I have never been happier to yell those words than I am right now. No I am not a Miami heat fan. In fact I kind of hate them ever since the arrogance of 'The Decision" and their pep rally for nothing.
Being an old man from Chicago means I was lucky enough to witness the Michael Jordan era Chicago Bulls. I was legal drinking age for their 2nd three peat so even though I could never afford to see any of the championships in person, I got to watch them at cool places all over the city. My favorite being the Brew and View movies theater that showed the games on their giant movie screen and served cheap drinks to enhance the fun. Even before this I was a huge fan of the Bulls when they were lead by Artis Gilmore (who my friend's dad referered to as "the ugliest man alive") and Reggie Theus. So I paid my fan dues and earned the joy of those Championships. I am still a huge Bulls fan... regardless of how hard their owners are trying to make it to be one.
The game just ended . The Bulls got smoked 109 to 90 and the game wasn't even that close. After the opening tip, I never feared for one second they were going to win. And "feared" is the right word. I was terrified they would accidentally win the next 2 games in order to "earn" the privilege of being swept by the Cleveland Cavaliers. The cost of this reward would have been a place in the lottery. Sadly, due to utter mismanagement, luck is the only thing that can save my beloved Bulls. It saved them once before back in 2008 when they had a 1.7% chance to win the rights to draft hometown hero Derrick Rose. They lucked in and it changed the franchise... temporarily. Sadly injuries cut his spectacular Bulls career short. But damn it was an exciting few years!
Thanks to not accidentally winning tonight, the Bulls have a 1.2% chance of landing the top pick in the draft. For those of you scoring at home, that is infinitely better than the 0% chance they have of improving without getting lucky. They simply don't know how to do that. Many other teams have figured out how to build a team without luck... but not the Bulls. If you are looking for evidence that they have NEVER done this just look at the fact that they lucked into drafting Michael Jordan 3rd overall back in 1984. Thank god Portland took Sam Bowie with the 2nd pick.
Although that 1.2% chance of becoming a real team is the main reason I was happy with the loss, there were a few others.
Being an old man from Chicago means I was lucky enough to witness the Michael Jordan era Chicago Bulls. I was legal drinking age for their 2nd three peat so even though I could never afford to see any of the championships in person, I got to watch them at cool places all over the city. My favorite being the Brew and View movies theater that showed the games on their giant movie screen and served cheap drinks to enhance the fun. Even before this I was a huge fan of the Bulls when they were lead by Artis Gilmore (who my friend's dad referred to as "the ugliest man alive") and Reggie Theus. So I paid my fan dues and earned the joy of those Championships. I am still a huge Bulls fan... regardless of how hard their owners are trying to make it to be one.
Their young players like Matas Buzelis, Coby White, and Josh Giddey learned a very valuable lesson. They saw first hand that playoff basketball is much different than regular season basketball. In the playoffs, you don't get to go to the free throw line just because you throw your hands in the air. Unless your name is LeBron, they actually allow other players to touch you in the playoffs. It's a different, more physical and more difficult game. They better spend a lot of time preparing for that type of basketball.
Hopefully the front office learned something as well. namely, the team they built sucks. Their 15 and 7 record over the last6 weeks of the season was a mirage. Aside from an amazing win over the Lakers, for the most part they were beating teams that were not even trying to win. Hopefully they figure out they really have a bunch of bench players where they do not belong... starting.
Finally I hope the front office figured out that their coach Billy Donovan has no idea how to win meaningful games against teams that are trying. His hyper-speed pace and no defense style can win a bunch of regular season games... but who cares? The NBA is not a video game. You have to play a complete game in order to win in the playoffs. The Bulls have no idea how to do that. What's sad is that they could actually perform decently in the playoffs if they just gave the freaking ball to Vucevic in the post. Donovan has had 4 years to figure out he can run a half-court offense through that guy, but he refuses to do it.
Sadly, there is no evidence the front office will learn any of those lessons. Therefore I need to rely on luck. And luckily there is a 1.2% chance I might actually be hhappy next year.
"So you're saying there's a chance.."
Here's the interactive part. Who's your favorite team in the NBA playoffs?