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| CNNSI.com asked if Bulls fans had any opinions on the subject. And guess what ... they did.
Click here to read a sampling of what CNNSI.com users had to say. |
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Sports fans love to reminisce over the days that it all went wrong: the wasted draft pick, the tragic trade or the defecting hero. These may not be, by definition, the worst roster moves ever made, but they were the ones that affected us on a personal level. These are the events that caused -- and still cause -- us to sit on our bar stools and lament the cruel twists of life.
Everybody knows how brutal it was for Bulls fans when Michael, Scottie and Phil were scattered into the wind. But the pain hardly started there, says Chicago Tribune NBA reporter Sam Smith. Spoiled by six titles in the '90s, many Bulls fans may have forgotten what it was like to have their feelings trampled. How about when the Bulls waived Artis Gilmore on Christmas Eve in 1987; traded Reggie Theus for Steve Johnson in 1984; fired head coach Jerry Sloan in 1982; and traded Nate Thurmond to Cleveland in 1975?
June 21,
1998 |
Coach Phil Jackson confirms he won't return |
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NBA Preview 1991-92 Photo by Jean Moss |
This whole thing was a house of cards, wasn't it?
Michael was saying, "I'll stay if Phil stays." Scottie was saying, "I'll stay if MJ stays." Phil was saying, "If Michael and Scottie want to give it another go, I'm game, but you know, all in all I'd rather be assuming the lotus position on a butte in Montana." Meanwhile, Jerry & Jerry were showing the cold-blooded ambivalence that built a dynasty and still managed to alienate even the biggest of Bulls fans. They were saying, "If they want to come back, they're more than welcome. If they don't, well, it's been swell."
Jackson was the first to blink, confirming that he wouldn't return to the Bulls just one week after title No. 6.
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Exit Poll: Jackson a Class Act
Chicago Tribune -- June 28, 1998
By Bob Verdi
One of these years, Phil Jackson probably will return to the NBA and guide another team to another title. Then, maybe he will let his beard down and throw rocks at the Bulls franchise he left the other day on his motorcycle, holding his crash helmet high.
But until then, Jackson's departure shall rank among the most dignified in the sloppy and sorry sports history of Chicago, where coaches and managers routinely depart amid a backdrop of hiss and vinegar. ...
... Jackson has tossed a few barbs at Bulls Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and General Manager Jerry Krause in the past, but generally, the Zen master took the high road. Reinsdorf's offer that Jackson stay on occurred at the celebration party, after the coach had cleaned out his office.
But if Jackson thought the gesture insincere, or an attempt to exercise spin control, he went along with it. Jackson's farewell statement mentioned that he had indeed been asked to remain and that his sabbatical was self-induced. |
January 13,
1999 |
G Michael Jordan announces his retirement |
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SI Photos: Manny Millan, Bill Smith, Andrew Bernstein | |
If Jackson's departure fanned the flame of Bulls fans, Jordan's "99.9 percent retired" announcement was Mrs. O'Leary's cow all over again.
What more can be said about Jordan's impact on the people of Chicago? If you don't understand the level of adoration, then you best just turn around and crawl right back under that rock. Losing Jordan was like having the Sears Tower lowered by 50 floors; like paving over Lake Michigan and building a parking deck; like dead people giving up their right to vote. It drastically changed the landscape of Chicago ideology.
Think that's overstating it? Tell it to all the thousands of boys, girls, dogs and ferrets named "Jordan" in greater Chicagoland. Tell it to all the people who can tell you the difference -- in second-by-second detail -- between The Shot, The Move, The Dunk, The Shrug and The Push.
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Jerry-Rigged End Leaves Us Cold
Chicago Sun-Times -- January 14, 1999
By Jay Mariotti
The scene felt like a funeral, not a coronation. There have been colder Chicago days on the thermometer, but never in spirit. In a 40-minute emotional downshift, you could feel the energy being sucked out of a city, a teetering franchise, a troubled basketball league and, really, a world that has depended on Michael Jordan for its groove.
