Outside of some chippy squads under head coach Scott Skiles and then a stint as fringe contenders in the East from 2010-15 with their one-time Coach of the Year Tom Thibodeau, the Chicago Bulls have been mired in mediocrity for decades.
Since Chicago fired Thibodeau in 2015, the team has made the playoffs exactly twice — once in 2017, under then-head coach Fred Hoiberg (and with an entirely different roster than the current iteration), and then again in 2022, while recently-extended current head coach Billy Donovan was steering the ship.
Donovan, a good coach, has been saddled with some thoroughly underwhelming rosters as constructed by apathetic team president Arturas Karnisovas. He’s managed to make lemons out of lemonade somewhat, guiding the Bulls to three straight play-in tournament berths since their last proper playoff showing — although they haven’t advanced out of the play-in tournament in any of those appearances.
So how do Bulls fans feel about their beloved franchise being utterly unremarkable for the better part of the last decade? Keep in mind, this is a team that won six titles in eight seasons during the 1990s, when Hall of Famers Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen roamed Chicago Stadium and the United Center.
Per Ben Mendelowitz of The Action Network, the Chicago faithful are surprisingly on board.
57 percent of the Bulls faithful polled in a survey of 3,156 total NBA fans last month claimed to feel either neutral or rarely/never having been rejected by the Bulls. Stunningly, 49 percent of fans expressed satisfaction with the Bulls’ play across the last five seasons, all under Donovan.
Donovan has posted a 195-205 record (.488) during his half-decade with Chicago. Again, he’s led the Bulls to exactly one playoff appearance, in which Chicago got pasted by the Milwaukee Bucks, 1-4.
49 percent of fans, sadly, felt like they had been effectively priced out of showing up to games in the flesh.
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Last year, Chicago notched a 39-43 record and reached the No. 9 seed in the East. That was good enough for a play-in tournament appearance, but the guard-heavy Bulls were obliterated by the No. 10-seeded Miami Heat in their lone game.
To an extent, the fans’ enthusiasm is backed up by sheer numbers.
Per ESPN, Chicago’s 825,659 home game fans across 41 contests last season ranks first in the entire league. Granted, the United Center’s 20,917-person capacity also ranks first, but it’s still impressive that the Bulls continue to pull in fans despite not being particularly good.
“For 57 percent of Bulls fans to feel neutral or not let down shows just how far the franchise has drifted into irrelevance,” The Action Network’s senior NBA writer Matt Moore told Mendelowitz. “That’s a passionate sports town with the franchise of Michael Jordan — and Bulls fans are mostly fine with their middling success.”
Until Chicago fans revolt, ownership may be satisfied with cashing their checks and ducking the luxury tax.
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