There was one golden era in Bulls franchise history. It began, obviously, with the drafting of Michael Jordan in 1984 and concluded—with one famous interruption—in 1998 with six NBA championships, the third most in league history.

There was the 1966-67 inauguration and most successful expansion team in league history.

The guys who got so close from 1970 through 1975 with Jerry Sloan, Norm Van Lier, Chet Walker, Bob Love and Tom Boerwinkle;

The ABA closure led by Artis Gilmore;

The worst six years ever;

And the recovery and redemption that continues with this current Bulls team that Monday hosts the San Antonio Spurs in the United Center. There have been several iterations, but it started in 2003-04 and was built in many respects improbably around the most fortuitous nine-game losing streak ever to start an NBA season when the Bulls were 0-9 to start the 2004-05 season.

"The thing I always look back on was us as young players, my second season we started 0-9," recalled Kirk Hinrich, the only player from that starting group still with the Bulls. "We won the last game on the West Coast trip in Utah and we slowly as a young team kind of figured it out, built some confidence, realized if we defended and played hard, shared the ball we could win games. Then in the East, we even had the home court in the playoffs, the first time in the playoffs since the glory days. I always look back on that as something special.

"Starting 0-9 with young guys we found a way to stay with it and build some confidence," Hinrich added. "You realize you have been on bad teams and then on a good team you learn what it takes. They've done a good job of getting guys in here who are willing to build on that. And I like to think I was a small part of changing the culture here. I'm proud of that."

In this the 50th anniversary season of the Bulls franchise, Bulls.com is featuring occasional stories on pivotal figures and events in team history. One of those was the effective start of this period that has had the Bulls in the playoffs 10 of the last 11 seasons, one of the best current runs in the NBA.

It has gone through several coaches, and, of course, personnel changes. But it was the work ethic and commitment developed to start the run that, if not leading to ultimate success and an NBA championship, has established the Bulls among the elite franchise in the NBA on a consistent basis.

"It was a bleak situation," agreed Golden State assistant coach Ron Adams, who had been watching the Bulls struggles as a Bucks assistant until being hired in 2003. "Maybe Philadelphia is surpassing that record now, but after winning those championships they had the worse record in the history of the league for a series of years. From my standpoint, coming in I felt it was a great franchise and a good opportunity to see what one can do in helping turn things around.

"I thought John Paxson did some really clever stuff in changing the roster around," said Adams. "Scott Skiles came in, a tremendous coach, and brought a different kind of focus. The first year we weren't a very good team, but once some trades and moves were made we became a very consistent team of playing hard and in an organized manner and that was the beginning.

"I give John a lot of credit during that time," said Adams. "John is a very competitive guy; he was new to the job and wanted change and discipline and focus and teamwork and all the things any astute general manager would want for his team; and he brought in a coach who provided that."

The grand experiment with the end of the championship dynasty in 1998 proved an epic failure. The plan was not that different from what the 76ers are attempting now in stockpiling draft picks to try to acquire a star player. It never occurred. First was the drafting of Elton Brand with the No. 1 overall pick in the 1999 draft. Then came the trade of Brand for the rights to draft Tyson Chandler and pair him with fellow seven footer Eddy Curry. But the two high school kids surrounded by more teenagers and youngsters weren't capable. Coach Tim Floyd quickly gave up on the kids and pushed to trade for veterans who could provide offense.

Eventually, the Bulls did in acquire that kind of player in Jalen Rose, who had been a scoring star for a Pacers team that went to the Finals. It was the right idea, like with Jerry Krause's plan for young seven footers, but the wrong guy. Rose quit on the team in declining to be a mentor or role model. Eventually, he was traded to Toronto for Antonio Davis, a player who along with some of the rookies and veterans the Bulls acquired in that period reflected and represented the kind of team the Bulls hoped to create and have the community embrace.

"We had a lot of young talent who really hadn't been held accountable because.…they were given a lot of latitude without enough accountability," said Paxson, now the Bulls Executive Vice-President for Basketball Operations. "The idea was to address that and that's where the hiring of Scott came in. Even though we struggled that first year, we set the table for what would happen. That and trading Jalen basically for Antonio Davis. Antonio brought us professionalism, a guy the young guys we had on the team could look at and emulate for professionalism and work ethic."

The drafting of Hinrich in 2003 began the turnaround on the court.

"He was a big part of changing the culture because he was a young player who played hard and came from a great program in Kansas," said Paxson. "We did kind of go with guys who came from winning programs and there is something to that. One thing I had talked to Jerry (Reinsdorf, managing partner) about was that we really needed to increase our asset base. I've always felt one of the things unappreciated was the way Jerry stepped up that year and we paid $3 million for Phoenix' (No. 1 draft) pick."

