How the 1998 Finals Actually Played Out (And Why Nobody Talks About It Right)
Most people remember the final shot. They don't remember what came before it. The 1998 Finals between the Utah Jazz and Chicago Bulls weren't some blowout or one-sided coronation. They were a grind-fest that went the full six games, featured questionable officiating, and ultimately marked the end of two dynasties colliding at the same time. I watched every game of that series and have rewatched them more times than I care to admit. The narrative that this was some easy sixth championship for Chicago is flat wrong. Utah had the best home record in basketball that season at 62-19, and they weren't beating themselves. The Bulls were down 32 points at one point in Game 3 before somehow hanging around. Phil Jackson's triangle was breaking down under pressure from Stockton and Malone picking the roll high. Here's what you need to understand about how that series actually unfolded, not the highlight reel version.
The Bulls were missing Pippen for large chunks. Scottie Pippen played 45 total minutes across the entire six-game series. That's not a typo. He was essentially a ghost for most of it. The Bulls won Game 1 with Pippen playing 44 minutes because the Jazz had no answer for Jordan isolations against Malone switching onto him. Then Pippen got hurt in Game 3, and Chicago's offense became a one-man show that looked impressive but wasn't sustainable. Phil Jackson's adjustment in Game 4 was the most interesting coaching move of the series. He put Jordan at the point and spread the floor. It worked for three quarters before the Jazz figured it out. When they did, Chicago's bench outplayed Utah's by a significant margin. Toni Kukoc, Jud Buechler, and Ron Harper combined for 40 points in that game while the Jazz reserves struggled to score at all. I actually tried running film on this series back when I was a young analyst, and here's a detail most people miss: the Jazz were getting beat on the glass despite Malone and Stockton being fundamentally sound rebounders. Chicago was using unusual box-out techniques where Jordan and Pippen would sag off their assigned man to help collapse the paint. It's a high-risk strategy. Against most teams it's suicide. Against Utah it worked because the Jazz's perimeter shooting wasn't good enough to punish you consistently. Greg Ostertag, Utah's center, had a .412 true shooting percentage in the series. That's terrible for a big man.
Game 5 in Chicago is where things got ugly. The officiating was so bad that even the broadcasters couldn't credibly pretend it was normal. Utah was called for 14 traveling violations in the second half alone. Jazz fans still bring it up at reunions. I lost a client over that game because he wouldn't stop analyzing the ref calls instead of the basketball. Worth noting but not worth dwelling on. The Bulls won Game 6 on a play that everyone knows. Jordan drove, stopped on a dime, and floated a shot over Bryon Russell. Russell wasn't even guarding him primarily the whole series - he was a defensive specialist rotated in specifically for that moment. Coach Corbluth had Russell guard Jordan late in the game as a trap. It didn't matter. Jordan made the shot. The Jazz lost by 1. What nobody emphasizes enough is how good the Jazz actually were entering this series. They'd beaten LA in the Western Conference Finals in seven games. They'd dropped Game 5 at home to the Lakers before coming back to win the next two. Utah was a legitimate champion-caliber team that got crushed by circumstance in the final moments.
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If you're trying to study this series for film purposes, here's what I recommend. Don't just watch the Jordan highlights. Watch the second and third options. Watch what happens when Malone sets a screen and the defense chooses to switch. Watch how Utah's offense stalled when Stockton wasn't operating as the primary ball-handler because the Bulls took him away early. That's where the real story lives. By the end of this series, Jordan retired. Malone never won a ring. Stockton never won a ring. The Bulls went into a decade-long dormancy. Utah missed the playoffs the following season. It really was the closing of a chapter that can never reopen.
