As the Warriors have matched and are closing in on besting the Bulls seemingly untouchable mark of 72 wins in the regular season Wednesday night, the ultimate water cooler and completely hypothetical debate over who would win in a 7-game series between these all-time great teams has gained a fair amount of steam.
There are the old school fans age 30 and older who predominately scoff at the idea of this Warriors team holding a candle to that Bulls team, and then there are the younger and more analytical crowd who feel that this Warriors team and their efficiency and ball movement would be too much for the Bulls to handle.
Well 2K Sports just gave us the closest thing we are ever going to get to seeing this dream match-up ever come to fruition as we still unfortunately live in a world where time travel (or so we think) does not exist.
The NBA 2K makers did a seven game elimination series between the 1995-96 Bulls and the 2015-16 Warriors and let’s just say their result would ruffle the feathers of the old school crowd.
The simulation has the Warriors taking down the Bulls in 6 games to win the hypothetical super series.
Here is a video of the simulation and the ESPN NBA Coast to Coast crew debating the topic and the results of this simulation:
— Ryan Bawek (@RyanBawek) April 12, 2016
I don’t think many would argue that this Warriors team isn’t deeper and more talented top to bottom than that Bulls team, but the pure will and grit of peak Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen would be almost impossible for any team, even a team of the Warriors magnitude, to overcome.
Call me crazy, but if the hypothetical series were played by today’s NBA rules the Warriors would win in 7, but if it were played with the rules in place in the mid 90s with legal hand checking, more physicality, no zone defense, etc. I say the Bulls survive in 6.
As least this is one prediction I can never get wrong, because unless Doc Brown from Back to the Future invents time travel in our lifetime and can find out how to transport either team to the others era we are never going to know.
