MT2231 - Ceremony for the Chicago Bulls, NBA Champions - 01 October 1991

please be seated and thank you thank you all for coming i would like to welcome all of you sam skinner our secretary of transportation and came here to gloat uh bored us all to death about these guys for ever since last winter and it's nice to see him here at edward winsky our secretary of veterans affairs come to cheer his home team and i'd also like to express my condolences here today for to jim edgar the governor of the state whose mother died last week and our our thoughts go out to him i know he'd be here if it weren't for that i also want to welcome so many members of the illinois congressional delegation commissioner stern is with us a bull's owner old friend of mine jerry reinstore great to have them all here and we were out now just watching some awesome shooting on our basketball court down here that i wish we could have shared with everybody but it was spectacular really good we're also pleased to have with us and i want to get them to stand up if we can representatives of the anacostia youth basketball league and then 24 players from a dozen washington d.c high school teams with us will you guys all stand up so we can at least see where you are welcome and finally we're delighted to have with us david mercer the national executive director of the ymca barbara roper the chairperson of the ymca national board in the 100th anniversary of basketball i think we all duo a special a vote of thanks to the y and what they've meant to so many kids around this country i know i know ray clay but i'll try to give the bulls a hearty welcome as well we're here because the chicago bulls uh answered all their critics last year compiling the best regular season record in their history and then crushing all the opposition on the way to their first ever national basketball association championship you know some uh some script writer some hollywood scriptwriter had come up with a plan tried to submit a script on this last year the movie producers would have tossed it away too improbable too many uh pieces of history and fortune last year the franchise celebrated its 25th anniversary the bull sold out every home game and ran their streak of sellouts at the stadium to 190 games and now we have our first rose garden sellout suddenly everyone in the entire administration claims to have come from chicago but uh the team won its 1 000th game last season played its 1000th home game and welcomed its 10th millionth fan the team enjoyed its first 60-plus win season ran off the longest home winning streak in its history set records for the best defensive quarter ever and the best offensive quarter and on june 12th uh my birthday i might add the bulls won the world championship not bad for a team that the experts said would lose to the pistons and then to the lakers not bad at all you know it was former soviet olympic coach alexander gamelski he once said it's an axiom that good players without a good coach make a mediocre team well no one has seen phil jackson prowl the sidelines who've seen that going on nobody can argue against his skills as a coach and what's even more amazing is the fact that sports writers actually call him a nice guy i didn't think they liked anybody at least before they retired but uh that's the way it is and at any rate phil who i must mention is a new york met once room roomed with bill bradley senator bill bradley i want to congratulate him his excellent staff and uh everybody connected with his winning ball club one key you made great use of the bulls talent just look down the roster and everyone contributed to the success of the team let me just click them off bj armstrong bill cartwright horace grant craig hodges dennis hopson michael jordan stacy king cliff flemingston john paxton will perdue scottie pippen and scott williams and you'll find each name in the box scores and we'll see a lot of them in the hall of fame now everyone here certainly and many around the country know exactly what you all did on the court last year but i want to just say that the bulls also perform spectacular feats after the 24 second clock has expired and the crew has turned off the lights at the stadium john paxton whose long-range bombs destroyed the lakers during the playoffs couldn't be here today because he's committed himself to hosting a drug-free assembly as part of hugs not drugs program that he's so interested in horace grant works with youth for christ stressing the importance of positive lifestyle as well as getting good position on the offensive boards and cliff livingston hosts an annual charity basketball classic for multiple cirrhosis bill cartwright did that great ad for the national committee for the prevention of child abuse and helps out the little city foundation a home for the and bg armstrong uh stresses recycling not littering and of course he likes to pick up stray basketballs usually from isaiah thomas and magic but michael jordan performs a host of good works with a series of charities and through his foundation the charitables also do a great job of serving youth in chicago's embattled neighborhoods and in some people on this team serve their communities and i spoke to students across the nation today from an eighth grade class out here and it's worth pointing out that the bulls also contribute to this nation's educational efforts everyone on the team participates in stay in school assemblies and you stress the importance of getting an education and you also illustrate the joys of physical fitness something that this administration is encouraged under the kinder a gentler leadership of arnold schwarzenegger who incidentally is doing a good job as head of our fitness council been to 27 states now i think and going to all of them you guys thought i'd talk just about basketball but it is tough to limit yourself to sports when an entire team sets this kind of selfless example for the rest of our society i'm pleased to have you all here we've made it months for this event and i can tell you as far as i'm concerned uh concerned all of you were worth the wait so david stern and jerry reisdorf and players and officials for the bulls thank you all for joining us thank all of you and may i encourage every one of the kids from anacostia and elsewhere with us out in this audience to get going in that school do your best and someday i expect confidently many of you will be standing right here thanks for joining us and uh thanks to making fans out of the white house staff who was always looking for a good excuse to get out of work but nevertheless uh this one is one in which i'm very happy and proud to join them and thanks for what you've done to stimulate the best in sports in the united states of america god bless you all mr president on behalf of the nba america's game we wanted to thank you for your gracious remarks it was terrific listening to you and coach jackson swapped defensive strategies over on the basketball court but we'd like to make a presentation first i'll make a quick one and then ask jerry reinsdorf and bill cartwright to make theirs this is number one fan of the nba mr president some years ago as you'll recall i gave you a white sox jacket and i knew you wore it regularly i saw you in u.s news and world report and then your son george bought the texas rangers and you haven't worn it anymore i thought that we'd give you a bulls jacket and if george wants to buy a basketball team we're not going to let him in that's great so let's say about the chicago bulls and my teammates we're very happy to be here i just want to present uh president bush with this basketball thank you very much all right guys all right thank you thank you [Applause] all guys jerry have a good seat thank you hi hello hi how you doing i know you i used to root for you when you're on the next night well done super hero scott williams all right oh it's [Music] what's your stuff [Music] [Music] [Music] hey guys thank you that's all i have whoa [Applause] over here [Music] somebody's phone okay

Channel: TheBushLibrary

Views: 1,479

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: George Bush, George H.W. Presidential Library, MT2231, Bush 41, Rose Garden, White House, Chicago Bulls, NBA Champions

Id: _knYOyFH0YE

Length: 14min 42sec (882 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 07 2020