The Air was taken from all of us Wednesday. Remove the greatest of sporting entertainers from the everyday equation and you're left with the Big Empty, an excitement void larger than life. "The best way to survive without Michael Jordan," he advised, playing shrink in his new unemployed mode, "is to somehow start to live without him."
Easy for him to say. |
SI Photos: Barry Gossage, Walter Iooss Jr., John Biever | |
January 18,
1999 |
Bulls trade F Scottie Pippen to Houston
for F Roy Rodgers and a second-round pick |
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Pippen's combination of grace and power made him an ideal fit into Jackson's triangle offense. Jonathan Daniel/Allsport | |
Once Jordan was officially out of the Loop, Pippen's departure was inevitable. And it took only a week for the Bulls to ship Scottie to Houston for Roy Rodgers and a second-round draft pick ... a paltry sum regardless of how boxed in the Bulls found themselves.
With the three cornerstones gone, all the other bricks tumbled. Steve Kerr, Jud Buchler, Luc Longley and Dennis Rodman scattered to the wind, and the Bulls went from being one of the most recognizable teams in sports to one of the most anonymous.
Despite years of practice before the 1990s, Bulls fans were not sure how to embrace this utter change of scenery. Two years later, they're still working on it.
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Superstar Departs, Bleak Future Starts
Chicago Sun-Times -- January 19, 1999
By Jay Mariotti
If we've been numb for a week, today a devastated city has every right to be bitter, nauseous, ready to rage. First came the dynamite, now comes the implosion: Scottie Pippen is off to Houston, with a grin bigger than O'Hare, for the embarrassingly flimsy compensation of a second-round draft pick and a bench-riding cowboy named Roy Rogers.
Without his horse, Trigger.
Congratulations, Chicago. We've just been sentenced to one of the mean, cruel and unnecessary fates in sports history. The Bulls, the most celebrated team there ever was, are about to become the Florida Marlins of basketball. Cheap, downsized, Reinsdorfed and thoroughly unwatchable, though 220 suite owners forced to renew last summer will have to watch the next five years, along with season-ticket holders who won't receive refunds unless they would like to file a class-action suit. If nothing else, they can spend their expensive nights wondering what happens when you cross a Martin Muursepp with a Bubba Wells. |
December 24,
1987 |
Bulls waive C Artis Gilmore |
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Sam Smith of The Chicago Tribune: "The Bulls had never won a title with Gilmore, and they brought him back for a brief second run ... but he was a big part of the franchise and deserved better treatment."
CNNSI.com: Artis Gilmore's first departure from Chicago was bittersweet itself, but being unceremoniously dumped just 25 games into his celebrated return was just plain bitter. At 38, Gilmore was averaging 4.2 points and 2.6 rebounds in 15.5 minutes a game, a far cry from his dominant play for some poor Bulls teams from 1976 to 1982. Gilmore didn't miss a game in five of those six seasons.
The Bulls were banking that Gilmore could provide backup for Dave Corzine -- for whom he had been traded five years earlier -- and give the Bulls the inside presence they needed to contend.
In a precursor of the half-truths uttered 11 years later by the Two Jerrys, Krause told the media that Gilmore had asked to be waived. Gilmore denied the report, saying: "Their minds were already made up."
Feb. 15,
1984 |
Bulls Bulls trade G Reggie Theus to the
Kansas City Kings for C Steve Johnson
and three 2nd-round picks |
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Sam Smith of The Chicago Tribune: "It probably was inevitable because the Bulls were about to draft another shooting guard named Michael Jordan in the 1984 draft. But Theus was the only 'star' on a lousy team and he was just dumped to get rid of him."
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Theus was a Chicago mainstay for many years. Rick Stewart /Allsport |
CNNSI.com: "Rush Street Reggie" was the featured act in the early '80s. He thrilled fans with his spin moves and acrobatic drives -- then kept them partying to the Chicago Blues all night long.
Coach Kevin Loughery was more of a waltz man, however, and he instantly clashed with Theus. He benched the former first-round pick (and his 19.5 career scoring average) in early December. In one game at Chicago Stadium, the fans stood and chanted, "Reggie, Reggie" before Loughery finally let Theus play the last six minutes.
