The Bulls weren't buying up all the top free agents. Jordan was drafted, Pippen was traded for very early, and Rodman was no huge pickup.
It's ridiculous to have a team over 200 million when 2nd place is 130 million and a bunch of teams are down under 50 million. I don't think people want a salary cap like the NFL where teams can't keep their players long enough, but would 125 million be unreasonable?