The rise of the Chicago Bulls
When I first got to Northwestern, one of the things I was most excited to experience was my first Chicago Bulls game at the United Center. When I was four years old, my parents introduced me to Michael Jordan, and the Bulls quickly became the first professional sports team I fell in love with. I cheered them on enthusiastically during their 1993 championship season, cried when MJ left the sport for baseball and rejoiced when he returned to help lead the Bulls to three more titles from 1996 to 1998. When Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Phil Jackson all left following that 1998 championship, the Bulls faded into relative obscurity and have never really been the same since. My support shifted to other teams, but I never forgot how incredible it was to watch that team.
So you can imagine my excitement when I got two tickets to their January 27, 2008 game against the Phoenix Suns. Now, I’ll admit that my primary motive for attending the game was seeing the Suns (my favorite team) play in person for the first time, but I was equally excited to witness my first Chicago Bulls home game. I couldn’t wait to see the iconic statue of Jordan defying gravity outside the arena’s entrance, the championship banners in the rafters and the sea of white and red in the stands.
However, the reality of the experience turned out to be far different from the fantasy I had built up in my own mind.
Seeing the statue and championship banners was as cool as I thought it would be, and I was pleased to see that the stadium was packed -– I had to sit all the way in the nosebleeds because every other seat was sold out. But once the game actually got underway, I noticed something interesting.
A solid third of the crowd was cheering for the Suns.
My NBA “home team” is the Orlando Magic (I live in Tampa), so I know a thing or two about bad fans. You haven’t experienced home crowd apathy until you’ve seen a three-quarters full Amway Arena react with complete indifference to every move their team makes.
I also know a thing or two about good fans. Before I lived in Tampa, I had lived in the San Francisco Bay area, where my home team was the Golden State Warriors. To put it simply, we sucked. In the three seasons they played while I lived there (not counting the lockout in 1999), they failed to reach 20 wins each time. But, every game I went to was full of boisterous fans who genuinely loved the Warriors, regardless of the countless losses that continued to pile up.
My point is, I was completely shocked at the fans’ apathy for a Chicago home team. I realize the Bulls weren’t very good that year, and that the Suns were one of the most popular teams in the league, but a sports town like Chicago should be able to fill their home arena with over 20,000 screaming fans every day. Fans continuously fill up Wrigley Field, U.S. Cellular Field and Soldier Field, and the United Center should be no different.
As Philbert Lin (a McCormick sophomore and Illinois native) states, “the Bulls fan base was huge during Jordan’s era, but then completely died after he stopped playing. It wasn’t much of something for Chicago to gather around.”
Of course, it can be hard to do so when your team struggles. In 2007, the Chicago Bulls enjoyed a successful year, finishing with a 49-33 record and the fifth seed in the East and taking the Detroit Pistons to six games in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. In 2008, a year in which many experts predicted that the Bulls would win the East, the Bulls finished 33-49 and missed the playoffs.
This year, they turned it around again. They used the number one overall pick in the NBA draft to select Derrick Rose out of Memphis, signed Vinny Del Negro to be their new head coach and brought in NBA veterans John Salmons and Brad Miller in a February trade. All of this culminated in a 41-41 record (18-11 after the All-Star Break) and the seventh seed in the East for the Bulls.
And although most experts expected the defending champion Boston Celtics to easily defeat them in the first round, the Bulls fought with great intensity, leading to a seven game series that many experts have called one of the greatest series in NBA playoff history.
The Bulls ultimately lost, but their fans, the entire city of Chicago and the rest of the country (myself included) took notice. The three home games pulled in an average of just over 23,000 fans, the vast majority of whom were cheering raucously for the home team.
“This year, all of the updates on Facebook from my NU friends were things related to the Bulls for the past few weeks,” says Nate Wong (McCormick senior). “Friends of mine actually went to the games. I think the days of rebuilding are over, and people are excited once again.”
In recent years, the White Sox have won a World Series, the Bears have reached a Super Bowl and the Cubs have consistently been one of the best teams in baseball. And although none of these teams figures to lose a great deal of fans anytime soon, expect an increase in the popularity of the Bulls in coming years.
There are some unanswered questions that remain before the 2009-2010 season begins. (Should the Bulls re-sign free agent-to-be Ben Gordon? Will Luol Deng work his way back into the rotation?). With a young nucleus, an improving head coach and, most importantly, a revived fan base, the Bulls have nowhere to go but up.
