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Where does this rank on your most enjoyable Bulls seasons?

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Where does this rank on your most enjoyable Bulls seasons? 

Post#1 » by dougthonus » Mon Nov 22, 2021 1:31 pm

For me, this is top 3.

For context, while I watched the Bulls in the Jordan era, I wasn't really a huge basketball nut at the time, so I was thrilled when the Bulls won and watched with my college roommates, I didn't sit around and watch all the regular season games which I started doing later. In that sense, while obviously the Jordan era was better than any other era, none of those seasons rank in my top just due to not being fully invested in basketball at the time as I only watched the big games and playoffs.

For me, I think I'm going with:
#1: 2004-5 - This team was magical and started my hard core Bulls fandom. There was so much promise because everyone on it was so young and you thought they could grow so much more. They even had a ton of cap room to do more things coming up and add a legit pieces. I thought they might even be able to add a star player to this great roster. Man did it fall apart quickly.

#2: 2010-11 - In a neutral context, it would probably deserve to be the #1 year after the Jordan era. Rose's climb to MVP, the beating of Miami in the regular season, the leap to true contender and dreams of titles as well as the hope of becoming a contending team for a decade were all on the table.

#3 2021-22 - Interestingly, this season holds elements of both the 04/05 and 10/11. The Bulls are back after a long draught with a team full of guys you love and love each other (04/05 elements). They're one of the best teams in the league and have an MVP candidate on it (10/11 elements). Also has it's own unique element of a bunch of guys whom were sort of cast away as "not winners" that came together to make all this happen. Will be interesting to see how they do as the season goes on.

Some other thoughts:
12/13 Just for the Brooklyn playoff win
13/14 for Noah getting MVP votes (if I could have moved the playoffs from 12/13 into this season it'd probably be on the list)
11/12 Despite the tragic ending, the season itself was magical, only thing that stops it from being ont he list is that it was expected

While I'm already ready to give 21/22 the rank of #3, it's not inconceivable that it could climb all the way to #1 or #2.
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Re: Where does this rank on your most enjoyable Bulls seasons? 

Post#2 » by Michael Jackson » Mon Nov 22, 2021 1:56 pm

Hard to rank. Like most Bulls fans at the time, the sweep of Detroit was a monumental moment, just a massive relief and felt like a championship in its own right.

This team is way up there though. For reasons similar to yours those two milestone years meant so much after the dynasty was over. This means just as much if not more. the 11 season was great but because of the outcome with Rose, It was almost too heartbreaking. Really believing that we were back and having it ripped away like that was tough.

This season is so sweet because we have learned to live in agony for so long. The fact that this is a one year turn around, with very non obvious moves (I think we all have been critical of the moves or at least some of them) and seeing it come together like it has is simply amazing. There was no expectation of this team being "this" good and there is a certain magic to that. Winning cures a lot of ills, but watching the players just truly like each other and the chemistry on this team is amazing. A big group of people who all have had doubt over them their whole career, come together and are supporting each other and helping each other out. It is a great dynamic. I never knew that DDR would be such a stabilizing force. Actually looking at it now, this might be the perfect situation for Pat, shame he got hurt but looking at how the team has supported Vuc and Coby, you have to believe they would help Pat come around, especially since they have found their identity.

Really good question and it requires some more thought but I will come up with a list.
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Re: Where does this rank on your most enjoyable Bulls seasons? 

Post#3 » by ChettheJet » Mon Nov 22, 2021 2:09 pm

Championship 5 and 6 really stand out, the 72 win season, it wasn't a case of could they keep winning but how easily would it come. The first championship getting convincingly past Detroit and then the uncertainty of facing Magic Johnson in the Finals and it all just coming together to win 4 straight games

But when I was younger the 76-77 team that got Artis Gilmore in the ABA draft was the best of the first 24 years of the franchise. They didn't look like much in the first half of the season but it suddenly clicked when they won 20 of the last 24 games in the season to make the playoffs. That was on par with the winning percentage of the championship years. The last 10 home games were sellouts and, (I looked it up) the supposed attendance record of 21,000 was set against the Lakers but to hell with the fire marshal with people sitting in the aisles of the second balcony it was more like 25,000.

That team really captured the fans. i still have the Artis Gilmore and Tom Boerwinkle autographed picture when they were at a Jewel/Osco grand opening and the Norm Van Lier autographed photo when he was at the neighborhood Chevy dealer.

I stood at center court of the first balcony as they won game 2 of the 3 game series against Portland in the Stadium. What Bill Walton called the toughest game he'd ever played. And with just a little help or a break here or there or more in the tank after the mad rush to even make the playoffs they could have beaten the Walton and eventual champions in game 3 in Portland.
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Re: Where does this rank on your most enjoyable Bulls seasons? 

