However, the landscape has changed drastically, especially in the past ten years. Antoine Walker, the 2006 NBA champion, who was born and raised in Chicago is deeply disheartened by the decline in basketball talent in his home city.
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On the Forgotten Seasons podcast, Walker lamented the state of grassroots basketball in Chicago. He says he’s worried about the survival of the hoops culture in Chicago, citing the significant decrease in the number of NBA players from the city.
For instance, in the 1980s, Chicago produced NBA All-Stars like Tim Hardaway and Nick Anderson, among many other starting-level NBA athletes.
The 1990s saw the emergence of All-Stars xuch as Juwan Howard and many others. The 2000s brought Derrick Rose and Dwyane Wade, both of whom were considered NBA Hall-of-Fame prospects.
However, the past decade has not seen an All-Star emege from Chicago and aside from Ayo Dosunmu, there hasn’t even been an starting level player from the city in the 2020s.
The state of grassroots basketball is so dire that Walker doesn’t even know a single place to find quality players in Chicago. Antoine Walker said, “Chicago is down right now. I am so upset with our basketball right now. We don’t have the numbers as far as guys in the pros anymore. Our runs are not the same… You could call me and be like,’Yo, got some guys coming in from LA and they want to hoop’, I couldn’t tell them where to go right now.”
Walker attributes this decline to a lack of tenacity among modern-day Chicago basketball players. He reminisced about how Michael Jordan used to go all out during the open runs in the city when making his comeback after his second retirement.
MJ’s intensity rubbed off on his competitors too. Walker recalled how in 2001, Ron Artest (Now Metta Sandiford-Artest) was battling so fiercely against Jordan that MJ was left with broken ribs while guarding him.
At the time, it was believed that Artest accidently broke MJ’s ribs during a scuffle. However, it was simply an outcome of how hard the two players were competing.
Walker believes that Chicago basketball culture needs a similar level of determination and toughness to regain its former glory. He explained: “I’m talking about fights. I am talking about the grit, the grind. I’m watching MJ come back, Ron Artest guarding him like cracked his ribs and he trying to get back. I mean the toughness and what you had play with. Like it was different.”
Jordan’s involvement once inspired a richness of talent but the basketball scene in Chicago no longer has the same spark.
One of the main reasons for the decline has been the Chicago Bulls’ downward spiral in recent years. Since MJ departed in 1998, they have reached the Conference Finals only once when Derrick Rose was in his prime and had reliable teammates like Joakim Noah, Luol Deng, and Carlos Boozer. The situation has become even worse since the breakup of the Rose-led core, with the team making the playoffs just once in the last seven years.
