Chicago Bulls: The 5 biggest “what-ifs” in history
By Eddie Abed
The Chicago Bulls have a rich history – with six championship banners hanging in the rafters at the United Center and the tenth-highest winning percentage in league history, the team and its fans are accustomed to excellence. However, no team has an unblemished record…
Looking back at events in NBA History can be a fun, heartbreaking and humorous game. “They took who in the Draft? But this other player was still available!” is a recurring example in the league.
The Chicago Bulls are no different than any other team – their history is riddled with these kinds of scenarios.
For example, what if Bobby Portis’ famous punch to the face of teammate Nikola Mirotic didn’t connect? Or what if the Bulls had kept Gary Harris and Jusuf Nurkić instead of trading them both to draft Doug McDermott? Would the Bulls have been contenders if they drafted Draymond Green instead of Marquis Teague? Or would Luol Deng’s career path have been different if the Bulls team doctors didn’t nearly kill him? How many of our players’ careers would’ve ended prematurely due to fatigue should Tom Thibodeau have remained in his head coaching position?
So many questions can be asked. So many minor tweaks to history and all of a sudden, everything could change. Although there are a plethora of these scenarios that Bulls fans have been witness to throughout the team’s history, there are a handful that stick out more than the rest.
Given that hindsight is indeed 20/20, let’s take a look at some of the biggest “what-ifs” in Bulls history.