A day after the Blackhawks season ended, the Bulls joined them for their summer vacation. The feelings for the Bulls are drastically different than the hope and optimism that builds for the young Hawks. The Bulls are literally in no-man’s land. After winning another first round play-in game, they lost another second round play-in game, which pretty much sums up the state of this franchise. Just good enough to get a taste; bad enough to take only one sip. We’re not any closer to that 7th title than we were since the day Derrick Rose got hurt. That’s been 12 years for those keeping track.
Average. Mediocre. Blah. Frustrating. Inconsistent. Pick a word to describe the Bulls; I have others I’d rather not say. Yet, here I was, after the play-in win over Atlanta on Wednesday night, giving the die-hards in the UC one more thing to cheer about this year, I had hope. No, I wasn’t proclaiming a series victory over the Celtics, who would have been our official playoff opponent had we won. No, I’m not that crazy. But sue me if I thought the Bulls were going to kick the Heat’s ass on Friday night in Miami. A year ago, in this same spot, the Heat beat the Bulls; we were in attendance for that game in South Beach. Revenge is in play! And this time around, Jimmy Butler, ex-Bull, playoff “himmy”, Jimmy G Buckets, would be in street clothes; one less guy who loves to torture his ex-team out of the mix. And oh yeah, the Heat’s in-season acquisition Terry Rozier would also miss this game. This was our chance. We’d be back in the playoffs, if anything for 4 games. Nope.
This one was over soon. As we drove to our first baseball practice of the year, we listened on the radio, as the Bulls got completely bitch slapped in the first quarter; now I didn’t feel so bad about not being able to watch the game. When we got out of the car, and turned Chuck and Bill off for the final time this year, it was already looking grim. In the back of my head, I secretly hoped for a comeback. As practice was ending, a lot of the boys wanted to know the score. My son grabbed my phone to check for everybody; down 20 in the 4th… game, set, match. What a bust. The real sucker here is me though… believing they could win this game. All year long the Bulls won when they should have lost, and lost when they should have won. This team, although I know there are more, has to be one of the most inconsistent, frustrating teams in the NBA. As the year went on, watching them on TV, became an education in curse words for my son, as I yelled at the TV; Vooch seemed to creep up as THE most yelled at guy. Don’t even get me started.
I’m happy the season is over. Similar to the Blackhawks, no need to drag this on any further. Unlike the Hawks however, my hope for the future is little… so little, you need a microscope. Where do we go from here? OK, lock in Coby White as a starter, fine; then what? It’s a mess. Not sure how/why we need to rebuild again, but here we are… unless we just run it back AGAIN? With “healthy” Lonzo, “reinspired” Zach, “not getting any younger” DeRozan, and “the statue of” Vooch? Say it ain’t so. Tell me anything but that… please. Go Bulls.
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