Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 1

152ndYear No. 166 Chicago Tribune BSections 0 BULLS DEFEAT LAKERS BULLS DEFEAT BLAZERS BULLS DEFEAT SUNS BULLS DEFEAT JAZZ BULLS DEFEAT SONICS BULLS DEFEAT JAZZ BULLS 87, JAZZ 86 Jordan seizes title with late heroics I m-pmif k-. A -(. 7 4 'it, i ii IS. fffi By Malcolm Moran Tribune Staff Writer SALT LAKE CITY If the final chapter of Michael Jordan's career was completed on Sunday night his role in the final gripping moments of a sixth championship for the Chicago Bulls would forever mark the perfect ending.

With the capacity crowd at the Delta Center roaring in anticipation of a Utah victory that would have forced a seventh game of the NBA Finals, Jordan's steal and two scores in the last ,37.1 seconds secured Chicago's shocking 87-86 triumph over the Jazz. And it was the fans in Chicago who got to celebrate victory, although in some areas it was marred by gunfire and several shootings. The statistics will claim that Jordan's performance was less than artistic. Jordan's 45 points, his high for the playoffs this year, came on 15-of-35 shooting. But with Scottie Pippen limited by a back injury, Ron Harper ill and Dennis Rodman ineffective, with Toni Kukoc's 15 points representing the team's only other double-figure scorer, the Bulls became most dependent on Jordan at the most important point of their season.

Trailing by three points with 41.9 seconds to go, Jordan drove from the right side, slipping by Bryon Russell and John Stockton for a layup with 37.1 seconds remaining. See Bulls, Page 7 Tnbune photo by Charles Cherney Deloris Jordan gets a kiss from son Michael after Sunday's win. THE DYNASTY Awesome run appears to be on last legs By Rick Morrissey Tribune Staff Writer If we forced a moment of clarity on ourselves, if we strapped ourselves to our official Bulls seat cushions and used the brain cells underneath our official Bulls horned caps, we would have to admit that we fell into this success, sort of the way we inherited Lake Michigan. Dumb luck, is what it was. In 1984 some rube general manager in Houston drafted Hakeem Olajuwon, another rube general manager in Portland picked Sam Bowie and we were left with the Greatest Who Ever Played the Game, Of course, after years of suffering through bad sports teams and lovable losers, we didn't immediately recognize the savior, even as he levitated right in front of our eyes, legs splayed, arm extended.

The Bulls won their sixth NBA championship Sunday night, age spots be 'damned, by extinguishing the Utah Jazz like a small kitchen fire. You know the drill; a mob at half court, a party in the streets, a civic celebration on tap. The Team of the '90s and the city it represents have built up muscles lifting all these trophies. We are, in the language of the gym, buffed. Even as they raise their arms in triumph, however, the Bulls as we know them seem to be waving goodbye.

Chairman Jerry Reins-dorf and General Manager Jerry See Dynasty, Back Page JAN jjij i Skip 'Bulls in 6' Bayless 'For the first time all night, you sensed that the Jazz fans finally had No. 23 right where they wanted him-in a Game 7. They sensed Bernie 'Jazz, er, uh, I mean Bulls in 5' Lincicome 'It was Jordan's fierce will that made up for Pippen's lack, not an unfamiliar function of their In Sports. Chicago whoops it up Quiet until the win, the city erupts with firecrackers, street dancing and gunfire. Police close streets and use tear gas.

Back Page. Tribune photo by Nuccio DiNuzzo After winning their sixth NBA title together, coach Phil Jackson gives Michael Jordan a championship hug, perhaps for the final time. GOP wooing Main not Wall St. TODAY'S TRIBUNE PAGE 3 Hezbollah on a mission to moderate its image I) power for the president. "Free trade with free people should be our new mantra," he said.

At the same time, he favors a bill that would allow people to sue their health insurance companies, saying managed care is rationing health care. "To be a majority party, we had to be a different party than just big-business Republicans," said Rep. Charlie Norwood a dentist who has angered many businesses for his sponsorship of the health-care bill that Wamp favors. The bill calls for broad new consumer protections for patients of managed-care compa- tionalism. Nothing raises the business community's hackles more than the increasing support within the party for sanctions on nations with which they trade or might trade one day.

A lobbyist who represents dozens of Fortune 500 corporations said the GOP is taking the business community for granted. In Congress, many Republicans say big business has done the same and does not recognize the virtual political revolution that has overtaken the party in the last four years. "There's a huge difference between small business and big business," said Rep. Zach Wamp a former real estate broker, champion of small firms and a social conservative. "Our party is listening more to Main Street than to Wall Street." Wamp voted against favorable trade treatment for China and so-called fast-tjrack trade negotiating Shift in party emphasis upsetting big business By William Neikirk Washington Bureau WASHINGTON The traditional marriage between Republicans in Congress and big business is undergoing severe strain, a sign of dramatic change within a political party long taken for granted by corporate boardrooms.

On a wide range of issues, from trade policy to health care, corporate America finds itself more frustrated with the social conservatism and inward-looking populism that has gained a foothold within the GOP-dominated Congress, especially in the House. The bedrock relationship is undergoing change as many business executives see the growing pervasiveness of the global economy eroding the party's interna By Storer H. Rowley Tribune Foreign Correspondent NABATIYEH, Lebanon Peering steely-eyed from beneath his white turban, Hezbollah's military commander for southern Lebanon calmly argues tnat U.S. policy in the Mideast is hostage to Israel and damaging to America's interests. "America should be the hand of liberty," Sheik Nabil Kaouk said.

"But now they should put that hand down because they are giving help and weapons to Israel and the flame of liberty has burned our children in Qana." The cleric insists he has no fight with the American people, only with U.S. policies he sees as favoring the Jewish state and undermining the Clinton administration's role as an honest broker in stalled Mideast peace talks. Militants say they won't join Arafat's new Cabinet. Page 6. Presenting Hezbollah's latest, more moderate world view, Kaouk condemned the U.S.

for supplying money and weapons used by Israel to occupy its self-styled security zone in southern Lebanon, including the artillery shells that killed some 100 Lebanese civilians in a 1996 Israeli attack at Qana. "They are with Israel when bad things happen to us," Kaouk said in this southern Lebanese city that is a stronghold of his Hezbollah (Party of God) resistance fighting Israeli occupation of nearby hills. "Americans should know that all our people are killed with their See Hezbollah, Page 10 JohnKasson books 'It's not that computers aren't important. Theare. But you need imagination.

WEATHER Monday: Showers; high 7 1 Monday night Low 61. Tuesday: Rain ending; 74. Full report, Sec. 2, pg. 8.

i See GOP, Page 8.