"What the hell, I had my uniform on already," Theus said later.
Two months later the Bulls just beat the trading deadline and sent Theus to Kansas City for Steve Johnson, who averaged about 10 points and six rebounds per game in his 1 1/2 seasons in Chicago. Theus averaged about 18 points and 8 assists in 4 1/2 seasons with K.C./Sacramento. He played on three teams in his final three seasons, averaging just around his career 18.5 ppg mark.
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Man Who Got Away Comes Back
to Haunt the Clippers
San Diego Union-Tribune -- April 5, 1984
By Bob Slocum
Theus likes to go one-on-one when his free spirit moves him -- which is not infrequently. He delights in uncorking wrap-around passes at alarming speeds -- which generally are accurate but tend to burn holes in his coaches' stomachs. He enjoys bouncing the ball merrily between his legs a lot. Generally, Theus has a low tolerance for humdrum basketball.
Theus was reduced to a bench-sitting scrubini by new Chicago Bulls coach Kevin Loughery. Loughery, who is partial to set plays, two-hand chest passes and workmanlike players who have the intestinal fortitude to refrain from using their legs as wickets when dribbling, resented the showman in Theus. So he exiled him. |
February 17,
1982 |
Bulls fire head coach Jerry Sloan |
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Who knows? Maybe Sloan (background) could have coached the Bulls in the Finals ... instead of against them.
Jonathan Daniel/Allsport |
Sam Smith of The Chicago Tribune: "Sloan was with the Bulls from their beginning and might have been a great coach with the Bulls given time."
CNNSI.com: Management kept "The Original Bull" on a very short leash. After elevating the Bulls' record from 30-52 to 45-37 in his first two seasons, Sloan was axed after starting the 1981-82 season 19-32.
Nice way to treat an Illinois native who was married to his Illinois-born high school sweetheart and had been the Bulls' first pick in the 1966 expansion draft.
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Before Jordan
Sports Illustrated -- Special Collector's Edition -- July 7, 1997
By Hank Hersch
[Sloan] played 48 minutes against the St. Louis Hawks in Chicago's first game and would remain a stalwart over the next 10 seasons, averaging 35.6 minutes, 14.7 points and 7.7 rebounds a game. Good numbers -- but Sloan's game could not be reduced to numbers. As the best perimeter defender in the league, he was called either Spider or the Human Chain Saw for the way he hacked away at his opponent's anatomy and will. Thickly built and earthbound, he seemed more a hoops version of Dick Butkus than a precursor of Michael Jordan. And yet in his chin-out aggression and unshakable nerve, it is Air who is Sloan's heir. |
September 3,
1974 |
Bulls trade C Cliff Ray to the Golden State Warriors for C Nate Thurmond |
November 27,
1975 |
Bulls trade C Nate Thurmond and F Rowland Garrett to Cleveland for F Eric Fernsten
and C Steve Patterson |
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Sam Smith of The Chicago Tribune: When the Bulls traded Nate Thurmond in 1975 to Cleveland, he helped
produce the "Miracle of Richfield." Everyone knew Thurmond still had something left and the Bulls got only Steve Patterson.
CNNSI.com: In short, in 14 months the Bulls were on the short end of the incoming and outgoing trades of Nate Thurmond.
The Bulls thought a 33-year-old Thurmond would be the missing piece in a contender, so they sent young Cliff Ray to Golden State. Flash forward to the conference finals when Ray and the Warriors stunned a worn-out Thurmond and the Bulls in seven games en route to the 1975 NBA championship.
The next season was a disaster for the Bulls, who shipped Thurmond to Cleveland after starting 3-11. All the Cavs did was go 49-33 and take the Celtics to six games in the conference finals. Thurmond was the lynchpin of the "Miracle of Richfield." The Bulls went 24-58 to earn such praises as "a cesspool" and a "circus of sickness" from coach Dick Motta, who resigned after the season.
Patterson was out of basketball by the next season and Fernsten played only five games for the Bulls in 1976-77.
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