Best of SI: Bench Players Detail Life as Members of the Bulls Dynasty

SI's Ben Pickman got a chance to speak with members from that era who detailed exactly what it was like playing under pressure and the great Michael Jordan.

In January of 1993, NBA veteran Darrell Walker received a call from Bulls general manager Jerry Krause. “Would you be interested in a 10-day contract with us?” Krause asked him. “With you guys, absolutely,” Walker responded.

The Pistons had waived the 6’4’’ guard earlier that season and before the Bulls reached out for his services, Walker’s NBA career seemed all but over. He had played nine seasons, but was still looking for what had been an elusive first NBA title. What better team to join than the two-time defending champion Chicago Bulls? A first 10-day contract turned into a second 10-day, which turned into a contract for the rest of the season. By June, Walker had won a title. “I was able to be part of the Rolling Stones,” he says of what turned out to be his final NBA season.

Beginning in the 1990-91 season, 44 different players played at least one game during each of the Bulls’ six championship runs. Besides Jordan, just Scottie Pippen was on all six of those teams. No other player won more than three titles with the dynasty. The mainstay role players of the franchise’s first three-peat were not part of the second three-peat. Turnover was constant and Jordan was the “ultimate competitor,” says center Will Perdue. “He truly was the definition of win at all costs.” Alongside the historic core of Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Phil Jackson, the Bulls' bench was caught up in the life with the best and most famous basketball player, and team, in the world.

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