One NBA franchise that cannot seem to get out of second gear is the Chicago Bulls. Since the Jordan dynasty, the team has fallen out of the limelight, and despite some good Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler years, not been remotely close to the powerhouse they once were. Bill Simmons feels it, and wishes Bulls owners would take a swing at reigniting the market.
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The famed media personality spoke about this with Ryen Russillo on the latest edition of his podcast covering the NBA Free Agency period. One theory he threw out there was for someone new to come in and buy the team and use their financial assets to bring life back to the Windy City’s b-ball roots.
“If I was like a gajillionaire, that would be the team I would try to buy,” Simmons stated. He then broke down why this new fictious owner should lure back 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 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,” he said.
While Simmons does make a strong point about jumpstarting the heart of one of professional sports most popular franchises, Russillo couldn’t let the situation go for too long 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, which got a laugh out of his podcast co-host. “He was like, ‘Let me tell you about the Kwame Brown night,'” added Simmons, who was still chuckling.
As phenomenal a player as MJ was, he was the opposite as 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. Suffice it to say, the pick was a disaster as Kwame never lived up to his expectations. It didn’t help that Jordan nearly shattered his confidence at just 18 years old.
All kidding 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 stated. He does have a pretty good track record on these things. Earlier in 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,'” he stated. “I think that’s one of the best markets in the league. I think there fans really give a sh**. This has been a misused, underowned asset that if the right ownership group comes in they can really turn this into a major thing.”
Simmons was right. The Dubs would go 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, who are anxious to watch their once beloved squad return to the big time.
