Who’s next, Elvis?
There was Madonna, a Bulls fan from way back, sitting in all her leather glory cheering throughout the Bulls’ pulsating 96-88 victory Friday night in the Stadium.
Jerry Reinsdorf, Bill Wirtz and Michael McCaskey under the same roof-and in harmony-after their split on a West Side sports complex?
They were within shouting distance but couldn’t have heard each other if they wanted, with 18,676 screaming fans all under that same historic Stadium roof watching the Bulls take a giant step toward a three-peat.
The evening provided as many unique sights off the court as it did on, and movie producer John Hughes, not home alone for this contest, was even present to do any filming.
“It’s New York-Chicago,” said Bulls ticket director Joe O’Neil earlier in the day. “That brings everybody out. I just got off the phone with Michael Jordan and told him, `No surprises tonight, please. There’s not a ticket anywhere.’ “
Madonna just happened to be in the neighborhood, getting Warner Bros. to put down the New York-to-L.A. flight she was riding for a layover in O’Hare.
It was Jordan everyone came to see, including his agent, David Falk. If possible, the cheers for Sir Michael seemed to be even louder than usual when the man “from North Carolina” was introduced.
Could it have been any noisier when Franklin Roosevelt was nominated for the presidency for the first time in this same building in 1932? Nope.
There were numerous signs of support over Jordan’s latest brush with a book. “St. Michael of Jordan Deliver Us” and “Media and Mudslingers Leave MJ Alone” were a couple.
But it wasn’t until late in the first quarter, when his first basket of the night helped trigger an 11-0 spurt against the Knicks, that everyone seemed to shake their nervousness-and New York started losing its early lead.
“Our fans kept us going,” said Horace Grant.
See Gov. Jim Edgar jumping up and cheering when Jordan’s three-pointer gave the Bulls their first 10-point advantage at 23-13.
Look at Dave Wannstedt watching Pat Riley draw X’s and O’s in the huddle during a 20-second timeout early in the second quarter with his Knicks having just pulled to a 31-27 deficit on Greg Anthony’s layup.
All day the Bulls’ front office people spent as much time fending off last-second ticket requests for this pivotal contest as they did going about their normal preparations. Even league officials were told by the Bulls that allotments had run dry.
Several fans came into the headquarters at 1 Magnificent Mile with tickets they’d bought on the street just to make sure they weren’t counterfeit.
Reinsdorf spent the afternoon in meetings at his White Sox office, attempting to keep his mind off the important game. “The fans, that’s what I care about,” he said, referring to the huge number of celebrities trying to crash Gate 3 1/2.
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Madonna? According to the Bulls, not even the Material Girl got her tickets from them. The jeering was derisive when it was announced she was the celebrity DJ for the evening. Her only other known appearance at a Chicago sports event was at a White Sox game two years ago during the filming of a baseball movie here.
“This series has a national audience like we’ve probably never had before,” noted O’Neil. “Don’t forget when we played New York last year, it wasn’t in the conference finals like this. I don’t think the L.A. or Portland series were this closely followed by so many.”
The official crowd was 18,676, and on this night you were just as likely to be sitting next to a Fortune 500 CEO as you were Jeremy Roenick, Jim Harbaugh, Jim McMahon or Richard Dent.
Bulls alumni team? You could have pulled John Mengelt, Craig Hodges, Norm Van Lier, Bob Love and Tom Boerwinkle out of the stands and put them in a uniform.
They weren’t needed, however.
Despite repeated runs by New York in the final quarter, and an airball here and a turnover there, the Bulls held on to continue their path to a three-peat.
With 1:49 remaining, the place went up for grabs when John Starks, more unpopular with fans than Madonna, stepped out of bounds with the Knicks trailing 85-80. This was a crucial turnover.
Two subsequent free throws by Jordan made it 87-80 with 1:34 remaining-and a sign that said “Hey New York Forget About It” promptly went up behind the visitors’ bench.
“I can’t see the team that’s going to beat them,” said Riley. “They’re back on top of their game.”