It has been almost three decades since Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls parted ways after winning their sixth NBA championship. For Randy Brown, a former Bulls backup point guard, the team could’ve won more NBA titles if it hadn’t been for certain decisions that had a domino effect.
According to Brown, if Coach Phil Jackson hadn’t considered undergoing surgery for his hip in 1998, Jordan would’ve stayed, as he had made it clear to everybody that he wasn’t going to play for any coach other than The Zen Master. With that in mind, Brown is confident that if Jackson were there, Jordan and the rest of the team would remain intact and the Bulls would continue to dominate the league.
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“We clearly would have won another championship. We were in our prime, we were healthy, and we were hungry,” Brown told Roto Grinders earlier this year.
“The two years Michael went away to play baseball, that’s two more possible championships,” he assessed. “During those winning seasons, we were mentally tired, but somehow during every season, we’d find our groove to championship. So, yes, if Phil Jackson hadn’t had that surgery, Michael comes back, we have the same core and we get a chance to defend our championship until somebody knocks us off.”
The lockout affected Phil’s decision
Jackson didn’t really have his hip surgery that year. Instead, the legendary coach had his right hip replaced in 2006 and his left hip replaced the following year.
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However, as far back as Brown can remember, Coach Jackson was thinking long and hard about having his surgery after the Bulls’ second three-peat. Brown even noted that Jackson had decided to take the opportunity to focus on his health when the lockout took place.
Jackson probably changed his mind and opted to postpone his surgery. Whatever the case may be, Brown believes it was at that point that the Bulls began to fall apart.
“It was weird because after that season there was a strike,” Brown recalled. “If there wasn’t a strike, Phil Jackson probably would have come back because he was hurting physically during that season.”
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“He talked about having surgery and possibly not coaching anymore, so the NBA going on strike pushed him to say, ‘let me go ahead and do the surgery while there’s no basketball at all’,” he continued.
Jordan doesn’t see the Bulls losing
Most of the time, successful NBA teams break up when they start losing or when something is no longer working out. That wasn’t the case with the ’90s Bulls. There was some drama within the organization, but as far as competing on the court, they were still at the top of the food chain.
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The fact that the Bulls’ front office decided to disband the team after winning another championship left fans intrigued and baffled. To this day, this subject still sparks passionate discussions among NBA aficionados.
In fact, in a separate discussion, even Jordan himself was once asked to share his candid thoughts on what would have happened if the Bulls hadn’t split up in ’98. Like Brown, MJ is also confident that the Bulls could’ve won more NBA championships. Based on how they performed at the time, Jordan believes he could even possibly match Bill Russell’s 11 titles.
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“We’ll take it year by year,” Jordan once said. “I do believe we could win seven. We’ll never know, but it’s great for thinking, great for conversations, great for debating. But in my mind, I really believed we could’ve won seven.”
“And then if we won seven, then, our competitive nature would be ‘Just keep going. Let’s get to eight, let’s get to nine till someone beat us, till I actually lose in the Finals, which never happened,'” he added.
Truth be told, nobody could ever come up with an absolute take on what would’ve happened had the ’90s Bulls stayed together. Perhaps it would always depend on who you ask about it.
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This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Oct 5, 2025, where it first appeared in the Old School section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.