Last Dance, the classic Flu Game was really the Food Poisoning Game. The Chicago Bulls used stifling defense vs. the efficient Utah Jazz to essentially shut them down offensively. Both teams averaged 87 points for the series, and as we saw, this NBA Finals and the next, it was an attention and expectation of stellar defense that won it all for the Chicago Bulls.

#2 1996 - Chicago Bulls defeat Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp and the Seattle Supersonics

Despite a worthy challenge from defensive juggernaut Gary Payton, Michael Jordan and the Bulls found victory again

In June 1996, the intimidating duo of Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp - led by Seattle Supersonics coach George Karl - were formidable opponents for the Chicago Bulls. Though the Chicago Bulls were victorious in their usual NBA Finals 6 games, the Seattle Supersonics seemed like they were fighting for a Supersonics legacy continuum. It was a scrappy series -- evident in the personality of Supersonics guard and current Atlanta Hawks head coach Nate McMillan. Michael Jordan had his hands full, especially with him and Hall of Fame guard Gary Payton.

This was the 72-10 Chicago Bulls contingent that had to finish what they started, yet The Glove, Gary Payton was not impressed. What Gary Payton told me in a radio interview about his classic matchup with Michael Jordan in 1996:

"I had so much confidence in my post-up game that I felt I could post up anybody and be effective. I wasn't fearful of nobody, and just because it was Michael Jordan - we were all making 1st team All NBA defense. I had to prove I could score on him. Guys like Michael Jordan, Stephen Curry and Kobe Bryant, when they go at you, you have to go back at them. You had to make them make the play on you defensively. I felt like no one in the league could do it like me: shut down a player offensively and go down the floor and score on them. With MJ, I had to put pressure on him defensively to make him work. If I don't, then I'm no factor for my team. Michael Jordan takes things very personally. Once he saw me posting up his teammates at will and scoring on them, he said to his team, "I got him! I got him!" Then things got interesting and I knew it would be a battle. I got into a rhythm. We were calling each other all kinds of expletives. As you see in the famous pic of us, neither of us were going to back down."

#1 1998 - Chicago Bulls defeat Karl Malone, John Stockton and the Utah Jazz on The Shot

The Last Shot is as iconic an NBA shot as any in history

At this point, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman could not be defeated. Even when it seemed like they were threatened, the Chicago Bulls found some way of pulling out games definitively. The 1998 NBA Finals was a repeat of 1997 - where the Chicago Bulls also dispatched the Utah Jazz. The iconic shot to end Game 6 is what most will remember, yet the hardcore relentlessness of Karl Malone, John Stockton, the Utah Jazz and their erstwhile head coach, Jerry Sloan, made the storybook ending just that more compelling. Jordan led the series in scoring with 33.5 points a game, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman were their usual defensive stalwarts and Phil Jackson's neutralization of the vaunted Utah Jazz pick and roll with Hall of Famers John Stockton and Karl Malone was more the story.