What are all the meritorious officials of the Bull Dynasty doing? Jordan became a business tycoon and Pippen nearly went bankrupt.

In the finale of the Michael Jordan documentary "The Last Dance", these subtitles were left:

Phil Jackson was replaced; Michael Jordan faced retirement; Scott Pippen was traded; Dennis Rodman was fired; Steve Kerr was traded.

After the Bulls achieved their second three consecutive championships in team history in 1998, where did these people end up? What is their life like now? Let’s take a look.

The myth ends

The midsummer of 1998 was a complete success for the Bulls. Jordan fulfilled his promise and brought another three consecutive championships to the Bulls. This myth was sweet to everyone on the Bulls team at the time. But behind this sweetness, the Bulls have to face the 37-year-old Rodman, the 35-year-old Jordan and the 33-year-old Pippen. The combined age of these three people is more than 100 years old. Therefore, if these three If the player continues to be in the team, then the team will naturally have to consider its own salary space and age structure. Finally, the Bulls announced that they were entering a rebuild.

Although this is not the result that fans want to see, after all, according to statistics, the Chicago Bulls (1997-98 season) are the first to include rebounds in technical statistics since the 1950-51 season. The only team that could win the NBA championship, and the three teams shared the scoring (Jordan), assists (Pippen) and rebounding (Rodman) titles in the playoffs that season.

The legend of the Zen Master continues and ends with the Knicks

After the prosperity dispersed, "Zen Master" Phil Jackson gave himself a year's vacation. Then in 1999, he took over the Los Angeles Lakers and helped the Lakers win the championship again, achieving the team's three consecutive championships and establishing the Lakers dynasty. To this day, Phil Jackson is the sixth 1,000-win coach in NBA history. . At the same time, he is also the coach with the most playoff wins in North American professional sports history, and he is also the coach with the most NBA championships and the head coach with the highest winning percentage in history.

However, after Phil Jackson announced that he would join the New York Knicks in 2014, he failed to succeed in New York and was fired in 2017.

Jordan has become a business tycoon

After Jordan won the championship in 1998, due to the NBA's labor negotiations reaching a deadlock, Jordan announced his retirement again. However, Jordan announced his comeback again in 2001 and joined the Wizards. It wasn't until 2003 that Jordan finally officially retired.

After retiring, Jordan created his own myth in business. Today, Jordan’s net worth is as high as 2.1 billion U.S. dollars. By operating his personal brand Air Jordan, he completed the acquisition of the Hornets, founded a training camp, and entered the NBA. He has achieved a perfect transformation in a series of business operations such as the film and television industry, investing in casinos and hotels, etc.

Pippen nearly went bankrupt and became an NBA commentator

Although Pippen did not end his life with the Bulls, for Pippen personally, he won a lot of success after leaving the Bulls. The biggest contract of his career. In order to acquire Pippen, the Rockets spent a lot of effort and cost, including getting another Hall of Fame forward, Charles Barkley, to agree to a salary cut. Among them, the Bulls have also made some efforts to make up for Pippen's previous salary losses. After joining the Rockets, Pippen's annual salary reached $11 million, which was almost four times his previous annual salary with the Bulls.

It is worth mentioning that Pippen earned 70% of his career salary while playing for Houston and Portland. According to statistics, Pippen's total career salary reached $120 million, which is higher than Jordan's total career salary.

However, after retiring, Pippen was not good at managing his own property. As early as 2011, Pippen was on the verge of bankruptcy, 4 million of which actually came from the business jet he purchased. Only a few A major failure occurred a few months later. For this reason, Pippen filed a complaint and took his lawyer to court and claimed $8 million. Although he ultimately won the case, the court ruled that Pippen also bore some responsibility for the incident. As a result, the compensation he actually received was only 25% of the amount he had previously claimed.

After much trouble, Pippen began to become an NBA commentator. In 2019, Pippen's remarks about "James is not as good as Jordan and Kobe" caused an uproar in the NBA.

Rodman is still chic

Since then, even though Rodman left the NBA, he still went his own way. He has joined some small teams in the United States and also played in Europe. However, Rodman did not go bankrupt after retiring. Instead, he made millions a year. He entered the entertainment industry through wrestling matches and went to North Korea four times to help develop the basketball industry there. These are all things Rodman tried. Something new.

Cole became a championship coach

Among these five people, perhaps Steve Kerr is often in the spotlight. After leaving the Bulls, Cole joined the Spurs and won the championship with the team. In 2003, Cole won the championship again with the team. After that season, Cole also announced his retirement, ending his career.

In the 2014-15 season, Cole joined the Golden State Warriors with a five-year, $25 million contract and served as the team's head coach. In that season, Cole and the Warriors created their own myth, helping the team win the championship again after 40 years. Until 2019, Cole and the Warriors reached the Finals five times in five years and won three championships, creating a Warriors dynasty.

Among the players or coaches who won the championship for the Bulls, their lives after retirement were different. Jordan continued to create his own myth in the business field, and Phil Jackson after a lot of troubles with the Knicks. There is no more "tossing around", Pippen has become a commentator, Rodman is still cool, Cole continues to lead the Warriors forward, everyone is living in their own way. In any case, best wishes to these NBA legends!

(First published on Sina NBA)