Las Vegas Believes The 2017 Warriors Would Be Favored Over Michael Jordan And The ’96 Bulls


Getty Image

The 2015-16 NBA season featured a lot of people trying to answer a hypothetical question: What would happen if the Golden State Warriors, which went 73-9, played the 1996-97 Chicago Bulls squad that went 72-10? It’s one of those fun questions that has no answer, but basketball fans like debating it because you can make a case for either team.

Fast forward a year and while the 2016-17 Warriors may be more talented, we didn’t have a lively “Dubs or Bulls?” debate because Golden State didn’t have as impressive of a record. This is totally fair. Still, according to Las Vegas, there are plenty of reasons to believe that this year’s Warriors squad could take down Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and co.

ESPN spoke with seven Vegas bookmakers and asked them to set the odds in a game and series between this year’s Golden State and Michael Jordan’s 1995-96 Chicago Bulls squad that went 72-10 en route to an NBA title.

Five of the six had the Warriors favored, from as high as -8 at the MGM (per Jay Rood, vice president of race and sports at MGM Resorts) to as low as -2 at William Hill US (per Nick Bogdanovich, director of trading, William Hill US).


According to the SuperBook manager at Westgate Las Vegas, the Warriors would be -360 over the course of a series while the Bulls would be +300.

It makes sense that this Warriors team would get the nod – as we’ve seen in the 2017 Finals so far, Golden State is terrifying, and it’s hard to stop all of their weapons. The ’96 Bulls are a better defensive team than this Cleveland squad, and it would especially be fun watching Jordan and Pippen – two of the best 1-on-1 defenders ever – check Steph Curry and Kevin Durant. As an aside, on the other side of the ball, there’s a good chance we’d have Jordan going up against Draymond Green every now and then, which would rule.

Just like last year, the “Dubs or Bulls?” debate is a hypothetical that we’ll never get an answer to, but at least where know where Las Vegas stands on the subject.

(Via ESPN)

×