Bulls' Resurgence Finally Gives Chicago A Reason To Celebrate

CHICAGO — The championship banners that hang from the rafters of the United Center may speak of a proud past, but when it comes to the Chicago Bulls, the silence — at least in recent memory has been deafening.

Winning isn’t something the Bulls have been affiliated with much since 2017, a long-suffering stretch when a franchise once known as the NBA’s most decorated won just 80 games. More than half of those victories came in Billy Donovan’s first season in Chicago last year when an organization that had fallen on hard times finally starting to show signs that it was serious about contending for championships.

But it wasn’t until Bulls Vice President Arturas Karnisovas and general manager Marc Eversley dropped $80 million for point guard Lonzo Ball and $85 million in a sign and trade deal to land All-Star DeMar DeRozan in the offseason when the pieces of a promising puzzle really started to fit together. Now, after years as settling as just another also-ran, the Bulls have put the rest of the NBA on notice that they are in win-now mode.

And it’s exactly what a sports-hungry city that has been starving for someone, anyone to cheer for needs.

In a city where winters of competitive discontent have become the norm since the Blackhawks stopped winning Stanley Cups, the Bears have toiled in mediocrity and the Bulls haven’t sniffed the playoffs since, the Bulls have everyone’s attention. Just not in their home city, but around a league they once dominated.

The Bulls’ 14 victories so far this season are tied for the most in the NBA’s Eastern Conference. But it’s the manner in which the Bulls have won that has created a buzz, producing a fast-paced, unselfish, energetic brand of basketball that has brought fans back to the United Center in a way that hasn’t been seen in years.

In what has already been a mostly forgettable season for the Blackhawks — on and off the ice — and what is sure to be a mind-numbing offseason for the Bears who will attempt (likely unsuccessfully) to convince their fan base they want to again be an elite NFL franchise, the Bulls remain the biggest reason for optimism the city’s sporting public can count on to generate any level of excitement.

A win-now mentality doesn’t mean a championship is waiting around the corner. But the Bulls front office has managed to wake up a formerly basketball-crazed city once drunk with enthusiasm that hasn’t been this convinced that winning was possible since Tom Thibodeau’s teams were a serious Eastern Conference contender.

But an exciting start to the season is only worth anything if the Bulls can prove that their energy level is sustainable over the long run. If it is, and the Bulls can continue to play with the pace that has been generated so far, this team becomes once that not only is a playoff team but that has the ability to remain in the upper echelon of the Eastern Conference and beyond. It’s a brand of NBA basketball that hasn’t been seen in these parts for years and one that harkens back to a time when Chicago knew nothing less.

And even if the championships don’t come immediately, and even if they don’t come with the frequency that the Jordan-era Bulls produced, the fact these Bulls are proving themselves capable of getting there sooner than later is more than we can say from any other team in town right now.

And after years of silence, a little noise coming out of the United Center should matter for something.