3 Life Lessons Chicago Bulls History Can Teach My Son
By Keith Cork
2. Passion, the 2008-09 Series that Re-Energized a Franchise
“There are no short cuts. If you want to do something special, there’s a serious price to pay. There’s no way around it.”
It’s easy to get jaded, son. And as I get older, I find it more and more easy to dismiss a team or a player as a flash in the pan, nothing more. It’s easy to put a game on in the background and watch with one eye on the TV and the other on your Twitter feed, looking for funny content that both entertains and confirms your suspicions that no one is ever as good as Michael Jordan or as athletic as LeBron James and therefore should be dismissed.
Or reminding you that old conventional chestnut, that the 8th seed will always lose to the 1st seed and the same 3 or 4 teams will always emerge on top year after year, so what’s the point?
The point, my son, the entire reason that we watch, is because every single season and every single game is an opportunity to bear witness to greatness. There truly is no telling exactly when a player or a team will make the leap from average to exceptional.
In 2008, the Celtics won a championship, bolstered in large part by a defense anchored by Kevin Garnett and schemed by assistant coach Tom Thibodeau. In 2009, that same team played a .500 Chicago Bulls team that was already counted out.
On paper, the Bulls team had no business being on the floor with the world champions. And without Luol Deng, the idea they could even win one game was laughable.
I tuned in because it was my team, but even I didn’t expect much.
What followed was a 7-game series that featured four overtime games, seven overtime periods, and nearly became an upset in an incredible triple-overtime Game 6. It was some of the best basketball your father has ever witnessed and is widely regarded as the greatest first round series to ever be played.
What made the games so fun was the unexpected, that a young up and coming team could come a possession away from beating an experienced championship team. But what made the series a memorable part of Chicago Bulls history was the complete passion with which the team played. They truly wanted to win more than the Celtics and it was clear to every basketball fan out there.
When Joakim Noah stole the ball from Paul Pierce and slammed it in the third overtime of Game 6, it felt like more than a basketball game. It felt like a revolution. Even if we didn’t go on to win the series, the way they played and moments like that Noah dunk made the entire fandom in Chicago feel like things had finally changed.
The Bulls had made the playoffs three times since Jordan retired before that series, but it never felt like we were winners.
With that dunk, the so far underwhelming Noah became the heartbeat of another type of basketball: Winning basketball in the city of Chicago. Basketball played with passion.
No doubt, we got lucky enough that the ping-pong balls bounced our way to net us the number one pick and eventually Derrick Rose. But the team played with so much heart under Vinny Del Negro and then Thibs that suddenly the entire NBA landscape was saying the same thing.
“Watch out for these Bulls.”