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Bucks-Bulls rivalry

Milwaukee Bucks Chicago Bulls
Next meeting	November 29, 2018, at Milwaukee
Statistics
Meetings total	244 meetings in the regular season
Regular season series	Bulls: 131 wins against Bucks Bucks: 113 wins against Bulls
Postseason results	1973-1974 (Bucks win 4-0) 1984-1985 (Bucks win 3-1) 1989-1990 (Bulls win 3-1) 2014-2015 (Bulls win 4-2)

The '''Bucks-Bulls rivalry''' is a National Basketball Association (NBA) rivalry between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Chicago Bulls that started in 1971 when the dominant team in the Eastern conference was always the Bulls. The Bucks was the only team during the era that was able to compete against the Bulls, and this was first observable in the 1974 playoffs, when the Bulls lost 0-4 to the Bucks in the Conference Finals. Franchise players also played a big role in the rivalry, with Michael Jordan being the face of the Bulls in the 90's and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar being the face of the Bucks in the 80's. The rivalry between the two NBA teams is also tied with the rivalries between the two cities in different sports, such as the Bears-Packers rivalry in the National Football League, and the Brewers-Cubs rivalry in the Major League of Baseball. The Bucks-Bulls rivalry was at its highest during the 80's and 90's, however, this rivalry is still strengthened and brought up regularly, due to modern players such as Derrick Rose leading the Bulls and Brandon Jennings leading the Bucks in the late 2000's.

History

Dominance of the Bulls from the 1990s

Micahel Jordan 1987-88

The Bulls Dynasty was created when they won six titles in only eight years. The dominance of the Bulls is largely due to franchise player Michael Jordan in the 1990's. The Bulls were unmatched with their line-up consisting of other all-star players such as Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman, creating this 8 years of dominance.

In 1991, the dominance of the Bulls is most observable from the playoff match-up between the Bulls and the Lakers, with point guard Magic Johnson predicted to be the MVP to lead the Lakers to victory. The Lakers won the first game as predicted. Although Jordan was young and the Bulls were seemingly too inexperienced, Jordan and his supporting players of Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant, John Paxson and Bill Cartwright carried the Bulls with momentum to win the next four games to win the series.

In 1996, the Bulls broke the Laker's record of the most wins in a regular season (69-13) with 72 wins and only 10 losses. Even after the regular season, the Bulls continued to dominate in the playoffs to win the championship title with only 3 losses during their playoff run.

In 1998, the last of Jordan's 6 championship runs, the Bulls had the line-up of strong veteran players such as Steve Kerr and Dennis Rodman. In Game 6 of the Jazz-Bulls game for the championship, Michael Jordan made his final shot of his career to help the Bulls lead in the final seconds of the game and bring his team to the 6th championship in 8 years.

When Jordan retired after the 1998 season, the dynasty slowly died down. No player could fill the role as a franchise player and the Bulls began to fade away from their dominance while the Lakers led by Kobe Bryant began to have their own dynasty in the Western Conference.

The competitiveness of the Bucks

The Bucks' competitiveness in the 1970's came from their franchise players, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Oscar Robertson's leadership. Kareem has won one championship ring with the Bucks and five with the Los Angeles Lakers. In the 1970-71 season, the third season for the Bucks since their franchise has opened, the Bucks won 66 games in the regular season. Abdul-Jabbar was the creator of his signature Sky-Hook, which he used to lead the Bucks into their short period of dominance in the 70's.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar performing a sky-hook over Wes Unseld

Major players in the rivalry

From the Bucks

- Kareem-Abdul Jabbar (1969-1974)

- Oscar Robertson (1970-1974)

- Sidney Moncrief (1979-1991)

- Marques Johnson (1977-1984)

From the Bulls

- Michael Jordan (1984-1993)

- Scottie Pippen (1987-1998, 2003-2004)

- Dennis Rodman (1995-1998)

- Steve Kerr ( 1993-1999)

-Horrace Grant (1987-1994)

-Charles Oakley (2001-2002)

- Jerry Sloan

NBA Playoff series featuring the Bucks and the Bulls

The first time the Bucks and the Bulls faced off was in 1973-1974 playoff series where they met in the Western Conference semi-finals. In the Bulls' playoff run in that year, their team consisted of many physical players including Jerry Sloan who could not play against the Bucks due to a torn plantar fascia. With that, the Bucks went on to sweep the Bulls 4-0 in which Abdul Jabbar averaged 34 points. Unfortunately, the Bucks would lose 3-4 to the Celtics in Game 7 to lose in the finals.

The second time the two teams faced off in the playoff series was in the 1984-1985 season, Michael Jordan's rookie year. Although Jordan played mostly point guard to allow him to score an average of 30 points per game with 8 assists, as well as a 48 point game in Game 3, the Bucks was still filled with experienced veterans. The Bucks won the series 3-1, but lost in the next round against the Sixers.

The third time the two teams met in the playoffs was in 1989-1990. Jordan has now taken the leadership role with much more experience and finally beats the Bucks 3-1. Although without Abdul-Jabbar, the series seemed decisive to experts and fans from the beginning, this playoff series opened the eyes of many NBA officials as the closing game consisted of 68 personal fouls, six technical fouls and 96 free throws, making it one of the most physically contested playoff game in history.

The rivalry's most recent encoutner in teh playoffs was in the 2014-2015 series. The Bulls' star player, Derrick Rose, and other starters such as Joakim Noah, Pau Gasol and Jimmy Butler led the Bulls to win the series 4-2 against the Bucks. The Bucks did have Giannis Antetokounmpo but it was his rookie year and he was not experienced enough to compete against the 2011 MVP Derrick Rose.

The end of Bucks-Bulls era

The Bucks-Bulls rivalry era came to the end twice when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Michael Jordan retired in 1989 and 1995 respectively. As the Bucks grew weak with the absence of a star player, the NBA's attention directed to the Detroit Pistons and the Chicago Bulls having a rivalry with each other in the early 1990's, as well as the rivalry between the Bulls and the New York Knicks between 1989 to 1995. The retirement of Jordan in 1995 led NBA fans' focus to Kobe Bryant from the Los Angeles Lakers and rising stars in early 2000's such as Carmelo Anthony in the New York Knicks, Tim Duncan in the San Antonio Spurs, Vince Carter in the Toronto Raptors, Dirk Nowitzki in the Dallas Mavericks and Lebron James in the Cleveland Cavaliers. The increasing number of stars is largely due to the influence of Michael Jordan and so it comes to no surprise that the end of the Bucks-Bulls rivalries led to the birth of many more rivalries in the NBA.

Current Bucks and Bulls

The Current roster for the Milwaukee Bucks consists of key p layer such as franchise player Giannis Antetokoumpo, small forward Kris Middleton and center Brook Lopez. In the early season of the 2018-2019 NBA season, the Bucks began on a 7 game winning streak which matches their franchise best start in history (1971-72), bringing them to the second strongest team in the Eastern Conference.

Giannis Antetokounmpo 2017

Derrick Rose, 2011, the year in which he won the season MVP award.

The current Bulls roster consists of point guard Zach LaVine, rising star Lauri Markkanen and center Robin Lopez. Since injuries began to pile up for ex-Bulls player Derrick Rose, the Bulls never reached the calibre they once were. In the 2018-19 season, the Bulls only produced three wins in their first 11 games. Injuries have been the modern Buck's biggest prevention from getting better.

See also

Bulls–Pistons rivalry

Celtics–Knicks rivalry