NBA Playoffs: Chicago Bulls Have History on Their Side En Route to NBA Finals
It has been argued that the Chicago Bulls are a one-man wrecking crew, lead by point guard and league MVP Derrick Rose.
With the elimination of the Boston Celtics, San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Lakers, many fans and analysts believe that the NBA title was the Miami Heat's for the taking.
History, however, favors the Chicago Bulls, not the Miami Heat, Dallas Mavericks or Oklahoma City Thunder.
Although the league has been recently dominated by small-ball players like Derrick Rose, Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, Kevin Durant and Kobe Bryant, it is the big men who win NBA titles.
In the past 30 years, there have been 30 NBA Titles won by only eight teams. The Los Angeles Lakers lead the way with nine, the Chicago Bulls have six, the Boston Celtics and San Antonio Spurs have four apiece, The Detroit Pistons have three, the Houston Rockets own two and the Miami Heat and Philadelphia 76ers have one each.
All eight teams shared the common bond of playing with a significant presence down low.
Bill Laimbeer, Dennis Rodman with both Chicago and Detroit, Kevin McHale and Robert Parrish with Boston and later Kevin Garnett,Moses Malone with the 76ers, Horace Grant during Jordan's first run and Luc Longley and Rodman during Jordan's second run, Hakeem Olajuwon with the Rockets, Shaquille O'Neal with both Miami and the Lakers, David Robinson and Tim Duncan with San Antonio, Rasheed and Ben Wallace with the 2003-04 Pistons and Paul Gasol in the post Shaq-Lakers era.
Thirty years worth of history show that eventually, in playoff time, it is the bigs that help win NBA titles more than a jump shooting or run-and-gun basketball team.
The Derrick Rose-led Chicago Bulls follow in the same blue print as the past eight NBA champions. With Joakim Noah and Carlos Boozer, the Bulls big men offer a far-reaching advantage over the run-and-gun offense of the Mavericks, Heat and Thunder.
Sunday night against the Heat in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the Bulls out-rebounded Miami 45-33, including 19-6 in offensive rebounds.
Yes, Chris Bosh and Joel Anthony outscored Noah and Boozer 30-23, but Anthony didn't score a single point.
No offense from your center, no chance in the playoffs—it's that simple.
The Spurs, Lakers and Celtics, who have appeared in 11 of the last 12 NBA Finals, winning 10 of them, found out just how valuable the play of the big man is in the playoffs.
An aging Tim Duncan and Antonio McDyess couldn't compete with the younger, bigger and stronger Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol from the Memphis Grizzlies. Pau Gasol, who many argued should have been named the MVP of last year's NBA Finals, was completely lost against the run and gun of the Dallas Mavericks and the loss of Kendrick Perkins, who now plays for the Oklahoma City Thunder, took away the big man presence from the Boston Celtics this year.
Perkins, meanwhile, is now in the middle of his own NBA title run with the Thunder.
There is an old saying that those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it. If the past 30 years of NBA champions tells us anything, it is that the team with the big-man presence down low will win an NBA title over small ball.
For the Chicago Bulls, they hope history maintains the course en route to their first NBA Finals appearance in the post-Michael Jordan Bulls era.
