10 Worst free agent signings in Chicago Bulls history

6. Jabari Parker (2018)

Contract: 2 years, $40 million

For his own sake, Jabari Parker should be fortunate the deal he signed with the Bulls only had one guaranteed season on it, or else he’d likely find himself at the very top. After being selected No. 2 overall in the 2014 NBA Draft, injuries would make the Milwaukee Bucks hesitant to re-sign Parker and thus made him available for a team like the Bulls to scoop up.

Considering Jabari’s history as one of the greatest high school players in Illinois history, it only made sense for a Bulls team in the process of rebuilding to consider granting a chance at a comeback to the former Simeon legend. He’d end up accepting a two-year, $40 million deal with the second season tacked on as a team option.

Many fans were excited to see what Parker could bring to the Bulls as he joined fellow intriguing prospects Zach LaVine and Lauri Markkanen. Unfortunately, Parker himself couldn’t have seemed any more disinterested in being back home. Scoring 14.3 points on 54.3% true shooting, Parker was an inefficient black hole and even worse on defense. He even infamously went so far as to say “They don’t pay players to play defense.”

And to a degree, he was right. Because the Bulls ended up deciding in the end that they’d rather not pay Parker the second year of his deal. After just 39 games in Chicago, Jabari would be traded away to Washington for an equably disappointing return, but I’ll ever be able to forget the terrible impression Parker was able to leave in such a short amount of time.