For NBA fans of a certain age, the gold standard of basketball remains the Michael Jordan-era Chicago Bulls. MJ, Scottie, Phil Jackson, Dennis Rodman and Horace Grant. Six titles in eight years. The iconic lineup introductions. The aura. Those Bulls teams had it all and they truly seemed unbeatable.
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Nostalgia may keep that version of the Bulls alive, but things have changed in Chicago since then. The Bulls have been in a perpetual state of mediocrity for the past decade, hovering around .500 while never threatening to make any real postseason noise. They’ve rarely been bad enough to get good lottery odds, and they’ve also been unable and/or unwilling to sign a superstar in free agency.
Jeff Teague spoke about the stagnant state of the Bulls on the latest episode of his Club 520 podcast, and he didn’t hold back on the sorry state of affairs in the Windy City.
“Nobody wanna go there, if we’re just gonna keep it real,” Teague said. “You can get an All-Star in Chicago, it’s just that their product over there is so bad. If you’re a star, why would you want to go play, no disrespect to them, but I’m gonna go play with all these young dudes? They ain’t good.”
Teague’s friend Derrick Rose once seemed like the guy who would recapture the Bulls’ former glory, but after becoming the youngest player to win an MVP award, injuries derailed his path to superstardom. The best Bulls teams of the last 25 years also had the misfortune of coinciding with the LeBron-Wade-Bosh Miami Heat.
Teague and his cohost praised Chicago as a city and as a basketball market, but he acknowledged that being a Bull doesn’t have the same appeal to the younger generation that it had for his. “I think everybody growing up, if you’re over 30, wanted to play for the Bulls,” he said.
Marquis Teague, Jeff’s brother and Club 520 cohost, played 67 games for the Bulls at the beginning of his short pro career, but even that had a catch, as he didn’t get to wear the iconic Nike swoosh because Adidas was the official team apparel supplier of the NBA from 2006-17.
With guys like Matas Buzelis, Josh Giddey and Coby White, the Bulls have some promising young talent, and they could be a sleeper team to make some noise in a weakened Eastern Conference this upcoming season. They’ve also been plagued by mismanagement, though.
Jerry Reinsdorf has been criticized as the villain behind the breakup of the Bulls dynasty in the late 90s, but he’s also angered fans in recent years by his unwillingness to do what it takes to get the Bulls back to the top of the NBA. Under Reinsdorf, the Bulls seem content to hover around the middle of the league.
The Bulls don’t have the same cachet they once did, and that’s a shame for what was once the model franchise in pro sports.
