The regaling of glory days is a tricky business.
There are always those who overdo it, inundating anyone who will listen about the past, which has always remained far greater than anything accomplished in the present.
Thursday night at the United Center wasn’t that. The Bulls hosted a gala for 13 individuals, as well as the entire 1995-96 team, who helped bring global prestige to the organization.
As players such as Toni Kukoc, Luc Longley, Dickey Simpkins and Steve Kerr reminisced about a historic season that helped cement the Bulls’ franchise, the commentary was still notable more than a quarter-century later.
Because after all this time and the teams that have filled it, that same relevance and prestige earned in the ’90s has eluded the franchise.
“We’re talking about one of the best, if not the best teams ever — deservedly so,” Kukoc said about the ’95-96 Bulls, who have endured over the last nearly 30 years.
Kukoc — now a special advisor to the Bulls — is no stranger to the United Center. Neither is Kerr, who’s in town at least once a year as the coach of the Warriors.
But for players such as Longley, who has been back to Chicago only twice over the last 20 years, the changes at the facility and among aging teammates are stark.
“A lot of my teammates look a bit different,” Longely joked.
Though it took nearly three decades to bring everyone back together, there was still a shared sense of pride in helping the organization earn global reverence.
“I take an enormous amount of pride out of it,” Longley said. “What’s great about this weekend is reconnecting with the organization and reconnecting with that team and identity. So I’ll be even more proud going forward.”
Longley’s life since being part of the team that went 72-10 before winning the first NBA title of the Bulls’ second three-peat has been a venture of boating, fishing and surfing in Australia mixed with family life and a coaching stint with the Australian national team. Other teammates haven’t had the same amount of separation from the glory days.
One is reliving them with a different franchise from the coach’s seat.
Kerr’s Warriors are 17-20 entering Friday night’s game against the Bulls, trying desperately to cling to their championship era that less than two years ago appeared to have the makings of another streak.
Throw in a star veteran punching a young talent in practice, followed by trades made in an attempt to remedy what the franchise was adamant didn’t need fixing, and it appears more in line with the end.
There’s no denying the commonalities between the ’90s Bulls and the modern-era Warriors. Kerr’s 2015-16 Warriors (73-9) eclipsed the best regular-season record he was part of accomplishing as a player before losing to the Cavaliers in the Finals.
Despite Kerr’s Warriors still being two titles short of the six won during Michael Jordan’s era, there’s arguably no one better to speak on the requirements necessary for a franchise to reach and maintain global relevance.
“You have to have not just a star player, but a superstar person, player, human being,” Kerr said. “Michael Jordan obviously was the guy for the Bulls. Steph Curry for the Warriors. You have to be lucky enough to have someone like those two.
