The 1996 Chicago Bulls and the 72-win season

The 1995-96 season followed the return of Michael Jordan, who had stepped away from basketball and come back the previous year determined to reclaim his place at the top. Hungry and relentless after his absence, he drove a Chicago Bulls team that felt it had unfinished business. The result was a group with a singular focus and an almost cold-blooded will to win, setting out to prove that the interruption had changed nothing about their supremacy — and then far exceeding even that ambition.

Around Jordan the Bulls were beautifully constructed. Scottie Pippen provided all-round brilliance as the ideal second star, and the arrival of Dennis Rodman added a rebounding and defensive obsessive who dominated the boards and unsettled opponents. A deep supporting cast of shooters and specialists rounded out the group, all guided by coach Phil Jackson's system and steady hand. Every player understood and embraced his role, producing a team with no obvious weakness at either end of the floor.

What followed was a regular season of relentless dominance. The Bulls won game after game, rarely looking troubled, and finished with a record of seventy-two wins and only ten defeats — a benchmark that stood for two decades as the finest regular-season record in league history. Night after night they overwhelmed opponents at both ends, combining Jordan's scoring, Pippen's versatility and a suffocating collective defence into a machine that simply did not stop winning.

A great regular season means little without a title, and the Bulls left no doubt, powering through the play-offs to win the championship and give their record the crown it deserved. It was the first of a second three-peat, confirming that this was a dynasty and not merely a moment. The 1996 Bulls remain the standard against which dominant teams are measured, remembered as one of the most complete sides the sport has ever produced.