Jordan was dominant in taking home NBA MVP honors, Phil Jackson was named coach of the year and Toni Kukoc was the league's sixth man of the year. And if you're a fan of one of the best NBA teams of all time, you won't soon forget the eight months of joy that season brought, from October to June. Chicago picked up where it left off a year after winning 72 games, opening the 1996-97 NBA season with a 17-1 record. Twenty-three of the 51 best teams in regular seasons turned out to be NBA champions, including 7 teams from the Celtics, 7 from the Lakers and 4 from the Bulls.
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is the leading professional basketball league in North America. Land of Basketball is a website for sports fans. For official NBA information, visit the NBA website. In 1980, the 1966-67 Sixers were chosen as the best individual team to celebrate the NBA's 35th anniversary.
And with a 48-4 record in the All-Star break, it was clear that the Warriors would have a chance to reach the winning record for the season regular. Stephen Curry won his second NBA MVP and Steve Kerr, who played on the 1995-96 Bulls team that won 72 games, was named NBA Coach of the Year. In the playoffs, the 76ers beat Oscar Robertson's Cincinnati Royals, Bill Russell's Celtics and Rick Barry's San Francisco Warriors in the NBA finals. The Lakers' 69 wins were the most in NBA regular season history until Jordan's Chicago Bulls finished 72-10 in 1995-96. It was the franchise's first NBA championship in Philadelphia after moving from Syracuse four years earlier.
But it wasn't all seashells and balloons for the Warriors, who narrowly outscored the Houston Rockets, the Portland Trail Blazers and the Oklahoma City Thunder of future Warrior Kevin Durant in the Western Conference final, but couldn't close a 3-1 series lead against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals. In the postseason, the Bulls swept the Miami Heat in the first round, eliminated the rival New York Knicks in five games in the second round, swept the defending Eastern Conference champion Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference final, and beat the Seattle SuperSonics in six games for their fourth NBA title in six seasons.
