There are some records that are meant to be broken. There are some that should never be broken.72-10 is one of those that should never be broken, if you ask me.
That was the Chicago Bulls record in the 1995-1996 regular season. That was the greatest regular season record in NBA history. That was the greatest team the NBA has ever seen.
After breaking the previously held 69-13 record of the 1971-1972 Lakers, a team that stormed to that clip with Gail Goodrich, Jerry West, Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain, (FYI Pat Riley even chipped in nearly 7 PPG that year), the Jordan and Pippen led Bulls eclipsed them April 16, 1996 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee.
That was a moment I will never forget. Please don't take that from me, Boston Celtics.
It was the first time in my life that a team I cheered for was considered the greatest team ever. The Bears of '85 technically happened in my lifetime (I was four months old), but it's debated whether that team really was the best of all time. Many point to the undefeated '72 Dolphins, or some of the 49ers teams of the past. Right now, ask most people in basketball circles, and they'll tell you the 95-96 Bulls are the team at the top of the totem pole.
So I sit and watch the Boston Celtics, off to a 22-2 start, earn their fourteenth consecutive win last night over the New Orleans Hornets. It forced me to check how the Bulls had fared through 24 games in their magical season.
22-2. Exactly the same.
The Bulls went to 23-2 the next night, besting Utah by 14 at the United Center, 100-86. Three days later, the Bulls lost in Indiana 103-97. 23-3.
That Bulls team, though, went onto win their next eighteen games. They didn't lose again until February 4, 1996 in Denver, a 105-99 defeat. The Celtics certainly have their work cut out for them. But with fourteen straight wins, and a much weaker NBA than the one the Bulls faced night in and night out, it's not out of the realm of possibility.
People always criticize the '72 Dolphins when they pop champagne each season the day the last undefeated team loses. Last year, they couldn't do it until the Super Bowl, when the Giants miraculously defeated the then 18-0 Patriots. While Bulls fans don't exactly pop champagne the day the last NBA team gets to its eleventh loss, they at least breathe a sigh of relief.
I'd be sick the day a team won it's 73rd game of the regular season in the NBA. I'd be especially sick if it was the Boston Celtics to do it, considering the successes of its teams over the last few years. Two Red Sox world series titles, three Patriots Super Bowl wins, a Celtics world championship last season, and right now, the Bruins are leading the Eastern Conference with 44 points. Enough of them already.
But I never want to see another team come close to that mark, no matter who it is. And I definitely don't want any team to eclipse that mark. Not even future Bulls teams.
Why? That Bulls team won 72 games in one of the toughest eras in the NBA. That Bulls team had the greatest player of all time in Michael Jordan, and one of the league's 5o greatest in Scottie Pippen. They didn't just have the best record in history, they etched their place in the annals of greatness in sports. They coasted to a 15-3 record in the playoffs that year. They only lost one game until they reached the NBA Finals that post season. They dominated everyone they played, even teams with future and current hall of famers on it, night in and night out.
So please, Boston Celtics, lose nine more games.
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