1998 NBA Finals - Aftermath

Aftermath

To date, the series would be the last Finals appearances for both the Bulls and Jazz. After the season, the Bulls dynasty broke up. Without its key personnel this championship team, the Bulls missed the playoffs in the lockout-shortened 1999 season, winning just 13 of 50 games. The Bulls would not make the postseason again until 2005, win a playoff series until 2007, and earn the Eastern Conference top seed until 2011. The city of Chicago would not see another big league championship until Major League Baseball's Chicago White Sox won the 2005 World Series and end their 88-year title drought.

Phil Jackson declined an offer from the team president to coach another season. He would resurface as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers in 1999, winning five NBA titles in two separate stints with the club before retiring in 2011. Ron Harper followed Jackson to the Lakers and won championships within his final two seasons, in 2000 and 2001.

In January 1999, Michael Jordan announced his retirement for the second time; he would come out of retirement for the second and final time in 2001 with the Washington Wizards and played two seasons with the team. Scottie Pippen was traded to the Houston Rockets during the off-season and played his last season (2003-04) with the Bulls. Rodman, released by the Bulls in the off-season, signed with the Lakers mid-season, playing only 23 games before being released. In January 1999, the Bulls re-signed Steve Kerr and traded him to the San Antonio Spurs, where he would win two more championships in 1999 and 2003, his last year in the league. Luc Longley also retired in 2001.

The Jazz would continue to make the post-season until 2003, John Stockton's last season, and next made the Western Conference Finals in 2007 but lost in five games to the San Antonio Spurs. For the next three seasons, the Jazz made the postseason but each time was eliminated by Phil Jackson's Los Angeles Lakers (2008 conference semifinals, 2009 first round, 2010 conference semifinals). Jazz head coach Jerry Sloan resigned in February 2011.

Antoine Carr and Chris Morris became free agents after the Finals, signed with other teams, and retired by 2000. Jeff Hornacek retired in 2000 after two more seasons with Utah. After five more seasons with the Jazz, Karl Malone spent his final season of his career with the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Lakers lost the 2004 NBA Finals.

The 2005-06 postseason saw the retirement or departure from the NBA of these former members of the 1998 Finals teams: Howard Eisley, Greg Ostertag, Shandon Anderson, Bryon Russell, and Toni Kukoč. Eisley remained with the Jazz the next two seasons and 2004-05 and ended his career with the Denver Nuggets. In July 2006, the Nuggets traded Eisley to the Chicago Bulls, but the Bulls later waived Eisley before the 2006-07 season. Ostertag retired in 2006 after having played all but one season since the 1998 Finals with the Jazz; he played for the Sacramento Kings in 2004-05. In his second season with the team and final season of his career, Anderson won an NBA championship as a backup for the Miami Heat in 2006. Like Eisley, Russell played his final NBA season with the Denver Nuggets in 2005-06; Russell played three years afterward with teams in the American Basketball Association and International Basketball League.

From 1999 to 2011, the Western Conference champion team—Los Angeles Lakers, San Antonio Spurs, and Dallas Mavericks—has been from the states of California or Texas. Three other teams from the Central Division have been the Eastern Conference champion since that year: the Indiana Pacers in 2000, Detroit Pistons in 2004 and 2005, and Cleveland Cavaliers in 2007. The streak was finally broken when the Oklahoma City Thunder won the 2012 Western Conference championship over the Spurs.