1988–89 Chicago Bulls season

The 1988–89 NBA season was the 23rd season for the Chicago Bulls in the National Basketball Association. During the off-season, the team acquired Bill Cartwright from the New York Knicks, then later on acquired three-point specialist Craig Hodges from the Phoenix Suns in December. The Bulls struggled with a 6–8 start to the regular season, but later on held a 27–19 record at the All-Star break. Despite losing eight of their final ten games of the season, the team finished in fifth place in the Central Division with a 47–35 record, and earned the #6 seed in the Eastern Conference.

Michael Jordan led the league in scoring averaging 32.5 points, 8.0 rebounds, 8.0 assists and 2.9 steals per game, and was named to the All-NBA First Team, to the NBA All-Defensive First Team, and was selected for the 1989 NBA All-Star Game in Houston, Texas. In addition, second-year forward Scottie Pippen showed improvement, replacing Brad Sellers as the team's starting small forward during the regular season, and averaging 14.4 points, 6.1 rebounds and 1.9 steals per game, while Cartwright provided the team with 12.4 points and 6.7 rebounds per game, and second-year forward Horace Grant provided with 12.0 points and 8.6 rebounds per game. Meanwhile, Hodges contributed 10.0 points per game in 49 games with the Bulls after the trade, Sam Vincent provided with 9.4 points and 4.8 assists per game, John Paxson contributed 7.3 points and 3.9 assists per game, and Sellers contributed 6.9 points per game.

Jordan also finished in second place in Most Valuable Player voting behind Magic Johnson of the Los Angeles Lakers, and finished in fifth place in Defensive Player of the Year voting, while Pippen finished tied in seventh place in Most Improved Player voting.

In the Eastern Conference First Round of the 1989 NBA playoffs, the Bulls defeated the heavily favored, and 3rd-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers in five games, and the heavily favored, and 2nd-seeded New York Knicks in six games in the Eastern Conference Semi-finals. However, they would lose to the heavily favored, and top-seeded Detroit Pistons four games to two in the Eastern Conference Finals. The Pistons would reach the NBA Finals for the second consecutive year, and defeat the 2-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers in four straight games, winning their first ever championship.

Following the season, head coach Doug Collins was fired after three seasons with the Bulls, while Vincent was left unprotected in the 1989 NBA expansion draft, where he was selected by the newly expansion Orlando Magic, and Sellers was traded to the Seattle SuperSonics.