1997 NBA Finals

Background

The Chicago Bulls finished the regular season with a league-best 69–13 record, tying the 1971–72 Los Angeles Lakers for the second-best mark in NBA history at the time. They began the season 12–0 and were 42–6 by the All-Star break, but late-season injuries and poor play, including Scottie Pippen's missed game-winning three-pointer in the final game against the New York Knicks, kept them from a second straight 70-win season. In the playoffs, the Bulls swept the Washington Bullets, defeated the Atlanta Hawks in five games, and beat the Miami Heat in five games in the Eastern Conference finals.

The Jazz also introduced a complete rebrand, replacing their classic logo and colors with a gradient "Purple Mountain" motif. Utah swept the Los Angeles Clippers, eliminated the Los Angeles Lakers in five games, and defeated the Houston Rockets in six games to reach their first NBA Finals, with Stockton hitting a buzzer-beating three-pointer in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals. Jazz head coach Jerry Sloan faced his former team as a player; he had been a two-time All-Star with the Bulls. The teams split their two regular-season meetings, each winning at home.

Series summary

The series used a 2–3–2 site format, with the first two and last two games at Chicago's United Center. In Game 1, Scottie Pippen scored 27 points and Michael Jordan scored 31, helping the Bulls to an 84–82 victory. After trailing by one in the fourth quarter, the Bulls took an 81–79 lead on a Pippen three-pointer, but John Stockton answered with a three of his own. Jordan tied the game with a free throw, and after Karl Malone missed two free throws with 9.2 seconds left, Jordan hit a 20-foot buzzer-beater. Jordan joined a short list of players who had made buzzer-beaters in NBA Finals history. Game 2 saw the Bulls dominate, using a 12–0 second-quarter run to take control. Utah scored only 31 points in the first half, and Malone made just 6 of 20 field goals. Dennis Rodman hit a late three-pointer to put the Bulls up 97–85.

Broadcasting

Marv Albert served as play-by-play announcer for his seventh straight NBA Finals on NBC, working with color analysts Matt Guokas and Bill Walton for the third consecutive year. This was Albert's last NBA Finals of the 1990s, as a sex scandal led NBC Sports to fire him later in 1997. Hannah Storm became the first woman to serve as pre-game host of an NBA Finals, a role she held for the next three Finals. Sideline reporters were Ahmad Rashad for the Bulls and Jim Gray for the Jazz. Bob Costas did not appear in any capacity, the only NBA Finals on NBC in the 1990s without him. Local NBC affiliates were WMAQ-TV in Chicago and KSL-TV in Salt Lake City.

Aftermath

The 1997 NBA Finals rematch in 1998 marked the first time since 1989 that the same two teams faced off in the championship round, with the Jazz enjoying home-court advantage. Chicago won in six games, capped by Michael Jordan’s final basket as a Bull in Game 6. Regular-season MVP Karl Malone drew sharp criticism for a lackluster Finals. Dennis Rodman and Brian Williams forced Malone into taking more jump shots than in any prior playoff series.

Malone shot 44% from the field (down from 53% in the regular season) and 60% at the free throw line (down from 78%). In Game 1, he missed two free throws with nine seconds left, allowing Jordan to hit the game-winner. Game 5 saw him go 7-for-17 from the floor and 5-for-9 at the line in a two-point loss. In Game 6, he went 7-for-15 from both the field and free throw line in a close four-point defeat.

Brian Williams, who later changed his name to Bison Dele to honor his Cherokee and African heritage, won his only Bulls championship that year. He retired after the 1998–99 season, walking away from $36.45 million and five years left on his Pistons contract. In 2002, Dele, his girlfriend Serena Karlan, and boat captain Bertrand Saldo were killed by Dele’s brother, Miles Dabord, during an argument aboard Dele’s boat near Tahiti.