Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 49

r-mrHy Thursday, June 13, 1991 Section 4 KB VV -V klV ill i Wfl' it irs" Tribune photo by Charles Cherney Phil Jackson, whose poise is so evident as Bulls coach, and Michael Jordan, always in command on the court, are washed out of character by a champagne shower during the championship celebration. a Tl fi Tl fO Ul) TIT! If 4 I Wm Jordan, Paxson oust Lakers Dernie Lincicomc In the wake of the news 7 By Sam Smith Chicago Tribune INGLEWOOD, Calif. Champions! "I never lost hope," said a tear-stained Michael Jordan, whose 30 points and 10 assists helped the Bulls wrap up their first NBA title Wednesday with a thrilling 108-101 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers. "I'm so happy for my family and this team and this franchise. It's something I've worked seven years for, and I thank God for the talent and the opportunity that I've had." Champions! "I'm just happy for everyone, all of us the organization, the city, the people of Chicago," said John Paxson, whose 20 points "That's why I've always wanted him on my team and why I want him to stay on my team," said Jordan, holding the Larry O'Brien championship trophy while flanked by his wife, Juanita, and father, James, in the gleeful Bulls locker room.

"I've never seen a celebration like this," said Jackson, drenched in champagne and the warmth of success. "I was with the '70 Knicks and the '73 Knicks, and there was never anything like this. This has been a poised team and they just lost it." Champions! They almost lost the game. The Lakers led by Magic Johnson's 16 points, 20 assists and 11 rebounds and Eldcn Campbell's 21 See Bulls, pg. 5 More Bulls coverage Jerry Krause and his bench earn redemption.

Page 4. By Mayor Daley's order, Friday will be Bulls' day. Page 5. New NBA champs' celebration a real ball. Back page.

included 10 in a crucial three-minute stretch late in the fourth quarter after the Lakers had tied the score at 93. "It's an unbelievable feeling because we did it as a team. I can't wait to get home and share this with the city." Champions! "Pax was the key," said Bulls coach Phil Jackson. "M.J. was finding him and he stepped up and hit the shot" i -1 flV Even Magic can't save LA i i j- These champions did it with style Chicago Tribune INGLEWOOD, Calif.

Coming home. Coming home champions. Michael Jordan's feet knew it with 10 seconds to play. His feet wanted to skip, wanted to leap, wanted to do anything but follow his dribble up the floor. Jordan's hands wanted to applaud, wanted to hug somebody, wanted to do anything but shoot one more meaningless foul shot.

And when it was official, when it was indelible, when the Bulls had taken the Lakers in five, had brought from the coast the first basketball trophy for Chicago, Jordan's hands and feet and celebrated tongue did what they needed to do, leap and hug and shout. Champions. Jack Nicholson, the celebrity symbol of the team of celebrities, hugged Phil Jackson, the coach of the team from the city of big shoulders. Magic Johnson found his way through the grim despair of losing friends to congratulate the beaming Jordan. "I saw tears in his eyes," Johnson said.

"I told him, 'You proved everyone wrong. You're a winner as well as a great individual basketball Jordan hugged Cliff Levingston. Horace Grant hugged Scottie Pippen. And across the land, over the mountains, from great ocean to Great Lake, the warmth of a basketball team embraced a city. "Chicago will love this," promised Johnson.

For all its championship seasons, so few, so distant, Chicago can savor this one. It came with style and dignity and honest purpose. It came without surprise or excuse or great dispute. The Bulls spent a season earning the right to do the expected, never a forgiving reward. And then they did even better than expected, sweeping the Knicks and Pistons, coming within two late three-point shots of sweeping the 76ers and the Lakers.

"This is something," Jordan said, choking on his words. "This is a seven-year struggle for me, for the city. When I came here, we started from scratch, from the bottom. "Each year, we got closer and closer. We plugged and plugged, and the light was still tree Lincicc me, pg.

5 By Skip Myslenski Chicago Tribune INGLEWOOD, Calif. The great ones acknowledge no limits and do not flinch, no matter the odds. The great ones are fueled by a fire that sears their belly, are laced with a tensile strength that refuses to bend, are buoyed by a confidence that convinces them they will, somehow, someway, find a way to prevail. Magic Johnson is a great one, and on Wednesday night at the Forum, he proved this once again. He could not prevent the Bulls from winning their title, could not pull the ragamuffin band surrounding him to a victory, yet over 48 resplendent minutes, he bared his will and his soul and every one of the considerable skills at his command.

He walked, when it ended, straight to the Bulls' locker room and there congratulated Michael Jordan and those others he had battled so tenaciously. He had hit them with 16 points, with 20 assists, with 1 1 rebounds, with countless feints from his deep bag of tricks, yet here he was telling Jordan, "Congratulations. You finally got what you want." "It was a big moment," Johnson would say later. "He had been billed as an individual, and now he's proven all those people wrong. He had a remarkable year, both as an individual and a player.

He's the best, this year. It's going to be sweet for him. Swe-e-e-t. Unbelievable. It's going to be unreal." Here, moments after defeat, Magic Johnson was again proving himself a great one, proving it as he had in the game so recently ended.

He had played without forward James Worthy, See Lakers, pg. 4 Tribune photo by Jim Pnechmg With Scottie Pippen soaring above him, the Lakers' Vlade Divac finds the ball squirting away. Divac scored only eight points. Living legend caps off a splendid 1990-91 season with Little Richard, scored 21 points in one quarter, grabbed 19 rebounds in one game and hit a free throw with his eyes By Paul Sullivan Chicago Tribune INGLEWOOD, Calif. All in all.

it was not a bad year for Michael Jordan. He welcomed his second son into the world, had a hamburger named after him, won his fifth straight scoring title, agreed to let a network use his likeness in a Saturday morning cartoon, again. All the things I've gone through, all the things the city has gone through. It was a lot of hard work, and what you see is the emotions of all that hard work paying off." Though Jordan scored 30 points on the night, adding 10 assists and five steals, he played second-fiddle to his sizzling backcourt mate, John Paxson. But Jordan still managed to cop the McA Valuable Player trophy for the NBA Finals.

"I could care less," he said of yet another individual honor. The whole team is the MVP. The whole city is the MVP." Befitting the Jordan legend, with a minute and a half left in the game, he threw up a blind shot over his shoulder from 10 feet out that went through the hoop. Though it came after a foul and did not count, it was a perfect sot to sum up a perfect season. The Jordan-led Bulls dominated to the last shot in 1990-91.

From a last-second Nov. 21 loss at Phoenix that put them at 5-6, through Wednesday's thrilling wrap-up, the Bulls played at an .807 clip, going 71-17. Jordan's playoff performance left him with a career playoff point total of 2,425, passing Bob Pettit for 15th-place on the all- See Jordan, in. 4 closed. Oh, and one other thing.

He finally got the ring. The championship ring. "I'm going to pass it on down to my kids, said an exuberant Jordan afterward. "No one can I take it away from me. I don't know if I'll ever have this feeling earned his second Most Valuable Player award, cut a commercial.