3 Life Lessons Chicago Bulls History Can Teach My Son

The Chicago Bulls franchise has a long and storied history and despite our recent struggles, there are reasons I watch every game with my son.

Dear Son,

Let’s go back a year. The Chicago Bulls 2018-19 season started with such optimism: Lauri Markkanen was starting his sophomore campaign, Zach LaVine looked healthy, and Wendell Carter Jr. had just joined the team. At least one Bulls fan, living in Wichita, Kansas, was all in on that 2018-19 squad being competitive and fun to watch. At least one Bulls fan had hope, and that was enough.

That Bulls fan was me.

A die-hard Bulls fan for years, I didn’t even mind the low risk gamble on Jabari Parker despite the awful fit, and I held an immense hope in my heart for the revival of Kris Dunn‘s already rocky career, despite little evidence the young point guard could turn the corner.

I felt the Bulls would surely be in the mix for the 8th seed in the East, and a bit of pride and glory might be restored to my team, my city, the symbols and rich history I spent much of my youth learning to love beside my own father.

But by the end of November 2018, with a record of 5-18, my hope had become bitter regret. How could I have been so mistaken? Why did I even watch this game? There was just no way my beloved Bulls could be as bad as their record suggested.

What choice did I have but to be unwaveringly optimistic? Because, my son, if a fan does not believe in their team, who will?

But December was no better. And then January absolutely decimated any chance at salvaging the Bulls season.

By February, your daddy, perhaps the only die-hard Bulls fan in Kansas, was deflated, defeated, and utterly hopeless. I felt that nothing, absolutely NOTHING, could restore my confidence in the Bulls organization and my own judgment of talent again, and I even considered finding a new hobby to obsess over.

Perhaps I had watched enough basketball games in my life, and the frustration and heartbreak of Bulls basketball in the new millennium was just not worth my precious time on Earth.

But one morning that February I was awakened by your mommy yelling from the bathroom. An affirmation that we had accomplished something that would be absolutely life changing.

“You prego’ed my eggo,” she said (sorry kid, your parents are a little goofy). Words that would change my life forever.

And once again, I woke with hope. For you, baby Cork.

And now that I know you a little bit, I want to share everything with you. In the quiet moments before you were born (the last I would get, it turns out), I tried to think about what made me who I am today. At nights in bed, with you in mommy’s tummy, surrounded by Bulls memorabilia from several decades, it was just so clear: Being a good Bulls fan was just something I could not fail to share.

One day you’ll read this, and you might not be into basketball at all, but I hope you can at least understand a little bit about why your daddy screams at the television, or why every October he inevitably is walking on air, full of childish hope.

Even if you don’t like basketball, there is still so much to learn from one of the most storied and respected franchises in NBA history. And if the sound of sneakers squeaking on waxed hardwood makes you cringe son, that’s okay, but here are the three biggest lessons your daddy has learned from watching the Bulls play basketball. And he hopes he (and the Bulls) can help you learn them too.