Sports is a great way to learn history, but it's also a great measuring stick for remembering how much time has passed. One of the things the ESPN documentary "The Last Dance" has taught us is how big a deal the late 1990's Chicago Bulls were, worldwide. They were rock stars. Everyone knew Michael and the Jordonaires.

Starting the 1996-97 season, the Bulls were the defending NBA champions and coming off a then-record 72-10 season. Now, they were picking up right where they left off, starting 4-0 (and eventually winning the second of three straight championships, in a second three-peat in the 1990's.

But the tweet above just reminded me how much time has passed (twenty-five years, for those keeping score)

I don't know about you, but in my mind, if I don't think about it, the 1990's are just a few years ago. Yes, when I do, I realize it is a full quarter of a century ago.  The "Titanic" movie was a phenomenon. I remember we did a costume dinner promotion at the Radisson downtown. The other movie mentioned "Space Jam" hadn't come out yet, and now it's been remade. My younger son, who loved that movie, was only one in 1996. He's 26 now.

But....then there's Tom Brady, the ageless one. Yes, "Touchdown" Tommy is an anomaly, but he was a freshman at U of M. Think about that. And he is still playing football in the NFL, two decades later.

Oh, yeah. All this was four years before Y2K. Remember that?

But as a Chicago fan, let's not forget one other thing: Just how bad the Bulls have been since "The Last Dance".

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