One NBA franchise that cannot seem to get out of second gear is the Chicago Bulls. Since the Michael Jordan dynasty, the team has fallen out of the limelight. And, despite some good Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler years, they have not been remotely close to the powerhouse they once were. Bill Simmons feels it and wishes Bulls owners would try to reignite the market.
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The famed media personality spoke about the means to revive the Bulls with Ryen Russillo on the latest edition of his podcast covering the NBA Free Agency period. One path he spoke about was for someone new to come in and buy the team and use their financial assets to bring life back to Windy City’s basketball heritage.
“If I was like a gazillionaire, that would be the team I would try to buy,” Simmons stated. He then broke down why this new fictitious owner should lure in the icons who made the Bulls great in the first place.
“If you could reignite that team and rebuild them and tap into the Jordan DNA, and [Scottie] Pippen, and bring those guys back, and give Jordan a ceremonial position. Really ignite. I think that would be a really special franchise, and right now it’s not. It’s the worst situation in the East,” said Simmons.
While Simmons does make a strong point about jumpstarting the heart of one of professional sports’ most popular franchises, Russillo couldn’t let the talk continue without a joke. He wondered about how funny it would be if the Bulls did bring Jordan back, and then he tried to give them advice in the draft room.
“If he wanted to like hang out in the draft room on draft night to add input, I’d be like, ‘Hey Mike, we are not going to do this’,” said Russillo, who got a laugh out of his podcast co-host. “He was like, ‘Let me tell you about the Kwame Brown night’,” added a chuckling Simmons.
As phenomenal a player as MJ was, he was the opposite while in the role of a GM. His worst move during his time as the President of Operations for the Wizards was drafting Kwame Brown No. 1 overall straight out of high school.
The pick was a disaster and Kwame never lived up to his expectations. It didn’t help that Jordan nearly shattered his confidence at just 18 years old.
Jokes aside, Simmons is still adamant about the potential that the Bulls have to be big again. “That’s like a 7-8 billion dollar franchise just sitting there,” he said.
Simmons does have a pretty good track record on these things. Earlier in the pod, he spoke about when the Golden State Warriors were sold in 2010 and how he saw what the future of that franchise could become.
“I went all in on, ‘I think that’s a great deal’,” said Simmons. “I think that’s one of the best markets in the league. I think [over] there, fans really give a sh**. This has been a misused, under-owned asset that if the right ownership group comes in, they can really turn this into a major thing.”
Simmons was right. The Dubs went on an iconic championship run, winning four titles between 2015-2022, and making it to the Finals six times in that stretch. The team is now valued at $9.4 billion, which is well above the league average, and was in fact the highest value for a team till the Lakers sold for $10 billion a few weeks ago.
It would be great for the league to see the Bulls back in a prime position. Last year, they finished 39-43 and were unsuccessful in the Play-In tournament to earn a playoff spot.
That type of hovering around the middle isn’t going to sit well with Chicago fans. They are keen to watch their once-beloved squad return to the big time.
