Chicago Bulls: Tandem of Jerry Sloan and Bob Love has always gone unappreciated

The aftermath

Love would never have a 20-point season, and despite having a good 1976 campaign would be out of the league in 1977. Sloan would be out of the league during the next season and the team put together only a 24-win campaign, making them the worst team in the league.

Love suffered from a stutter his whole life and would struggle in life until the Bulls hired him in 1993 as their director of community relations.

Sloan would go on to be an iconic coach for multiple decades, eventually leading him to a Hall of Fame induction in 2009. Sloan would unfortunately die in May of 2020, making him the first player who got his number retired to pass away.

The number 4 that Sloan wore for his while career in Chicago was retired in 1978, with Love’s being retired 16 years later.

The Bulls would not make it back to the Conference Finals for another 13 years and it took them 15 years to get that first ring.

Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen would become the teams next big duo, but the first and original duo was Love and Sloan. Love and Sloan helped form a team that was competitive from the start and gave the team eight playoff appearances in the franchise’s first nine seasons.

After those two left the team was thrown into a pit of wasteful seasons, as they only made two playoffs in their next nine seasons. They would only win one series in that time as well.

This duo has been mostly forgotten throughout history, despite kickstarting one of the more iconic franchises in history. The Bulls may not have been around long enough for Michael Jordan if it weren’t for Sloan and Love’s success.

Both men have been enshrined by the franchise but forever their legacy will lie in the origins of such a great team.