NBA: Will There Be a Chicago Bulls, L.A. Lakers Finals Rematch 20 Years Later?
On the year that the Chicago Bulls are celebrating the 20th anniversary of their first NBA championship where, led by Phil Jackson and Michael Jordan, they downed the Los Angeles Lakers, 4-1 in the best-of-seven game series, the stars are once again aligning for a possible rematch two decades later with Jackson on the opposing side.
Long gone are Magic Johnson, James Worthy, Scottie Pippen, Michael Jordan and the rest of the two teams' squads that played in the 1991 series. They are replaced with Kobe Bryant-led Los Angeles Lakers and the Derrick Rose-led Chicago Bulls.
As it stands the Chicago Bulls are the No. 1 seed in the East and will have home-court advantage throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs where they are 32-5 at the United Center this year.
The Lakers currently hold the second place spot out west, but are the league's hottest team, going 16-1 since the All-Star break and have their sights on the ailing San Antonio Spurs, who hold a 2.5-game lead on the Lakers, but have lost five straight games.
Derrick Rose and Kobe Bryant are both having MVP-worthy seasons just as Magic and Jordan were in '91. Though most media members have given the nod to Rose due to him being able to keep the Bulls on a winning track through all the injuries that his two main supporting members, Joakim Noah and Carlos Boozer have faced this year.
The regular season could end having the Lakers and Bulls having the exact same record—they currently do at this time, both sporting 54-20 records.
Past history has shown that once playoff time approaches, the Lakers have the ability to seemingly switch on their intensity and come beat anyone despite how they may have looked early on in the season.
The Bulls are also being questioned if they have enough playoff experience to make a run for the finals. I feel even though they were bounced in the first round two years running, that alone should drive them into the finals, not wanting to suffer another early exit, especially in a year with so much hype surrounding them.
Having the rematch of one of the most memorable finals in the last 20 years would do wonders for the NBA. They would be able to tie in highlights of Magic vs Jordan throughout the finals, which created a changing of the guard from showtime to Bulls time back in the '90s.
The same scenario would also be present in a Bulls vs. Lakers series this year having the current Lakers led by Kobe Bryant, the best player post-Jordan era up against Derrick Rose, the best thing to happen to Chicago since MJ led the Bulls to their first of many championships against the Lakers.
With the Bulls poised to start another multiple championship run, beginning with the Lakers, that could last far into the 2010s, history definitely has a timely way of repeating itself.
