I’m of the belief that the most fun sports seasons to follow are ones that were unexpected. Not necessarily from nowhere, though that would be even better, but reasonably unexpected. The best recent example I can come up with is the S.F. Giants’ 2010 championship season, which was SF’s first playoff appearance since the Juiced-Up Bonds Era after seven years of fielding reasonably competitive but never contending teams.
I have gotten to witness two sports seasons that I would qualify as truly special. One, the 2008 Cubs team that won 97 games, saw literally every player on the team be prominently involved in a game-winning play at some point, and proceeded to inexplicably turn into the Cubs of old in their three-game playoff series, were the first. The second’s outcome is TBD.
The 2010-11 Bulls were supposed to be good. It was well-documented before the season began that Chicago had done a splendid job rebounding from their failed pursuit of LeBron James and/or Dwyane Wade. The team regrouped and used their massive cap room to net one slightly smaller fish – Carlos Boozer – then surrounded Derrick Rose with role players such as Keith Bogans, Kyle Korver, Ronnie Brewer, and others. Most outfits – Sports Illustrated notably excepted – chose the Bulls to win the Central Division and most expected the Bulls to be a present but hardly threatening foil to the Magic, Heat and Celtics’ further domination of the Eastern Conference.
But none of the pundits – and certainly not me – expected what happened to Rose.
In terms of raw numbers, it was a noticeable but not mind-blowing leap. Rose went from 20.8 points a game to 25, six assists a game to nearly eight, and 77 percent free throw shooting to 86.
But Rose’s rise couldn’t possibly be explained by numbers. Emboldened out of the rejection of the big stars, the removal of all the remaining veterans that preceded him (save Luol Deng) on the Bulls, a new coach in Tom Thibodeau, or some combination of the three, Rose became The Man overnight. This new status meant that Rose took more shots (was effectively forced to take more shots out of necessity) and his shooting percentage took a hit, going from 49 percent in his 2nd season to 44.5 percent. This earned him some criticism from some statheads, who preferred LeBron James’s usual sterling numbers to be rewarded with an MVP award rather than Rose – a natural reaction to the freight train of Rose’s MVP candidacy that shot from nowhere midseason.
But LeBron James had consciously chosen a situation where he didn’t always have to carry the load. He had Dwyane Wade to take big shots here and there. He could choose to distribute in big moments rather than put it on his own shoulders. Rose had no such luxury. Not only is there no one else on the Bulls’ team who can consistently make big shots, no one else wants to even try.
I haven’t even mentioned to this point that Rose pulled this rise off while missing two of his most important sidekicks. Carlos Boozer missed the first month and a half with a broken hand, and before you had even gotten used to seeing him in the Bulls’ lineup, Joakim Noah followed with hand surgery (what is it with the hands on this team?) that kept HIM out until the All-Star break. Rose played essentially the first 55 games of the season without his whole team – and incredibly, that was his best stretch of the season.
And now, after a couple of tough playoff series with Indiana and Atlanta, the Bulls find themselves in the center of a morality play. James, Wade and the Heat are coming to town in a series that no less a basketball mind than ESPN’s Bill Simmons has repeatedly dubbed a series that will test everything he ever knew about basketball. A well-constructed team built around one star and a bunch of guys who know their role versus a couple of studs.
The series begins Sunday. Will my magical season continue?