Post#4 » by Michael Jackson » Mon Nov 22, 2021 2:21 pm

ChettheJet wrote:Championship 5 and 6 really stand out, the 72 win season, it wasn't a case of could they keep winning but how easily would it come. The first championship getting convincingly past Detroit and then the uncertainty of facing Magic Johnson in the Finals and it all just coming together to win 4 straight games

But when I was younger the 76-77 team that got Artis Gilmore in the ABA draft was the best of the first 24 years of the franchise. They didn't look like much in the first half of the season but it suddenly clicked when they won 20 of the last 24 games in the season to make the playoffs. That was on par with the winning percentage of the championship years. The last 10 home games were sellouts and, (I looked it up) the supposed attendance record of 21,000 was set against the Lakers but to hell with the fire marshal with people sitting in the aisles of the second balcony it was more like 25,000.

That team really captured the fans. i still have the Artis Gilmore and Tom Boerwinkle autographed picture when they were at a Jewel/Osco grand opening and the Norm Van Lier autographed photo when he was at the neighborhood Chevy dealer.

I stood at center court of the first balcony as they won game 2 of the 3 game series against Portland in the Stadium. What Bill Walton called the toughest game he'd ever played. And with just a little help or a break here or there or more in the tank after the mad rush to even make the playoffs they could have beaten the Walton and eventual champions in game 3 in Portland.




I was a wee lil lad then and have no personal recollection of that, either than knowing that is what made my family who were all much more aged than me (I was a whoops and a half baby) really Bulls fans. Although I did technically live through that time I wish I could have properly experienced it.
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Re: Where does this rank on your most enjoyable Bulls seasons? 

Post#5 » by pipfan » Mon Nov 22, 2021 2:23 pm

Since 1998, this one is at #2, so far. I was REALLY into the 10-11 team (too much, I was down when we lost) But I LOVE scrappy D, and our guys are flying all over the place. I would LOVE Taj on this team
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Re: Where does this rank on your most enjoyable Bulls seasons? 

Post#6 » by RealFan » Mon Nov 22, 2021 2:25 pm

I've been watching the Bulls since the Reggie Theus / Artis Gilmore days. In terms of seasons, I will package the entire Jordan era into one so as not to get too detailed but I'd say inside of that era, I definitely think 1991 has to be on top because we finally conquered Detroit after not knowing if we could get over that hump. Certainly the comeback year (1996) would have to be up there as well.

Second favorite season (remember I'm counting the MJ era as one) would be the year Rose got injured. Up to that point, I like many felt the Bulls were going to beat the Heat in the ECF and win a title.

Thus, this season, which has been the most pleasant experience, ranks third in that I am watching every single game (whether live or on DVR) as well as following the whole league more carefully just as I did when I was much younger.
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Re: Where does this rank on your most enjoyable Bulls seasons? 

Post#7 » by Overhere » Mon Nov 22, 2021 2:54 pm

Too young to really remember the Jordan years beyond vague recollections, so this one's probably tied for 2nd for me with 2011/2012 after 2010/2011 in terms of regular season enjoyment (trying to base it on how I felt as it happened without letting hindsight color things). Definitely a better team when healthy in 2011/2012 but 2010/2011 was more rewarding to watch. I think the overarching RS narrative of beating out LeBron's superteam through grit/grind/hustle/Thibs descriptors puts that season over 2021 for me.
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Re: Where does this rank on your most enjoyable Bulls seasons? 

Post#8 » by HoopsterJones » Mon Nov 22, 2021 3:05 pm

#1. The 6 championships lead by the GOAT
#2. MVP Derrick rose season + 1
#3. This season (as of right now)
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Regular Season: 40-42
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Re: Where does this rank on your most enjoyable Bulls seasons? 

Post#9 » by InsideInfo » Mon Nov 22, 2021 3:56 pm

1- 72/10 season
2- The last dance
3- 96/97 season
4- DRose MVP season
5- 08/09.. Watching Rose play knowing we had a Superstar on our hands...best players since Jordan
6- This season
7- 04/05 when we offically didnt suck ass anymore after a solid 5 years of awful.
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Re: Where does this rank on your most enjoyable Bulls seasons? 

Post#10 » by ImSlower » Mon Nov 22, 2021 4:18 pm

It's really hard for me to compare the Jordan era to Rose/Thibs years to now.

I was 3 when we drafted Jordan and by the time I was a preteen clumsily clanking free throws the Bulls were incredible and couldn't lose except when Jordan swung a baseball bat awhile. My folks had a rabbit antennae with four channels until I left for college in 98 when they finally got a dish, and they had little interest in sports - though their son had thousands of baseball and basketball cards. I have a binder full of Jordans. Most are from those early 90s Upper Deck sets that had like 20 common cards and are worthless but still. Anyways I really didn't understand NBA ball other than my team was the bestest and I was very happy when they kept on winning rings.

