The betting company 1xBet looks back at the Chicago Bulls – the team that turned the NBA into the world’s No. 1 league. 
Long road to championship
On January 16, 2026, the Chicago Bulls will celebrate their 60th anniversary. Forty to fifty years ago, this squad didn’t stand out in any particular way, and even selecting Michael Jordan with the third overall pick in the 1984 draft did not immediately bring success.
In the 1980s, Jordan progressed rapidly, improving his individual statistics each season. Michael displayed phenomenal shooting accuracy and stormed to the basket with tornado-like speed. Still, basketball is a team game, and it’s impossible to achieve great results alone. At that time, the rising star lacked a strong supporting cast, so playoff games became a grueling challenge for the Bulls. That’s when the club’s management realized that Jordan’s talent alone wasn’t enough: they needed a strategy, a system, and most importantly, someone who could put all the pieces together.
Phil Jackson’s arrival
In 1987, Phil Jackson was hired by the Bulls as an assistant coach, and two years later, he took over the team. Today, he is known to the 1xBet review readers as the owner of 11 NBA championship titles. However, at the beginning of his coaching career, Jackson seriously considered how to break the dominance of the Los Angeles Lakers, the Boston Celtics, and the Detroit Pistons, which were gaining momentum at the time.
Phil Jackson’s coaching concept
The Bulls’ manager immediately adopted Tex Winter’s triangle offense as a foundation and continued to build the team’s play around Michael Jordan, but using his own methodology. Soon, the squad and its leader became one unit. Under Phil Jackson, His Airness grew both as a player and as a person. Jordan was literally obsessed with winning, and the way he took responsibility in the most critical moments captivated fans in the stands and in front of television screens.
Chicago’s first championship in 1991 and the 4-1 sweep of the Lakers in the Finals were perceived as a mega-sensation. Ultimately, in the 1990s, the words “Bulls” and “basketball” became synonymous: the team achieved two three-peats in the championship (1991-1993 and 1996-1998) and set a regular-season wins record with 72 victories in 82 games.
Phil Jackson’s Chicago wasn’t just Michael Jordan – it also included Scottie Pippen, Toni Kukoč, Steve Kerr, Horace Grant, Dennis Rodman, and other outstanding talents. In 1997-98, these guys twice defeated John Stockton and Karl Malone’s Utah Jazz in the Finals.
Technological and cultural breakthrough
The Bulls’ dominance coincided with a new wave of television technology. Jordan’s tricks and those of his teammates could now be analyzed in slow-motion replays, capturing every movement. As a result, basketball in North America transformed from a sport that wasn’t always considered visually spectacular into a vibrant show. Hollywood also joined in promoting the NBA, releasing the sports comedy Space Jam, starring Michael Jordan.
In the 1990s, NBA players became style icons, and the sale of merchandise featuring basketball team logos soared to unprecedented heights. Even thousands of kilometers from the U.S., countless teenagers could be seen wearing Chicago Bulls jerseys with the number 23 on the back. Later, that number was adopted by footballer David Beckham and the enduring NBA superstar of the 21st century, LeBron James.
