It began in December 4th, 2009. The 13-5 Cleveland Cavaliers went up against the 7-9 Chicago Bulls. Just a month earlier the Bulls eked out a one point victory against the Cavs. When they faced off again, LeBron James made sure to bask in the glory of beating on a team that had lost five of six in the games previous and was below .500. LeBron danced and pranced as the Cavs were blowing out the Bulls, which prompted Joakim Noah to start jawing at him. Keep in mind the Cavs were predicted to finish with the best record in the NBA and did end up doing that, while people didn’t even know if the Bulls would make the playoffs. We've never seen LeBron dance while beating a good team.
LeBron’s arrogance on that night and through the rest of the season prompted Noah to say he wanted to face off against Cleveland in the first round of the playoffs. The Bulls battled back from injuries to their entire starting line up and managed to secure the 8 seed, granting Noah his wish of playing Cleveland. Noah supplied classic quotes about the city of Cleveland and every game was closely contested even though it only lasted five games. Derrick Rose and Noah had a great series but the Cavs eliminated them. The Cavs went on to get embarrassed by the Boston Celtics in the next round, and the years of rumors about LeBron leaving Cleveland blasted to historic levels.
At the same time, Chris Bosh of the Toronto Raptors made it clear before the season even ended that he had no intention of staying come summer. He tanked most of the season and seemed disinterested in the Raptors’s success, or lack thereof. He even took to Twitter asking where he should play the 2010-11 season. Meanwhile in South Beach, Dwyane Wade seemed like he might be leaving Miami since they had dropped off hard since winning the 2006 Championship. An ass-kicking at the hands of the Celtics in the first round of the 2010 playoffs when many thought the Heat would knock off Boston seemed to be the straw that would break the camel’s back.
When the free agency period began in July following the season, Bosh made it clear he was going to just follow Wade or LeBron. Wade and Bosh both met with the Chicago Bulls multiple times and it seemed like Chicago was going to be their likely destination. LeBron James had his ego stroked the most, carrying out his decision over the course of a week and inviting six teams to meet with him and pitch their plans for the future. They were the Clippers, Nets, Knicks, Cavaliers, Bulls, and Heat. Chicago seemed like the likely pick early on, but when Wade and Bosh said they were uniting in Miami, everybody knew where LeBron was going.
In one of the most unbelievable (and not the good kind) moments in sports history, LeBron made ESPN devote an hour to his choice in a program called The Decision. It was an hour long infomercial about his self-proclaimed greatness, which culminated in him going on live national television and kicking the Cavaliers organization in the nuts. That is another rant for another time. LeBron made his decision by saying, “I’m going to take my talents to South Beach.” LeBron headed down to Miami and held lavish celebration after lavish celebration. The Heat organization even had the big three get together for what was essentially a championship celebration before the season even began. The line in the sand was drawn: You were either jumping on the band wagon, or you wanted to see these showboats get beat.
But while other teams were falling head over heels for LeBron, the Chicago Bulls were not. Derrick Rose texted James one time to tell him he’d like to play with him, Noah reached out but never heard back, Carlos Boozer reached out to LeBron briefly after he signed with Chicago, and the Bulls made their pitch in LeBron’s little free agency summit. But as evidenced with Rose’s lack of eagerness to sway LeBron, Chicago was prepared to live without him. The Bulls did however want Dwyane Wade. Derrick Rose contacted Wade multiple times about coming to Chicago, but Wade never responded. What would happen in Chicago after The Decision would shape a season almost nobody other than die hard fans and the Bulls organization expected.
Joakim Noah was seen walking through the streets with a huge grin on his face after LeBron announced he was going to Miami. He seemed genuinely glad he wouldn’t have to team up with James. Noah even went so far as to say, “It’s perfect.” He even came out and said that the Bulls would be the team that would take it to Miami when everything was on the line. Tough talk for a guy on a team people expected to finish maybe around the 4 or 5 seed.
Derrick Rose was so driven by the way LeBron, Wade, and Bosh acted that he went into the gym and busted his ass all summer to become a killer. He improved his defense, his shooting, his passing, and he came into training camp wondering out loud about winning the Most Valuable Player award. Again, tough talk for a guy on a team who people didn’t think would amount to the Celtics or Magic or the new superbeast in Miami.
The Bulls hired Tom Thibodeau as their new head coach and he along with executives Gar Forman and John Paxson built a roster that would end up becoming the deepest in the league. Thibodeau’s defense-first mindset took hold over the roster and they were primed to do serious damage over the course of the season.
Then the season began with Miami as the league’s biggest tale, but with injuries to Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah somehow Derrick Rose carried the Bulls to elite status. As the season went on, Rose built a reputation for being a great closer while the Heat’s inability to win close games made them an easy target. The Bulls beat Miami in all three regular season meetings, never winning by more than four but still doing damage. In fact after the third loss to Chicago, Heat players were crying in the locker room. But Chicago still wasn’t on the top of Miami’s hit list.
All summer the Heat built themselves up with the mission of beating the Boston Celtics. The C’s were the defending Eastern Conference champs and LeBron and Wade wanted revenge for their post-season failures against them. All year their focus was to take it to Boston. The Heat got their wish, dismantling the old Celtics in five games and making it to the Eastern Conference Finals. But now that they've got there, they’re facing a team that has prepared for this since the summer.
The Bulls have the MVP in Derrick Rose and the Coach of the Year in Tom Thibodeau. They have the deepest roster in the league and the best defense. While they lacked the flashiness of the Heat, all season they’ve displayed the heart it seems Miami is too often missing. And all season they worked their asses off to get the best record in the NBA. The catalyst for all of this amazing success the Bulls are enjoying this year? The Miami Heat.
Just the other night after eliminating the Atlanta Hawks, Noah stated this is what the Bulls have wanted all season. Rose and Noah have wanted to send a message since last summer. They’ve wanted to prove themselves to the big three. Rose, Noah, and the entire Bulls team are out to show that while the Heat’s big three are concerned with the glamour and notoriety that comes with success, there is a hard-working team that is all about winning regardless of who gets the credit for it. That is what makes this next part so painful.
While it is no secret I am a die hard Bulls fan, I have to state that my prediction for this series is the Heat in six. Derrick Rose can’t be the only Bull to create if they want to win, Carlos Boozer needs to consistently perform well if they want to win, and Luol Deng needs to survive playing 45 minutes of a 48 minute game every night. All of those becoming realities seem too unlikely against a team like Miami. Also since the NBA does pick who they want (if you type in “rigging games” in a Yahoo search the first Also Try result is “nba rigging games”), I can’t imagine the Bulls getting to the foul line anywhere near as much as the Heat since Miami making the Finals would be a huge story.
But NBA conspiracies aside, the Bulls have only sparingly been dominant in the post-season. They’re going to need to be dominant every night if they want to win this series. However with Miami's focus being on Boston and LeBron acting like he won the championship following the victory against the C's there is a chance Miami is not ready for what the Bulls can bring. While I’m sure the result of the series will leave me with massive heartache, I’m so pumped for this series just because of the build up. Chicago never really wanted LeBron and they’ve wanted to slap the taste out of his mouth in the playoffs for a long time. Now with Derrick Rose on the cusp of solidifying his place as the game’s top player, this series takes on a whole new level of intensity. Game 1 is tonight at 8. I don’t know what is going to happen, but I know we might be in for some of the most intense basketball of the season.
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