The lean years after, the Baby Bulls, etc was when I was in college or still in that town and I was much more firmly invested in Iowa ball and then the Cardinals dominating in the Aughts.

Though I always said I was a Bulls fan, I never watched more than national games really until moved to Chicago in the mid Aughts and had Bulls on TV at the restaurants I worked and at home. Curry and Chandler and young Heinrich and all that. Then a 1.7% ping pong ball dropped. I'd been a non logged in lurker for years and years here but suddenly my own team was fun as hell again.

My all time favorite moments as a Bulls fan have to be those Rose led games. That 5 game series against Boston. Screaming at Boozer. Crying for Rose when he went down.

I am absolutely thrilled this early season. I am truly optimistic and simultaneously seeing results for the first time since. I have multi playoff series aspirations again. Life is good. I think the East is going to be an absolute roller coaster and I don't want to miss a single game all season. That feels **** awesome.
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Re: Where does this rank on your most enjoyable Bulls seasons? 

Post#11 » by tysanity » Mon Nov 22, 2021 4:32 pm

06-07 season is very underrated, I guess. Sweeping Miami was absolutely fantastic.

08-09 was also fantastic. Ben Gordon clutch plays, Derrick Rose rookie season, 36 points on his playoffs debut, tying the Record.

IMO, its too early to call 21-22 funnier than those seasons, let alone D-Rose MVP year.

But I agree with most people, this season has the potential to be TOP 2 or 3 season since Jordan era.

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Re: Where does this rank on your most enjoyable Bulls seasons? 

Post#12 » by Magilla_Gorilla » Mon Nov 22, 2021 4:37 pm

This is definitely top 3 in the post-title era thus far. We'll see how the seasons ends - and I expect that will have the most bearing on where I rank this season. But, right now, even having to watch the games on that **** Amazon Prime League Pass app - this is a top 3 season.
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Re: Where does this rank on your most enjoyable Bulls seasons? 

Post#13 » by Chi town » Mon Nov 22, 2021 4:43 pm

That 0-9 team that turned it around with Skiles was a lot of fun. Gordon as the killer in crunch time was must watch tv.
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Re: Where does this rank on your most enjoyable Bulls seasons? 

Post#14 » by wojoaderge » Mon Nov 22, 2021 5:09 pm

I've lived in Chicago/Chicagoland for 37 out of 51 years. This is by far my favorite Bulls team (1976-77 is my true favorite but only historically so, I only started following basketball in 1982-83).
"Coach, why don't you just relax? We're not good enough to beat the Lakers. We've had a great year, why don't you just relax and cool down?"
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Re: Where does this rank on your most enjoyable Bulls seasons? 

Post#15 » by logical_art » Mon Nov 22, 2021 5:32 pm

Highest since prime DRose.
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Re: Where does this rank on your most enjoyable Bulls seasons? 

Post#16 » by petebraun0 » Mon Nov 22, 2021 5:36 pm

This season reminds me of our three Alphas season with Butler, Wade, and Rondo, only we have three players more in their prime, and two of those players are better than the previous three Alphas, and all three are better scorers. It will be a fun year. I just hope we stay very healthy for the long run. Hope Vuc gives use a four Alphas. I really wonder if we bring in another big and who that will be.
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Re: Where does this rank on your most enjoyable Bulls seasons? 

Post#17 » by troza » Mon Nov 22, 2021 5:41 pm

This year is at least the best season since Rose went down in injury so far... mainly because it has been better than expected... and we expected an improvement since last season. More than this... I don't know... we need to finish this season to be able to compare to others.
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Re: Where does this rank on your most enjoyable Bulls seasons? 

Post#18 » by GoBlue72391 » Mon Nov 22, 2021 5:45 pm

dougthonus wrote:For me, this is top 3.

For context, while I watched the Bulls in the Jordan era, I wasn't really a huge basketball nut at the time, so I was thrilled when the Bulls won and watched with my college roommates, I didn't sit around and watch all the regular season games which I started doing later. In that sense, while obviously the Jordan era was better than any other era, none of those seasons rank in my top just due to not being fully invested in basketball at the time as I only watched the big games and playoffs.

For me, I think I'm going with:
#1: 2004-5 - This team was magical and started my hard core Bulls fandom. There was so much promise because everyone on it was so young and you thought they could grow so much more. They even had a ton of cap room to do more things coming up and add a legit pieces. I thought they might even be able to add a star player to this great roster. Man did it fall apart quickly.

#2: 2010-11 - In a neutral context, it would probably deserve to be the #1 year after the Jordan era. Rose's climb to MVP, the beating of Miami in the regular season, the leap to true contender and dreams of titles as well as the hope of becoming a contending team for a decade were all on the table.

