-Dennis Rodman, starting power forward for the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls
1995-96 Was an expansion season in the NBA. The Toronto Raptors and Vancouver (now Memphis) Grizzlies were added before the season began. A slug of weak college drafts in the 1990's did nothing to counter the addition of four teams at the end of the 1980's and two more in 1995. There were great players scattered in the early 90's such as Shaquille O'Neal, Alonzo Mourning and Grant Hill, but overall there were seldom more than 3 or 4 players in each college draft who were able to provide immediate help to their teams. A great example of this was the Milwaukee Bucks who drafted future All Stars Vin Baker and #1 pick Glenn Robinson just a few years earlier, yet the Bucks only managed 25 wins in the 1995-96 season. The 1995-96 Season in the NBA was a tale of the haves and the have nots, Seattle (64-18) and Orlando (60-22) along with the Bulls set franchise records for wins during the 1995-96 season.
Nearly every March College Basketball proves that the best record does not equal the best team. In the NCAA tournament there is nearly always a team from an unknown school or a weak conference that enter the tournament with the highest winning percentage in the country. These teams have never been able to hold their own against the Dukes and Kentuckys. Why? because they won all those games playing in weaker conferences where the competition was not as good as the teams from the ACC or SEC. Take a look at the 2004 tournament: Both St. Joseph and Stanford went into the tournament with only one loss and neither one made the Final Four. The NBA weakened considerably throughout most of the 1990's thanks two 6 new teams being added between 1988 and 1995. Consider this: in 1997 & 1998 the Utah Jazz made the NBA Finals with a 2-star team that was no better than their solid 2-star clubs from the 1980's who never made it out of the second round. The number of superstars has remained constant. The talent pool did not grow to match the 72 new roster spots and it produced some downright horrible teams in the 1995-96 Eastern Conference for the Bulls to beat up on. In the last few years we have seen an influx of good foriegn talent that has helped create some deep teams again like Dallas and Sacramento. In spite of a 72-10 record the Bulls never even came close to challenging the pro sports record 33 game winning streak that was put together by the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers-who did not have an expansion season to help them.
Many of the other teams who posted 65+ wins had the benefit of an expansion year, but these other squads did not face a league with some teams who were downright awful because of too many teams and a lack of good young talent. In contrast, the 1986-87 Lakers (65-17) faced a league where there had been only one new team added during the previous 9 years (The Dallas Mavericks in 1980) and in 1984 & 1985 the NBA had what many people feel were the two best drafts in its history. Among the young talent that came from those drafts included Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone, Charles Barkley, John Stockton, Sam Perkins, Chris Mullin & Joe Dumars.
Here is the breakdown:
| Year & Great Team | Years Since Last Expansion |
| 1986-87 Lakers | 6 |
| 1985-86 Celtics | 5 |
| 1999-00 Lakers | 4 |
| 1982-83 Sixers | 2(1 Team in 1980) |
| 1991-92 Bulls | 2(2 Teams in 1989) |
| 1971-72 Lakers | 1 |
| 1966-67 Sixers | 0 (1 Team) |
| 1988-89 Pistons | 0 (2 Teams) |
| 1995-96 Bulls | 0 (2 Teams) |
| 1970-71 Bucks | 0 (3 Teams) |
Most modern NBA fans are from a younger generation and have been fed a myth that the average player of today is better than the average player of yesteryear. This is simply not true, while players of today are better raw physical athletes they lack the sound fundamentals, work ethic and stamina of players from the past: that's why current teams bring the ball up the court and stand around for as many as 12 seconds before running their offense. Simple mathematics will tell you that the average player among the 168 best in the world (the number of players at the end of the 1960's) will always be better than the average player among the 348 best in the world (the number of players today).
The modern NBA game has grinded to a halt. The fast break is dead and only a handful of current teams are capable of scoring 100 points on a nightly basis. Games from the days of Oscar Robertson and Wilt Chamberlain are like track meets when compared to the current NBA. Back then teams scored 115 points on a regular basis. Even more amazing is the fact that the players of yesteryear were able to play at such a fast pace even though they did not have the luxuries of chartered jets, first class hotels, never having to play on more than 2 consecutive nights, personal trainers and modern sports medicine that has benefited every NBA player over the last 12 years.
The most prominent example of why the "Players of today are better" is only a myth was the 1995-96 Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks were coached by Mike Dunleavy, who was never more than a journeyman when he played in the 1970's & 80's. In one-on-one games Dunleavy was undefeated against every one of his Bucks players- including future All-Stars Vin Baker & Glenn Robinson*. There were 3 other teams that year who were even worse than the Bucks. If NBA players of today are so much better than those of the past, this simply could not happen.
The 1970-71 Milwaukee Bucks (66-16) were not chosen to be one of the top 10 teams in NBA history in spite of blowing out their competition more thoroughly than any other team in history. The Bucks dominated the league so well that they rested their star players for the last 6 regular season games yet they still finished with 66 wins and a record 14 game margin over the league's #2 team. Later the Bucks proceeded to drill their playoff opponents like no one else in history, winning by an average margin of 14.5 points per game while compiling a 12-2 playoff record. Like the 1995-96 Bulls, the 1970-71 Bucks played in an expansion season and if the Bucks don't belong among "The 10 Greatest Teams In NBA History" because they had an expansion year to enhance their win total then the 1995-96 Bulls are not the best team in NBA history for that same reason.
* Source: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal