History happens.
By road, this town of clock towers, corner taverns and brick cheese is less than two hours from the Loop, a short ride to a long memory for the Bulls, for all of basketball.
“Sorry, Milwaukee,” said Michael Jordan.
On the 107th day of the 1996th year, in the 50th season of the NBA, the Bulls made 70 a magic number, eternal and temporary, a working number at least until Thursday, when the Bulls get a chance to change it to 71.
Cigars were passed around and some were lit. Apparently, 70 is a smoking number.
History isn’t easy, or everyone would be making it, and on this night what was supposed to be a celebration turned into a job.
“This was a very ugly game,” Jordan said, “but sometimes ugly is beautiful.”
Not until Steve Kerr stood at the free-throw line, with a four-point lead and the ball in his hands, did the Bulls allow themselves hugs and high-fives, the peripherals of relief and joy.
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Kerr at the line is money in the bank, history in the book.
“Relief,” said Bulls coach Phil Jackson, “is the overriding emotion.”
The Bulls left the floor in each others’ arms and to the cheers of grateful locals as well as those friends who made the journey from Chicago.
The house was full not just of Bulls fans and Bucks fans but of witnesses to a remarkable occasion, and the Bulls were the leads in the drama.
“It’s disheartening when the visiting team gets a bigger hand than your players,” said Milwaukee coach Mike Dunleavy.
But even Dunleavy conceded his team had participated in something special. Being a footnote is better than being no note at all.
“What they’ve done is quite a feat,” Dunleavy said. “Are they the best team ever? They’ve got three of the best defenders (Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman) that compare to any team ever, the best non-center rebounder ever in Rodman, the best go-to guy ever in Michael.
“But they’d have to win a championship before comparing them to all-time teams.”
History is more or less bunk, Henry Ford said, and while this is both more and less, it is not enough for the Bulls. It is a shiny souvenir on an incomplete journey.
“One of those goals or achievements in a season,” Jordan said, “but still we have to stay focused on what we are trying to do.
“We didn’t start out to win 70. We started out to win a championship, and that is still our motivation.
“I’m happy, don’t get me wrong. If 70 wins guaranteed a championship, I’d be even more happy.”
Maybe Jordan has a point. If the number 70 were so significant, it would be in Roman numerals, like wars and Super Bowls. It would be LXX, not to be confused with XXL, which is Jerry Krause’s sweater size.
Until the Bulls started chasing 70, it was seldom recalled that anyone had won 69, least of all the Lakers and least of all the non-Magic Johnson Lakers.
Other numbers in sports come to mind more easily. Here are three from baseball: 56, 61, 4,191. The first is, of course, Joe DiMaggio’s consecutive-game hitting streak, the second is Roger Maris’ single-season home run record and the third is Ty Cobb’s career hits, since broken by Pete Rose, but 4,256 has not yet etched as firmly in the mind, maybe because of Rose’s status as an outcast.
Still, a versatile number is 70, easy to remember, easy to divide, better than 73, really, which is where the Bulls could end their basketball addition.
But 70 has had no real significance until the Bulls gave it one. As an anniversary, 70 is an afterthought, coming after golden and diamond and having no precious gem of its own.
Mathematically, it is insignificant, not even a prime number, and 70 is barely passing in school. About the only place in sports 70 is of any consequence is in golf, where breaking 70 divides the hackers from the heroes, the Nike Tour from the PGA.
Hackers might be said to have septaugintaphobia, the fear of 70. Not so the Bulls, who have been loudly chasing it since the first game of the season, the better to separate themselves from just another championship bunch.
“We’ve crossed the barrier we’ve been trekking to,” said Jackson. “There are games still to be played and games still to be struggled.”
No playoff game may be more of a struggle than this one was, a game that had all the exaggeration of playoff basketball and none of the consequence.
The Bulls started slow and got slower, turning the second period into a quarter-hour of the worst moments in the season, scoring only 12 points and trailing by nine at the half.
The second half was just enough of an improvement.
“We managed to play defense in the second half, to do what what we had to do to win,” Jackson said.
“All season, that’s been the thing about this team, finding the clues it takes to solve the puzzle.”
“I thought we played like dogs,” said Rodman.
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Better than Milwaukee’s Big Dog, at least. That nickname for Olympian Glenn Robinson is no longer a compliment, not to say it isn’t accurate.
“This will take some time to sink in,” Jordan said.
“We never wanted to put so much emphasis on 70, but I am sure when we look back, 70 will mean a lot.”
Being 70, said Golda Meir, is not a sin.
And only rarely is it history.