Five things to watch in Tuesday night's Comcast SportsNet Chicago "Bulls Classics" broadcast, featuring the Bulls' 97-93 1992 NBA Finals Game 6 victory over the Portland Trailblazers:
1) Michael Jordan led the Bulls with 33 points in the close-out game, out-dueling his biggest rival at the shooting guard position, Portland's Clyde Drexler. Jordan, who averaged 30.1 points per game that season, won his second consecutive league MVP award and third overall. Not that he wasn't already a household name, but by bringing Chicago a second championship, there was no doubt he was already a legend, at only 28 years old.
2) The Bulls' second consecutive title was the franchise's first that was won on the home court of the old Chicago Stadium. It was a fitting show of appreciation for Bulls loyalists and those who jumped on the bandwagon alike, commemorating an outstanding, 62-win regular-season campaign and cementing a dynasty that would dominate the decade in the NBA. After sweeping the Heat in the first round, the Knicks took the Bulls to seven games in the Eastern Conference semifinals before they dispatched the Cavaliers and Trailblazers in six games apiece.
3) Scottie Pippen's 26-point Game 6 effort, to go along with four apiece of rebounds and assists, don't quite illustrate his brilliance at that point in his career, but he was nearing Jordan's equal as a slasher and had perhaps surpassed him as a defender (he was named to the first team of the NBA's all-defensive team, as well as garnering second team all-NBA honors for the first time in his career and making his second All-Star Game appearance) and all-around talent. Meanwhile, starting big men Horace Grant and Bill Cartwright suffered through rough outings, but Scott Williams picked up the slack with eight rebounds off the bench, while Stacey King also contributed. John Paxson's 13 points were another key component to the win.
4) The Blazers, which lost to both those 1992 Bulls and the 1990 Detroit Pistons in the Finals, just couldn't get over the hump. As talented, balanced, deep and big as they were, it seemed as if they needed another piece to complement star Clyde Drexler. Perhaps Drexler would have benefited from being a No. 2 option in Portland; he went on to win a championship with the Rockets alongside University of Houston teammate Hakeem Olajuwon in 1995.
5) Portland center Kevin Duckworth, who passed away in 2008, was a Chicago-area native. The Thornridge High School graduate -- the south-suburban school also produced Indiana University great Quinn Buckner -- attended Eastern Illinois before entering the NBA in 1986. After his rookie campaign, he quickly blossomed, becoming an All-Star in the 1988-89 and 1990-91 seasons. While some observers poked fun at his girth, the late Duckworth was quietly considered one of the most underrated centers of his era.