#3 2021-22 - Interestingly, this season holds elements of both the 04/05 and 10/11. The Bulls are back after a long draught with a team full of guys you love and love each other (04/05 elements). They're one of the best teams in the league and have an MVP candidate on it (10/11 elements). Also has it's own unique element of a bunch of guys whom were sort of cast away as "not winners" that came together to make all this happen. Will be interesting to see how they do as the season goes on.

Some other thoughts:
12/13 Just for the Brooklyn playoff win
13/14 for Noah getting MVP votes (if I could have moved the playoffs from 12/13 into this season it'd probably be on the list)
11/12 Despite the tragic ending, the season itself was magical, only thing that stops it from being ont he list is that it was expected

While I'm already ready to give 21/22 the rank of #3, it's not inconceivable that it could climb all the way to #1 or #2.

I started watching basketball around 2002-03, and this season is definitely up there with the ones you mentioned. I would also throw the 2006-07 season in there too. That one was especially important to me because that was the first year I really started following basketball on a hardcore level rather than a casual level.

I still remember the opening night 40+ point blowout against the defending champion Heat which spawned the Alonzo Mourning GIF, and then of course the sweep of the Heat for our first playoff series win since the Jordan era. Luol Deng looked like a superstar during that playoff run. I still remember the heartbreak of losing to the Pistons in the second round. As someone who had never experienced playoff success up to that point, I was so sure that was our year.

Also a shoutout to the 2008-09 season, Derrick Rose's rookie year. I attended game 6 of the Bulls/Celtics playoff series and even though I was in the standing room only section that was still the peak of my live basketball experience.

Most of those Bulls teams were gritty, blue-collar defense-first teams that while fun to watch wasn't as aesthetically pleasing as this year's team. Defense is also a big part of this year's team, but between DeMar's midrange game and elite euro-step, Lonzo's passing, Caruso's Carusosity, and Zach's just overall smoothness in everything he does, this team is definitely "more fun" to watch. Those old teams were pretty much limited to Rose's whirling dervishness in terms of objective entertainment. As much as I love Noah, Deng, Taj, etc., they were more substance over style.

To close out my thoughts, to me this team has the same feel as the 2010-11 team. That's to say, it feels like we're on the cusp of something special even though we weren't supposed to be this good this soon. I still remember one of the games from the 2010-11 season where MJ came to a game for one reason or another (I think it was for the 20th anniversary of the Bulls first championship team) and he said how the 2010-11 team had a lot of parallels with the 1990-91 team and if things keep going well he wouldn't be surprised to see a 7th banner in the rafters. Hopefully this iteration ends better than the Rose-era Bulls.
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Re: Where does this rank on your most enjoyable Bulls seasons? 

Post#19 » by GoBlue72391 » Mon Nov 22, 2021 5:55 pm

ChettheJet wrote:Championship 5 and 6 really stand out, the 72 win season, it wasn't a case of could they keep winning but how easily would it come. The first championship getting convincingly past Detroit and then the uncertainty of facing Magic Johnson in the Finals and it all just coming together to win 4 straight games

But when I was younger the 76-77 team that got Artis Gilmore in the ABA draft was the best of the first 24 years of the franchise. They didn't look like much in the first half of the season but it suddenly clicked when they won 20 of the last 24 games in the season to make the playoffs. That was on par with the winning percentage of the championship years. The last 10 home games were sellouts and, (I looked it up) the supposed attendance record of 21,000 was set against the Lakers but to hell with the fire marshal with people sitting in the aisles of the second balcony it was more like 25,000.

That team really captured the fans. i still have the Artis Gilmore and Tom Boerwinkle autographed picture when they were at a Jewel/Osco grand opening and the Norm Van Lier autographed photo when he was at the neighborhood Chevy dealer.

I stood at center court of the first balcony as they won game 2 of the 3 game series against Portland in the Stadium. What Bill Walton called the toughest game he'd ever played. And with just a little help or a break here or there or more in the tank after the mad rush to even make the playoffs they could have beaten the Walton and eventual champions in game 3 in Portland.

I always love hearing from old school Bulls fans. I was at the Bulls/Knicks game last month for Joakim Noah night and I was thrilled that the likes of Gilmore and Bob Love were in the house even though they were retired before I was even born.
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Re: Where does this rank on your most enjoyable Bulls seasons? 

Post#20 » by khufure » Mon Nov 22, 2021 10:29 pm

mmm the hype leading up to jordan returns! season was amazing. and they delivered. rodman was all the possibles but none of the negatives people were throwing out. nothing will top that.

the new arrivals are just clicking so well. even though we already lost our promising youngster to a season ender and Coby went down early in training camp, the Bulls have kept on winning. it feels like the team has a top-10 offense and defense. I love it.

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