Mark Jackson stated that the Indiana Pacers were better than the Chicago Bulls in 1998.
Jackson was a member of the Pacers in 1998, when they were eliminated by the Bulls in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
“It was nothing against them, but we believed that we were the better basketball team. We believed we had every answer for the problems they presented.
That’s not a slight or disrespect, we had ultimate respect for them — Michael’s greatness, Scottie’s greatness, Dennis Rodman’s greatness, their greatness as a team, Phil Jackson’s greatness as a coach — but we thought it was our time.
Having our best player in Reggie Miller, a Hall of Famer and superstar, being able to pretty much fight to a standstill against the great Michael Jordan. That’s not saying he’s better than him, but we believed he could fight him to a standstill and we could handle the rest.
We respected Chicago, but we did not fear them. That’s because we had success against them. Even in their 72-win season, when the Bulls only lost 10 games, we beat them twice. We had tremendous confidence and belief that we could beat them,” Jackson said, via Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated.
