I grew up in Chicago and was fortunate enough to witness sports history seemingly year after year.  Whether they were down by twenty points in the fourth quarter, needed a last second shot, or just had to hang onto a lead for the last minute, the Chicago Bulls almost always pulled off the win.  It helped tremendously having Michael Jordan on the team.  Having the greatest player to ever play the game of basketball always helps.  Sometimes, he would simply force the Bulls to win by sheer force of his will power. 

            Watching him play was a true privilege.  He made spectacular shots, stole the show with slam dunks, scored a lot of points, played great defense, and made his teammates better just be being out on the floor with him.  But he wasn’t alone.  Phil Jackson ranks as one of the greatest coaches in NBA history and Scottie Pippen was a fantastic Hall of Fame worthy player in his own right as well.  There was also Horace Grant, BJ Armstrong, John Paxson, Steve Kerr, and the always interesting, yet disturbing Dennis Rodman. 

            They had two three-peats of championships during the 90s and might have had even more if Michael Jordan hadn’t briefly retired or if the owners’ lockout hadn’t forced the dynasty to be broken up prematurely.  Still, they thoroughly dominated the decade, which was a relief to Chicago sports fans who had endured years of the Cubs, Sox, and Blackhawks’ failures.  Though they had won a Superbowl during the 80s, the Bears had even tailed off in quality and were hard to watch at times.  But the Bulls almost always delivered. 

            Then when the team got broken up, I drifted away as a fan.  It became almost painful to watch the new generation of Bulls players struggling to merely win a game when Jordan and the others had cut through the competition like they were nothing.  It’s hard to go from having the greatest team in the world, maybe even the great team ever, to having just another team of youngsters trying to mature. 

            Film critic Gene Siskel was even a huge fan of the Chicago Bulls and used to write articles for the Chicago Tribune sports section about what he was supposed to do as a fan now that his team had broken up and was never coming back, not really.  As fans do, they drifted off and some went over to the White Sox who finally won a world series in the new millennium and others want to go after Steve Bartman, believing he and he alone had caused the Cubs to collapse in the play-offs.  And the Bears always have their fans, no matter how poor or mediocre they were.  But they finally reached the Superbowl again in 2007 and lost, though the fact that they got there at least showed an enormous amount of improvement. 

            The Bulls have been relegated to the back of the Chicago sports scene, but Michael Jordan’s statue still stands outside the United Center.  No one will ever forget his team, even if a new generation of the Bulls rise up to a championship.