The 1995-96 Chicago Bulls are one of the most iconic teams in NBA history. They’re arguably the greatest team of all time after setting a new record for regular-season wins and then winning the championship.
That team was full of legends, including three former Detroit Pistons players. Dennis Rodman, one of those players, recently reflected on the fact that those Bulls won it all with three former Pistons players on the roster.
“You’d be surprised how many Detroit Pistons were on that team,” Rodman told VladTV. “I was like, ‘wow, we got like four players from the Pistons,’ that we beat them [the Bulls] for the two-peat, and then they were playing with us.”
The five-time NBA champion said four, but those Bulls only had three players from the Detroit Pistons that year: himself, John Salley and James Edwards. The trio only played together that one season since Salley and Edwards were no longer on the roster the following season.
The Worm played in 64 games during that historical run, averaging 5.5 points, 14.9 rebounds and 2.5 assists. He had a much bigger role than Salley and Edwards, who averaged 4.4 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 42 games and 3.5 points, 1.4 rebounds and 0.4 assists in 28 games, respectively.
Rodman was a key piece for that Bulls team, but the same couldn’t be said about Salley and Edwards. In the end, they all won another championship and made history, winning a title with two of the biggest NBA rivals in modern history.
Isiah Thomas Called Out The Bulls For Adding Pistons Players To Their Championship Teams
The leader of the ‘Bad Boys’ Detroit Pistons, Isiah Thomas, wasn’t happy with the Bulls bringing in so many players from his old team. He criticized them for saying the Pistons were bad but then using their players to get ‘chips.
The animosity between Thomas, the Bulls, and Michael Jordan is still present to this day, but for Rodman, Salley, and Edwards, those were good years, as they added more silverware to the collection.