Columnist Dean Juipe: Bulls boring but it was out of necessity

THANK HEAVENS that's over.

And that it ended right.

And that once again Michael Jordan was the hero.

And -- deep breath and exhale here -- that what seemed to be an exceptionally long National Basketball Association season has walked its course.

It took six games -- six sometimes tedious games -- but at long last the Chicago Bulls did the sports world a favor and won their sixth world championship Sunday night, dismissing the determined but equally boring Utah Jazz 87-86 in Salt Lake City.

The NBA wasn't always like this. There was a time when the games were wide open and the play invigorating. Teams enthusiastically rushed up and down the court and there were almost constant displays of graceful athleticism.

But in recent years, culminating here in 1998, the brand of basketball that's played is methodical to an extreme. It's all half court, especially in the playoffs where every possession is magnified.

Was there even one fast break during the finals?

The Bulls, of course, are to blame for this and it will be part of their legacy. Out of necessity if not design, they stalled, they milked shot clocks, they perfected an offensive scheme that utilized surprising little space on the floor.

They had to play that way, what with Jordan their only truly reliable scorer and with three of their top six players -- Luc Longley, Ron Harper and Dennis Rodman -- below average when it comes to putting the ball in the basket against top-flight competition.

The system worked but only because Jordan was its engineer. He's a brilliant, motivated player who maximized not only his own abilities but those of his teammates for many, many years.

Take Jordan off the Bulls and install any other player in the league -- Shaquille O'Neal included -- and Chicago would have been out of the playoffs long before reaching Game 6 of the finals. They were that shallow.

This comes as no consolation to the Bulls' dogged foils, the Jazz.

Yet Utah has only itself to blame for bringing back virtually the same team that lost in the finals to Chicago last year. What the Jazz was banking on this season was that the Bulls were a year older and, supposedly, a year slower.

But so was the Jazz. If ever a team needed a serious infusion of youth, speed and exuberance, it was Utah and its front office should have recognized as much last summer as it mulled possible personnel moves.

Instead, it brought back the same cast only to find the aging process affected its team as much as it had the Bulls. It was nothing ventured, nothing gained, as the '98 finals so closely mirrored the '97 version it was as if it followed an identical script.

But that's it for the Bulls. Substantial changes in their roster are in the offing and the franchise of the decade is ready for the inevitable decline.

It was a remarkable run, however, and Jordan reaffirmed his position as arguably the sport's greatest player ever with a chillingly masterful finale.

If he's riding off into the sunset he'll be missed even if his team's style of play will not.

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