In the early days of the Bulls’ run in Chicago, Michael Jordan was as likely to offer a compliment about Duke as he was to concede that the triangle offense had anything to do with the team’s success. But from the moment in 1985 that they were together in Chicago, Jordan, like most everyone else, loved Tex Winter, the man most associated with that set offense employed by Phil Jackson. “It’s important that people like Tex is around here,” Jordan told me once, “just for his sense of history and general knowledge of the game.”
But, gradually, as the Bulls grew into a powerhouse, Jordan came around to the fact that mixing in the triangle, an offense that stresses team play, movement and floor balance, was endemic to the Bulls’ success.