Chicago Bulls: A beginner’s guide to being a Bulls fan

The Chicago Bulls have a long, confusing and decorated history. Here’s everything you need to know in order to be a Bulls fan in 2018.

Maybe you hang out with a bunch of Chicago Bulls fans, maybe you’re marrying into a family full of Bulls fans or maybe you’re just becoming a basketball fan in the Chicago area. Trying to learn enough about a team to carry on a conversation can be difficult.

The Chicago Bulls have been around since 1966 so obviously, I won’t be able to cover everything, but there’s some relatively recent history you might be wondering about. For example, how should I feel about Michael Jordan vs. LeBron James? How good are the Bulls now? What happened to this Derrick Rose guy I here so much about? Wait, Jimmy Butler isn’t still on the Bulls?

Those are all important things to know. Let’s take a look back at recent Bulls history and explain the important elements that make Bulls fans who they are today.

Michael Jordan

If you know one thing about the Chicago Bulls, it’s probably that Michael Jordan played for them. He’s arguably the most famous athlete of all time so if you’re trying to talk like a Bulls fan, you need to at least know the basics about Mike.

Michael Jordan was drafted No. 3 overall in the 1984 NBA Draft by the Chicago Bulls. Before that though, he played three seasons at the University of North Carolina. He even made the game-winning shot in the 1982 NCAA Championship.

Jordan went on to play 13 seasons for the Chicago Bulls where he won 5 MVPs and 6 NBA Championships. During his 13 seasons for the Bulls, Jordan averaged 31.5 points, 6.3 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game.

Michael Jordan was widely regarded as the greatest basketball player of all time until LeBron James started to do things on the court that made us wonder if he might be more alien than human. Both players are great and both are clearly the two best players of all time. Whether you side with Jordan or LeBron is up to you, but if you’re trying to be a Bulls fan, you just need to know Jordan is somewhere at the top of the basketball world.

Derrick Rose

I might tear up during this segment (that says a lot about what you need to know).

Derrick Rose was a Chicago kid who went on to play his college basketball at the University of Memphis where he set the basketball world on fire. He was a stud in high school, a stud in college and a stud in the pros.

Rose was drafted with the No. 1 overall pick by the Chicago Bulls in 2008. He went on to win the 2008-09 Rookie of the Year award and Chicago was sure they found their franchise player.

Rose would later confirm those thoughts in the 2010-11 NBA season when he became the youngest player in NBA history to win the league MVP award. As a 22-year-old, D-Rose led the Chicago Bulls to the best record in the NBA while averaging 25.0 points, 7.7 assists and 4.1 rebounds per game.

Rose and the Bulls would eventually lose to the LeBron James led Miami Heat squad in the 2011 Eastern Conference Finals. Unfortunately, that’s as close as Rose and the Bulls would ever get to a winning an NBA Championship. The next season would be the beginning of the end for Rose’s career with the Bulls.

The 2011-12 season was tough for Rose’s body as he was riddled with multiple injuries. Then, in the playoffs, he tore his ACL and would miss the remainder of the playoffs as well as the entire 2012-13 NBA season.

Once he returned from those severe injuries, he was will effective but he was never quite the same. Then, on June 22, 2016, the Derrick Rose era was officially over for Chicago Bulls fans. The hometown hero was traded to the New York Knicks.

Bulls fans want the best for Rose as he continues his career with the Minnesota Timberwolves. That’s really all you need to know.

*sniffle*

So where are the Bulls now?

The Bulls found something special in Jimmy Butler when they drafted him in 2011. Unfortunately, the team never had quite as much success with Butler as the leader as they would’ve hoped. So, on draft night in 2017, the Bulls decided to part ways with Butler by trading him and a draft pick to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for two young players and a draft pick. The two young players they got in return were Kris Dunn and Zach LaVine. The draft pick they received turned into Lauri Markkanen.

The decision to trade Butler in return for a bunch of young guys meant the Bulls were embarking on a full rebuild. That means that last season, the Bulls were tanking (trying to lose games). Don’t get me wrong, the players played hard – it’s not like they were missing shots intentionally. However, the front office and coaching staff put them in a position to lose more games in hopes of getting as good of a draft pick as possible.

The success of the tanking efforts is up for debate. Some think they did well, some think they won too many games. Either way, that season is over and they ended up getting two promising prospects in the 2018 NBA Draft: Wendell Carter Jr. and Chandler Hutchison.

The Bulls also signed local hero Jabari Parker this summer (he won four state championships for Simeon Career Academy in Chicago and was named the Gatorade and McDonald’s High School Player of the Year). Parker’s professional career has been riddled with injuries but now he’s healthy and looking to help move the Bulls in the right direction.

If you need to know the current status of the Bulls, just know that they’re a young, up-and-coming team with loads of talent and upside. If Wendell Carter Jr. ends up being a starter in the lineup (instead of Robin Lopez), the average age of their starting lineup will be 22 years old.

They’re clearly inexperienced but have the potential to sneak into the playoffs if they play up to their potential. Basically, it’s an exciting time to be a Bulls fan. They’re on the rise.