No other fans in the NBA are quite like Bulls fans. The Chicago faithful mostly complain about their team, and for good reason.
The Bulls haven’t made the Finals since Michael Jordan retired more than 25 years ago. And they're trending way down, with one measly win in a playoff game over the last seven years.
A 2023-24 season in which they made a 77-year-old widow cry in front of 20,000 fans, had their disgruntled star shove a PR employee after a clutch win, put up perhaps the worst alley-oop attempt in league history, and were eliminated from the postseason in embarrassing fashion is par for the course.
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In spite of themselves, the Bulls still lead the league every year in home attendance. Fans love their team even when they hate it. While many of the ones that I speak to have stopped watching religiously, they still follow closely. They can’t quit the habit.
“I'm from Puerto Rico,” one fan told me after the season ended. “When I applied for colleges, I ONLY applied to colleges within 100 miles of the Bulls. I literally chose my college and left my Caribbean homeland because I wanted to be close to the Bulls.”
That fan checked out of a Bulls season for the first time in his adult life this year. He’s far from alone. As we age and memories of the good times get farther and farther away, we’re all starting to realize that it ain’t worth it to be a Bulls fan.
The Bulls aren’t going to lose sleep over our decision. They have said as much this year, telling The Athletic’s Darnell Mayberry that they don’t care about “your fans.” Those would be the fans who still love the franchise enough to pay for media coverage, but refuse to buy tickets because of its direction.
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The Bulls will give out free merch, tickets and perks to their supporters who don’t press them too hard about their utter lack of competence. They wish the rest of us would go away. Their jobs would be a lot easier and revenue would be the same if the people who truly care about the team’s success simply disappeared.
What about the podcaster that records from Australia in the middle of the night, juggling babies and a full-time job? Or the Dane who has followed overseas for decades, building a career around his love for the Bulls? How about the Korean blogger who wakes up at 4 a.m. to make videos for the community?
The Bulls have the bus gassed up and ready to take them to the airport whenever they’re ready to leave.
What the Chicago front office wants are the season ticket holders who renew because of how far their seats have moved up over the decades, even if they can’t give them away on most nights. Or the corporate packages who entertain visiting clients, with no clue as to who is on the court.
Diehard Bulls fans are the jilted lovers that can’t get over a bad breakup. Worse, they don't even realize that it happened years ago. They can’t help but look at their ex’s Instagram photos and get upset that the Bulls seem perfectly happy without them.
Bulls ownership and upper management want to live their best lives. They’d like to clock in at 10 a.m., go golfing after lunch, and enjoy the fruits of the business they built three decades ago. They take fantastic care of their employees, they rake in the profits, and they have no ambition beyond that.
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They’ll luck into a generational superstar in the draft once or twice in a fan’s lifetime, and they’ll make the city buzz again. Until then, they’re thrilled to be the Applebees of the NBA.
It’s a waste of time to try and change them. They’re a business. It’s within their right to prioritize their shareholders over serving their fans.
Maybe one day, the Bulls will be back. I’m not holding my breath. But I’m also okay with that. If they ever do change, I’ll be back to support the team that I once loved. And I will always be grateful for the good teams that they did give me, wagging my finger like Joakim Noah during life’s greatest moments.
Until then, I’m moving into the just friends stage of my relationship with the Bulls. I’ll still watch them if they’re the only thing going on that night, and I’ll wish them the best. I'll write about them on the rare occasions that they do something relevant. But I’m not making time for them. There are plenty of fish in the sea. Bulls fans deserve one that loves them back.
