Dust off your Bulls jerseys Bulls fans
Most fans over 30 years old in Latin America and the world became fans of NBA basketball thanks to the Chicago Bulls in the 90s, a decade dominated by Jordan and the Bulls. Since then they have lived two decades of obscurantism except for a couple of seasons where they were moderately competitive with Derrick Rose but could never beat Lebron James’ teams.
The series “The Last Dance” pulled at the heartstrings and stirred indelible memories in many Chicago fans and with perfect timing the Illinois franchise has given them back the illusion and the courage to show off their fans thanks to a brilliant season that places them as leaders of the Eastern Conference with practically half the tournament played and about to surpass the total number of victories they achieved last season.
What started as an improbable streak to extend has become a reality, so much so that the bet on the Bulls to be NBA champions that started the season paying 100 to 1 is now only paying 20 to 1.
But what moves has Chicago made? Where do we begin to explain this change? And perhaps a good part of the answer lies in the change in management. In 2020 the Bulls thanked one of their legends, John Paxson, and turned basketball operations over to Artuas Karnisovas, the architect of the competitive Denver Nuggets who in his first move brought in Billy Donovan as coach and a year later traded for Nikola Vucevic, a hire that while looking solid didn’t dazzle anyone.
Undoubtedly the most impactful move was signing a 32-year-old veteran whom the Chicago wind has rejuvenated, DeRozan is having the most efficient campaign of his career and with 3 last-second game-winning baskets has become the Bulls’ clutch man. The former Spurs player has offloaded LaVine’s offensive workload and balanced the court with Vucevic. Chicago’s new trio is averaging over 61 points per game, 48% FG and a whopping 39% 3pts.
But the greatest merit of this management and coaching staff is to squeeze the best version of players like Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso, two elements that fit perfectly as role players but impact the game every night. These two represent the “moneyball” style construction of the Bulls successful model.
Now, the question on every Chicago fan’s mind is whether the dream will end soon, whether this illusion will not crumble, whether their team will be able to compete with Giannis’ Bucks, the Big 3’s Nets or Embiid’s Sixers. Difficult to answer these doubts but for now they have presented arguments to believe in their chances and for now for all those hidden Bulls fans to come out of the darkness, dust off their jerseys and show once again why they started to love the NBA. Their Bulls have given them back the illusion.