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Oh, gosh, I love the sentiment of this article but some of the history is a little revisionist – the Bulls built up a ton of goodwill from 2004-2006, 3 years in which they consecutively made the playoffs before dropping a goose egg last year. I think the notion that people are starting to care this year rings a little false – Bulls fans have always existed in this city, which loves its basketball (I got back into the team during those Jalen Rose years), a lot of new fans are bandwagoners, whether they admit it or not (how many people saw John Salmons on the team for the first time and said, WHO??) and people cared across the country because everyone hates the Celtics. You also can’t discredit the home town’s apathy during that Suns game because it was already looking like a miserable season in which none our players gave a crap…so why should we? I’m glad people cared for those two weeks of the Celtics series, but will they care again next year? How about if the team gets off to a slow start? I’m all for public support of a team I love, but let’s actually get interested instead of waving bland platitudes (”LET’S GO BULLS!!!” “OMG RONDO SUCKS!!!”) that show nothing except maybe a passing look at TrueHoop.
Jeremy Gordon
May 13, 2009 at 2:06 pm
Jeremy, while you’re right that people have cared for the Bulls for a few years, I agree with the author in that it’s really nothing like the fan base that the team had during the playoffs this year. The team may always have its diehard fans, but I know that many of my friends (i.e. casual Chicago sports fans) showed more excitement for the playoffs this year than they have ever shown for the Bulls in recent times. I think the point was just that the amount of attention the first round series garnered across the nation took the Bulls’ popularity to a height it hasn’t seen for a while, and I agree with that sentiment.
Anonymous
May 13, 2009 at 4:22 pm
In 2004, the Bulls were 2nd in the league in attendance, 2nd in 2005, then were actually #1 in 2006 before dipping back to 2nd in 2007 and 2008. I don’t doubt that the Bulls got more popular on a national level this year following the emergence of Derrick Rose/them taking the Celtics to 7, but is this such a revelation – that a popular player in a big market was paid attention to, or that the near-take down of a popular/disliked team also merited a bunch of attention? I guess my umbrage, then, with the article, is that it doesn’t ask a more deconstructive question: How valuable is this new popularity? What does the bandwagon do for a fanbase? Does there really need to be a “Chicago Bulls Nation” like a Red Sox Nation? (My answers: Slightly valuable, it dilutes it, and not at all). If it’s a given that the Bulls have always been popular, then how does a small sample of Facebook statuses and the opinion of a few Illinois natives (not Chicago, as the article notes) indicate a greater or even worthwhile trend? This is more than I talked about earlier, which is why I repeat: While I love the sentiment and topic of the article (because I am, if nothing, a Bulls loyalist), I think the analysis is a little superficial.
Jeremy Gordon
May 13, 2009 at 4:55 pm
To clarify: The attendance I refer to is home attendance. In away attendance, the Bulls were ranked 7th in 2006, which is a decent metric of partly measuring national popularity, before falling to 15th or so in 2007 and 2008. If this newfound popularity really exists, then it seems to have only come out in the playoffs – translation: when the team is winning, people care. Will people care next year?
Jeremy Gordon
May 13, 2009 at 5:12 pm
I’ve been a Bull’s fan since the late 80’s, and once Micheal left the team still ranked third in attendence throughout the NBA. You’re basing this on one game makes me question your credibility. And also you freely admit to being one of those band-wagoners, so you’re a joke fan to begin with. Chicago is and always will be a sports town. Are you silly enuff to believe that we held the number three spot in attendence for all those post Jordan years because a third of the crowd was showing up for the other team. What an irrelevant an factless article from a no nothing bandwagoner… I don’t believe self-professed bandwagoners should be allowed to discuss sports with us true-blue loyal types…
Totally Disagree
May 13, 2009 at 7:32 pm
The Bulls may be way up there in attendance, but I’ve been to a bunch of games at the United Center that are packed with less than exuberant fans. If you read the article carefully, he says that the game he went to was full of fans, they just didn’t seem to be as interested in the Bulls as he expected them too. Also, you call out the author for being a bandwagon fan but he never said he was a fan, he just claimed to take notice of their improved play in the playoffs. Read the article more carefully before you criticize it so much.
Totally Disagree with Totally Disagree
May 13, 2009 at 9:10 pm