The Kentucky Wildcats had won the national championship in 1996 and been to the title game in 1997. The 1998 team was a different animal though. There were no great players and Rick Pitino was gone to the NBA. Tubby Smith was the new coach and even though the roster might not have been loaded, Tubby made sure the beat went on in Lexington.
For the second straight year, the Detroit Red Wings had a nice regular season, but were seeded behind Western Conference rivals, the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche. And for the second straight year it didn’t matter come playoff time, as the Red Wings rolled to a second consecutive Stanley Cup.
Jordan, now a 15-year veteran, and sidekick Scottie Pippen, had just enough gas in the tank to survive strong challenges from the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals and the Utah Jazz in the NBA Finals.
The New York Yankees felt like they’d missed an opportunity in the 1997 playoffs when they lost to the Cleveland Indians in the Division Series. The 1998 New York Yankees took it out on the rest of baseball with a display that, even allowing the many great teams this organization has fielded over the years, was the absolute best.
The Denver Broncos got a long-overdue Super Bowl win in 1997 by going the wild-card route and then winning the Super Bowl itself as a double-digit underdog. The 1998 Denver Broncos completed a back-to-back run and they did it with considerably more authority, as John Elway completed his illustrious career.
The UCLA Bruins hadn’t won a national championship since John Wooden retired on top following the 1975 season. The Bruins had made the Final Four a couple times in the immediate aftermath, in 1976 and again in 1980, but had otherwise been alarmingly absent from the national stage.
New Jersey held its opponent to two goals or fewer 16 times in 20 games, including all four in the Finals. Claude Lemieux scored thirteen postseason goals for New Jersey to win the Conn Smythe Award, as MVP of the entire playoffs.
The Bulls were the 5-seed in the Eastern Conference bracket and beat the Charlotte Hornets in the first round. Orlando, with not only Shaq, but guard Anfernee Hardaway, was seen as the new rising power in the NBA and held the top seed in the East. The Magic knocked out the Boston Celtics in four games—the first round was then a best-of-five—to set up the Shaq vs. MJ battle.
“Don’t ever underestimate the heart of a champion.” Those were the words of Houston coach Rudy Tomjanovich in the post-Finals celebration, a quote that lives on in NBA championship montages. It was a second straight title that marked the Rockets as the team that owned the “interim” period in the Michael Jordan era of NBA history.
The Atlanta Braves had come up short in the World Series in 1991 and 1992, then been upset in the National League Championship Series in 1993, before their likely playoff berth of 1994 was ended by the players’ strike. The 1995 Atlanta Braves spared the franchise and the fan base from the ignominy of constant playoff defeat by winning the World Series.
The 1995 Seattle Mariners had some great individual talent in Ken Griffey Jr. in centerfielder and Randy Johnson, who would go 18-2 and win the Cy Young Award on the mound. But it didn’t look nearly enough when the Mariners trailed the then-named Anaheim Angels by 12 ½ games in the AL West on August 15. Nor was Seattle in the picture for the wild-card spot…
Dallas Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones wasn’t going to sit by quietly after the San Francisco 49ers stopped his franchise’s bid for a historic three-peat in 1994. Jones raided the enemy. Cornerback Deion Sanders became a free agent and Jones threw a $35 million signing bonus to get around the salary cap and acquire Deion’s lockdown cover skill…
