The Chicago Bulls are a team on the rise, so why are the fans still upset? If you’re an angry Bulls fan, take some deep breaths and enjoy the ride.
The Chicago Bulls have a rich history of winning. That’s what happens when the best basketball player of all time leads your franchise to six championships in eight seasons. Those six championships were followed up by 21 disappointing years, though, so it’s understandable that the fans would have some gripes with the organization. But it’s time for those fans to calm down and take some deep breaths as the franchise turns over a new leaf.
It doesn’t matter what the Bulls’ front office does. Year after year there are fans flying the “Fire GarPax” flag. Despite Forman and Paxson being competent over the last couple of years, fans still feel some angst toward them. I get it. They’ve made some bone-headed decisions over the course of their reign. But lately, they’ve been good, and Bulls fans need to get off their backs.
The “as long as Forman and Paxson are in charge, the Bulls aren’t going anywhere” mindset is useless and ignorant. Yes, it’s important to have quality people in charge of the team. The Knicks, Suns, Wizards and Hornets are all examples of what happens when unqualified people are making decisions in an NBA front office. But the Bulls aren’t in that camp. They’re primed to be one of the league’s elite teams over the next decade.
Over the last couple of years, the Bulls’ front office has done really well. They got a haul in return for Jimmy Butler a couple of years ago (couldn’t have been easy), they’ve made good decisions in the draft as of late (Lauri Markkanen, Wendell Carter Jr., Chandler Hutchison, Coby White and Daniel Gafford) and they’ve made good decisions in free agency (for the most part).
Forman and Paxson deserve a ton of credit for bringing in Luke Kornet, Thaddeus Young and Tomas Satoransky this summer. All three of those guys are on relatively cheap deals, and they’ll help establish a winning culture from day one.
Let me be clear: I’m not here to totally defend GarPax. Some decisions they’ve made have left me scratching my head in confusion. But if this Bulls team struggles to find success, it won’t be because of Gar Forman and John Paxson. Remember – they aren’t the ones playing the games.
This leads me to the question: What are we doing as Bulls fans?
Being optimistic about a team that won 49 total games over the last two seasons is tough, but it’s what we need to do. Screaming “Fire GarPax!” at the top of our lungs doesn’t help anything. Regardless of past mistakes, the front office has done a nice job of putting together a mix of high-upside youngsters and quality vets for the 2019-2020 season. What more can we want from a rebuilding team? At least they aren’t desperately creating cap space and spending it on average guys (see the Knicks), or making bone-headed decision after bone-headed decision (see the Suns), or overpaying an average point guard to make up for losing their franchise player (see the Hornets).
I’m not suggesting that just being more competent than the Suns, Knicks and Hornets is something to be proud of. Every team should be more competent than those bottom-feeders. But it’s important for Bulls fans to remember that it could be much worse.
If the Bulls miss the playoffs again, there will likely be a swarm of GarPax haters that come to the surface. But in reality, if the Bulls miss the playoffs, it’ll probably be because the young guys didn’t develop fast enough, or the team struggled with injuries – not because GarPax didn’t field a good enough roster. And if the Bulls find a way to make the playoffs, there will likely be a swarm of GarPax haters complaining about being a mediocre first-round exit. In reality, that would mean the rebuild is going swimmingly.
Bulls fans have been conditioned to believe in the “championship or bust” mentality. That’s great, but there are steps to becoming a champion. It doesn’t just happen overnight.
So for now, Chicago fans need to try their hardest to take a deep breath, be patient and enjoy the ride. No, the Bulls aren’t going to be championship contenders this season, but they’ll be dang-fun. Isn’t that something to be proud of?