It is an objective fact that Michael Jordan won six NBA championships and a stockpile of other NBA awards in his Chicago Bulls career from 1984 to 1998. There are, unfortunately, generations of Bulls and NBA fans who never witnessed Jordan’s basketball greatness live with their own eyes.
For people who didn’t watch Jordan’s dominating title run in the 1990s, perhaps they are more familiar with the 23-year NBA career of LeBron James. Â
The mere mention of James’ name triggers some Bulls fans, understandably so, as he represented the insurmountable obstacle to the Bulls' last great period of NBA relevance in the early 2010s, fueled principally by a core of guard Derrick Rose, center Joakim Noah, forward Luol Deng, and forward Carlos Boozer.
Since James earned his first NBA title as a member of the Miami Heat in 2012, the incessant debate about the NBA’s greatest of all time (GOAT) has become a persistent talking point spanning from barbershop banter to what seems to be a mandatory segment on any mainstream national NBA media show, regardless of what phase of the NBA calendar is present in the moment.
The GOAT debate is perhaps one of the least substantive topics in NBA conversation, and certainly, from the point of view of the Chicago Bulls in 2026, GOAT debates should be nearly irrelevant.
In case you haven’t heard, LeBron James will play NBA basketball for the Philadelphia 76ers when the 2026-27 NBA season tips off. If James happens to win his fifth NBA title with the 76ers, good for him. It doesn’t matter if he wins or he doesn’t win a ring in Philadelphia.
Today’s Bulls are actually relevant
The Chicago Bulls have a lot of intriguing questions to answer in the upcoming NBA season that are equal parts concerning and equal parts encouraging.
There is near-unanimous praise for the showcase Bulls rookie Caleb Wilson displayed in his Las Vegas Summer League games. Â
The energy growing around Wilson suggests the Bulls may have superstar trajectory in Wilson’s future. Even more encouraging is the immediate workout collaboration we are witnessing between Wilson and forward Matas Buzelis. Â
Wings matter in the modern NBA game perhaps more than any other position, and for the first time since the dynasty, Bulls fans may be in store for a new wing tag-team that can return the franchise to greatness.
Noa Essengue and Dailyn Swain are slotted on the opposite ends of the spectrum of varying degrees of worry. Swain is already being questioned by fans if he was the right pick at 15 in the 2026 NBA Draft, and he’ll need the whole season ahead to formulate a response to those tough questions.
As for Essengue, his Bulls future is questionable on the simple optics of his summer league performance, combined with the harsh feedback that’s circulating in the media about the second-year French forward.
Again, the Bulls are a relevant NBA franchise that is worthy of the present moment, much more than a meaningless debate that is simply a statement of generational NBA preferences.
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