|
The 1997 NBA Finals was the concluding series of the 1997 NBA Playoffs that determined the champion of the 1996–97 NBA season. The Utah Jazz of the Western Conference took on the Chicago Bulls of the Eastern Conference for the title, with the Bulls holding home court advantage. The series was played under a best-of-seven format, with the first 2 games in Chicago, the next 3 consecutive games in Salt Lake City, and the last 2 games in Chicago. The Bulls won the series 4 games to 2. For the fifth time in as many Finals appearances, Michael Jordan was named NBA Finals MVP. Hal Douglas narrated the season-ending documentary for NBA Entertainment. ==Background== The Utah Jazz qualified for the NBA Finals for the first time, mainly due to the exploits of its All-Star duo in John Stockton and league MVP Karl Malone. Stockton joined the Jazz as the 16th pick of the 1984 NBA Draft, while Malone arrived as the 13th pick of the 1985 NBA Draft. They initially played backup to Adrian Dantley and Rickey Green before coming into their own by 1987. The Jazz would break through in the 1988 NBA Playoffs, losing a hard-fought seven-game series to the eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers in the conference semifinals. Early in the 1988–89 season, Frank Layden stepped aside from the coaching ranks and assistant Jerry Sloan took over. By 1992, the Jazz were an NBA power, advancing to their first Western Conference Finals that year, and then advanced to that round of the playoffs two more times in the next four seasons. The 1996 NBA Playoffs would see Utah lose a hard-fought seven-game conference final series to the Seattle SuperSonics, which many saw as the beginning of the club's ascension to the NBA's elite. They would put it all together the next season, winning 64 games to earn the top seed in the Western Conference. They would sweep the Los Angeles Clippers in the opening round, eliminated the Los Angeles Lakers in five games of the second round, and then with John Stockton making the buzzer-beating three-point field goal in Game 6, eliminated the Houston Rockets to advance to their first NBA Finals in franchise history. For the Chicago Bulls, the campaign was almost identical to their record-breaking 1995–96 season, although they would finish a win shy of another 70-win season. They swept the Washington Bullets in the first round, dispatched the Atlanta Hawks in a five-game second round series, and then defeated the Miami Heat in five games in the Eastern Conference Finals. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「1997 NBA Finals」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|