The historic ’95-’96 Chicago Bulls team, which was headlined by Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, set the all-time record for most wins in an NBA regular season with 72 wins en route to being crowned the 1996 NBA Champions.
The feat was thought to be an insurmountable one, with the record standing for the past 20 years.
The ’15-’16 Golden State Warriors, however, have done what was thought to be impossible, winning against the Memphis Grizzlies to the score of 125-104 to set a new regular season record of 73-9.
Flashing his usual otherworldly brilliance was last year’s MVP Stephen Curry, who posted a line of 46 points on 15-of-24 shooting, on 10-of-19 on three-pointers, with six assists, four rebounds and two steals in just under 30 minutes. With the performance, Curry strengthened his bid to repeat as the league’s MVP this year.
Curry himself finished the regular season in the record books, with a total of 402 three-point shots made to set a new record that smashed the previous record of 286 that he set last year. The 400th three-pointer was made by Curry with 11:16 to go in the third quarter, splashing in the shot from the right corner and then turning and saluting to the raucous Oracle Arena crowd.
Earlier this season, Curry did not hide the fact that the Warriors were shooting to eclipse the 72-win season by the ’95-’96 Bulls, especially with the team opening the season with the best start in NBA history of 24-0.
“There’s not many opportunities that you probably have to go after that record,” Curry then said.
“But when you have a shot at history and being the best regular-season team in the history of the NBA, I think you’ve got to go for it.”
Even Michael Jordan joined in on pushing the Warriors to chase the record, with the legendary guard telling Warriors forward Draymond Green to “go get the record.”
Making the feat more impressive was the fact that key players Harrison Barnes and Andre Iguodala, who was last year’s NBA Finals MVP, missed weeks of playing because of injuries. In addition, head coach Steve Kerr missed the first 43 games of the season recovering from back surgery that he had in the off-season. Kerr was a teammate of Jordan in the 72-win ’95-’96 Bulls.
With the record now in hand, the Warriors now move on to what the team claims to be their main goal, which is to defend the NBA championship that they won last year.