Era · 1990s

The Jordan Decade

1991–2000

Chicago won six titles in eight years and distorted the decade around that result. Between Jordan's two retirements, Hakeem Olajuwon won back-to-back titles in a cleaner field. The other side of the 1990s is the collection of Hall of Fame careers that never won a ring because they played at the wrong time: Stockton, Malone, Ewing, Barkley, and Reggie Miller.

The league globalized quickly, first with the 1992 Dream Team and then with a steady rise in international drafts. Shaquille O'Neal came into the NBA in 1992, Kobe Bryant in 1996, Tim Duncan in 1997. The stylistic change of the decade was less visible, slower, and would only reshape the sport in the following one: three-point volume began, quietly, to creep up.