That was the draft pick than enabled the Bulls to select both Ben Gordon and Luol Deng in the draft and then sign Andres Nocioni from overseas and add veterans like Adrian Griffin and Eric Piatkowski. The Suns' Bryan Colangelo was Executive of the Year that season, though in retrospect the one season rebuild by Paxson turned around a franchise like few others in the NBA as the Bulls were able to double their win total.

"Kirk, Lu, Ben and Noce fit into everything we were about with the toughness, the professionalism," said Paxson. "Then we started off that year 0-9 when Ben and Lu were rookies and I was sitting there thinking maybe this isn't the right thing to do."

The Bulls were widely dismissed nationally and locally after that 0-9 start in 2004-05 following a 23-win season. Those national projections for losing teams had the Bulls threatening the record of the 9-73 Philadelphia team. National reporters on ESPN were predicting the Bulls wouldn't win a game until January. Then Skiles came up with an idea, not unlike what he's doing now with the improving Orlando Magic by bringing Victor Oladipo off the bench.

"We appeared to be much better, but we were losing the games and I'm thinking, ‘My god, we've got to go out West; we're going to be 0-15,'" Skiles recalled with a laugh.

"The hope at that point was we're going to win while we are developing guys and that did end up happening," said Skiles. "We took BG (Gordon) out of the starting lineup; BG comes off the bench (in Utah) and had 20 or so (22). Ultimately, I think he led the league in fourth quarter scoring. My opinion is he should have been Rookie of the Year and Sixth Man of the Year; unbelievable play that season.

"We could have been 0-18; it may not have worked," recalled Skiles about moving second round pick Chris Duhon in as starting point guard and Gordon to sixth man. "The guys accepted it; it did something to the mix, freed a few guys up and it ended up working.

"It's not luck but fortunate to get those young guys in those big games early in their careers like that; that's what development is to me," said Skiles. "It's one thing to just play. If you can play in a playoff atmosphere or playing down the stretch for seeding, that's hard to get while you are rebuilding. Get them in meaningful games where you can find out about them. We said we'd play hard, we'd be able to guard. We‘re still young as hell, but we felt like we would play pretty unselfishly. We didn't really have a guy to go to. It ended up being Ben Gordon, but we didn't know that then. He was terrible in summer league and not so good in training camp, either, and then it turns out I had him in the wrong spot. He's such a rhythm player and he turned into a different player.

"Utah game, we finally get the win," recalled Skiles. "Then we go 4-5 almost .500, and then win like 11 of 12."

Actually 18 of 22 and instead of getting their first win in January, the Bulls were over .500 in January and heading to one of the great in season turnarounds in NBA history.

Skiles was coach of the month in January; Gordon won three consecutive rookie of the month votes. Though he won league Sixth Man that season, unprecedented for a rookie, Gordon but was second to college teammate Emeka Okafor for Rookie of the Year, certainly a curiosity.

"Yes (it was the start of a core)," Skiles agreed. "To me, you knew Luol was a guy who can't miss, really good player. You are not sure how good. Kirk could defend anybody, solid, tough. Nocioni, tough. Those are guys you build around. I get the question all the time: Who is going to be the superstar? None of them were. Really, really good players; no superstar. Luol made two all-star teams, but to be a superstar is perennial eight, nine-time All-Star. Whose team is it? All that crap. People are dying to have that perennial guy. We had a bunch of good young players and hopefully one day you'll get one. That guy makes everybody relax because you know when the crap hits the fan he is going to do something, the responsibility is on him."

That guy was Derrick Rose before the multiple knee surgeries. Perhaps again with Rose. Or Jimmy Butler. Or someone to come later. It's the hope of every team, to get that transcendent star who can elevate a franchise. It took almost 20 years before Michael Jordan came along. But you can compete and make your community proud, and sometimes things go right and you break through without that guy as teams like the 2004 Detroit Pistons did. Maybe even the Dallas Mavericks in 2011. But you can't get there until you have the right environment and core players who will compete and learn to make big plays and big shots at big times and play and act like professionals.

"We won that first game in Utah and that hard work and belief and accountability ended up working for us," said Paxson. "We won 47 games after losing our first nine. That turned out to be saying you are proud of a group of guys. We hadn't been to the playoffs in so long. The fans had been great and very understanding, but that year it gave them some hope.

"We became competitive again," said Paxson. Those teams we all felt competed as well we could possibly compete and we gave our fans something to be proud of. Then we went on to win a playoff series and swept the defending champs, Miami. It did set the stage. We weren't able to get to that next level, but those were fun years to watch our guys with their toughness and competitiveness."

And the foundation for a run the Bulls hope to continue and still build upon.