National Basketball Association

Here's how Michael Jordan reacted to the Bulls' 70th win in 1996

Published Apr. 8, 2016 11:37 a.m. ET

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On Thursday night, the Golden State Warriors (70-9) beat the San Antonio Spurs (65-13) to win their 70th game of the season, becoming just the second team to reach the mark since the 1995-1996 Chicago Bulls claimed 72 wins.

Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, who played for those Bulls, expressed in 2014 that Michael Jordan was motivated to reach 70, explaining that Jordan put the team on his back in about 10 games they should have lost. “He wanted to break that [1971-1972] Lakers record of 69 wins, so he decided we would do it, so we did it. There's only one Michael."

This season Kerr has downplayed the significance of 70, 72 and 73. He’s exhausted with discussing those Bulls and these Warriors, because while record books are nice he’s focused on trophies.

Through the powers of YouTube, we can go back in time and watch how Jordan reacted to hitting the 70 mark, and what it would mean to him going forward. In a nutshell: more wins, more pressure. Watch him discussing it above while walking off the court and then watch the even better stuff below (at about the 8:00 mark) as Jordan’s trademark hubris comes out when talking about accomplishments -- and where 70 would rank.

"We came out and put a lot of pressure on ourselves to try and end the whole 70-win concept right here. Looking back, it’s going to mean a lot.” Jordan says. “The pressure is added now that we've won 70 games -- that we have to win a championship."

"We put our name in the history books and I think that's great, but the final piece of this puzzle is a championship.” He adds later, “If we win a championship, when we win a championship this year, I'm pretty sure [70 wins] is going to rank right up there in the top three [accomplishments]."

Of course the Bulls did win the championship in 1996, besting the Seattle Supersonics in six games for the first title of their second three-peat.

Excluding the current Warriors and Spurs teams, eight of the 10 teams with the highest-ever regular season winning percentages went on to win the championship. Only the 1972-1973 Boston Celtics (lost in Eastern Conference Finals) and 2006 Dallas Mavericks (upset by No. 8-seeded Golden State in the Western Conference first round) failed to go all the way.