Years of heartbreak, false hope, and a handful of “almosts” is the best way to describe the Chicago Bulls playoff journey history.

During the 90s The Chicago Bulls had a team, a team who will now be known as the greatest to ever do it, not just through Michael Jordan, but this team was strategically gifted and proved that to the world with 6 NBA championships! However, greatness isn’t immortal, as players grow old and begin retiring, the Bulls wouldn’t see that same success. Chicago lost an identity and winning mentality that wouldn’t be found for the next 20 years. Now it’s 2012 and the Bulls have a young kid, not just any young kid, the youngest player to ever receive an MVP trophy at 22, Derrick Rose was at the same level NBA greats take years to accomplish. The Bulls were coming off a suffering loss to the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference finals the year prior. That loss turned into hunger, a hunger of redemption.

Coming into the 2012 playoffs we were hungry, seeing red hungry. The Philadelphia 76ers were our prey and with Derrick Rose there was no way we wouldn’t eat good and see a championship in the hooks of our bull horns. “Uh oh uh oh, Rose came down bad on his left foot, holding on to his knee-holding onto his knee and down.” Words that will haunt Bulls fans forever. With our first game back in the playoffs Derrick Rose tears his ACL, which is an important component for knee stability. Derrick Rose would return 2 years later but never the same. Not the same D Rose that would lead us to a championship. Now it’s 2022, a year of new hope, a year where the atmosphere for Chicago basketball is different, it’s fun again. The Bulls had a successful off season acquiring some big names such as Demar, Lonzo, and Caruso to pair up with Lavine and Vucevic.

This year the Bulls making it to the playoffs doesn’t just signify great basketball but stands for the fact that Chicago basketball is back. The excitement for victory is back. After many years of winning depressions, the Bulls finally have a chance to win it all. The Chicago Bulls are coming into the first round against the previous championship holders Milwaukee Bucks. The Chicago Bulls are coming into this series short-handed with the loss of Lonzo Ball due to an injury in his right knee. Also, The Bucks have size over most of our players, with Giannis Antetokounmpo, The 6’11 242 pound pure muscle monster from Greece. It will be a battle of getting the right player to match his size and shut him down. But this is what Chicago stands for, grit and grind for a victory and hope the Chicago Bulls can represent that for us this series. I asked students what they think we should do if we are to win this series and what the Bulls can do to get better can do to get better.

“I think our biggest adversity would be Giannis, stopping him before he gets a full head of steam would be a crucial way to stop him,” English teacher Mr. Brown says on

With our teams’ size it will be difficult to defeat the Bucks, they have very competitive group of centers that our team can’t match but try very valiantly to do so.

“The Bulls have always had a competitive edge over all teams, all of the players on our team have something to prove, whether it be Caruso or Derozan the team has to prove their consistently good,” senior Fransisco Roa says on the Bulls competitive edge.

The Bulls are just missing a couple of pieces to become a contending team for the finals. It could be a backup center or a consistent center with size.

“I feel like the Bulls should get rid of Vooch this off-season, he is a good center putting up good numbers, but when it come to really good teams his performance is sub-par and lacks potential,” Anthony Alvarez on the Vucevic’ next step as a Chicago Bull.

The Bulls have the fire to win but the talent is lacking, with all this combined we will see how far the Bulls go this season.