The 1987-88 Bulls won 50 games and looked like a very good young team.  They advanced to the Conference semi-finals, but were defeated in 5 games by the far superior Pistons.  See the Pistons were just coming into the peak of their franchise’s history up to that point, and the young Bulls were not quite strong enough mentally, or physically, to beat them.  Then in 1988-89, the Bulls made some key acquisitions and really started to mesh.  Even though that squad won fewer regular season games, they advanced all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals, but were still not quite up to the task of beating the Pistons, losing in 6 games.  In 1989-90, the Bulls made a few more key acquisitions and pushed the Pistons to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, but lost.  See as the Bulls were rising, the Pistons were slowly fading.  They hadn’t quite met in the middle yet though.

In the 1990-1991 season, that all changed.  All of a sudden, the Pistons seemed old and rusty and the Bulls were the team of the future.  With Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen both hitting their peak at the same time, and Phil Jackson arriving to make it all come together, the Bulls swept the Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals and went on to win their first championship of 6.  The Pistons faded into obscurity, not to be heard from again as a major force in the East until about 2002.

Fast forward to the 2005-2006 season.  The Pistons have been dominating the Eastern Conference for a few years and are the team to beat.  A young, upstart Bulls team finally starts to mesh and makes the playoffs.  They lost quickly to the Miami Heat in the first round, as the Pistons go on to another Eastern Conference Finals.  In 2006-2007, the Bulls make the Conference semi-finals, where they are unceremoniously dispatched by the Pistons in 6 games.

2007-2008 was a huge step backwards for the Bulls, but all the while the Pistons have slowly been getting older, while the Bulls have been amassing talent (Gordon, Deng, Rose, Tyrus, Noah).  On the second to last night of the 2008-2009 season, the Bulls beat the Pistons at Auburn Hills to pass them in the East and avoid an almost sure sweep by the Cavs.

I think it’s pretty clear the parallel I’m trying to draw here.  Obviously 7th place in the shitty East in 2009 is not the Eastern Conference Finals in the late 1980s and early 1990s.  Still, the similarities between last night and that amazing sweep in 1989-1990 are evident.  A young upsurging Bulls team finally overcomes the team to beat in the East.  Albeit the Bulls waited until way after the Pistons were still the team to beat this time.  Clearly, however, this incarnation of the Pistons has faded to the point of irrelevancy, and the Bulls have asserted themselves as a playoff team.  Not only a playoff team, but a team of the future.

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Tags: Chicago Bulls, Detroit Pistons, Dynasty