The Bulls are in the playoffs, yet, you don’t hear a lot of cheers – from fans, the media, the players, and even from me. This is due to the fact that the Bulls have been on a downward spiral during the stretch run – falling far and fast from their perch atop the East. Their ability to win another game is highly questionable.
My last post, “Championship dreams,” on February 26 may have played a role in the unfortunate spiral of lost games, blowouts and all-around awful close to the regular season. Note to files – don’t get too far ahead of oneself.
Now we’re all coming back down to earth, to the current reality. And it means we need to re-set, and count our blessings, and try not to get too wound up about these recent losses.
First, the Bulls’ unexpected rise to the top of the East…and their residence there for a good part of the season brought welcome distractions to Chicago sports when other teams were either awful (Bears), behaving badly AND awful (Blackhawks), or unavailable due extenuating circumstances (Cubs and White Sox). Watching the Bulls when they WERE winning at least gave us something to enjoy and cheer for during winter hibernation.
And it’s important to remember their record over the past four seasons, so we can see just how far they’ve come. In 2017-2018, they won 27 games, and it got worse the following two seasons with just 22 wins. Last season, when a real basketball coach finally arrived on the scene, they won 31. Thank you Billy Donovan. And as of today, their record is 45 and 36.
Being described as “the surprise of the NBA season,” “intriguing,” “one of the best teams in the NBA” is preferable to the less-than-favorable adjectives that used to come to mind when one described our Bulls: mediocre, irrelevant, laughingstock of the NBA – to name a few that are fit to print.
With the new management team – Artūras Karnišovas, executive VP of basketball operations and Marc Eversley, general manager, the Bulls have a competent, professional management team that will lead this team to a championship…in due time. Their acquisitions of DeMar DeRozan, Lonzo Ball, Alex Caruso, Nikola Vučević – legit players – has already made a big difference. FWIW, to quote Michael Jordan, “The ceiling is the roof. Let’s make it happen. Let’s keep moving forward.” With AK and Eversley, there’s hope that MJ’s aspirations can be a reality for these Bulls.
And to close, playoff experience will be invaluable. The short list of current Bulls players who have been to the playoffs is made up of Tristan Thompson, Alex Caruso and DeMar. The fact checkers will have to correct me if I inadvertently missed anyone. Either way, by my calculations, that leaves a pretty large contingent of players who will get their first experience in the next few weeks.
No rookie to the playoffs, yours truly will make her second appearance at a to-be-announced playoff game. While championship dreams may need to be tempered a bit, the Bulls are playoff-bound and relevant again.
DeMar DeRozan kind of says it better than I can, in an April 6 article titled Bulls clinch playoff berth for first time in five years despite loss to Bucks on nba.com.
“It’s always an honor to be able to get into the playoffs. The franchise hasn’t been here in five years. So for us to make the jump that we made to be in the position to be able to compete in the playoffs, it’s definitely great. It will give us an opportunity to further our season and play for something bigger. As long as the opportunity is there, it’s a chance. It would be different if we weren’t making it and we were talking about next year. For us to still have a chance and have an opportunity to pick it up and use these next couple games to be going in the right direction at the right time, that’s what it’s all about. Anything can happen. You always kind of look at it from the positive point of view.” – DeMar DeRozan.
See Red!
Go Bulls!
See you at the playoffs!
bullsbanter 
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