the Bulls massive fanbase should be an advantage, not a crutch

don't let AKME off the hook by saying they're satisfying ownership

Since my last post warning everyone of Arturas Karnisovas’s future victory lap, the Bulls have kept up his meager dream of ‘preserving integrity of competition through a new playing identity’.

In these games against the Knicks and Spurs, they maintained a floor above that bottom-barrel (true tankers) level, mostly due to great play from veterans that aren’t going to see any increase in trade value. Josh Giddey gets benched down the stretch, Pat Williams is technically not benched but you can’t really tell, Ayo Dosunmu remains out with a now-troubling calf strain, and the under-23 cohort barely plays.

[One recent change is Coby White is out of his extremely long slump. That’s unequivocally good.]

That is what keeps them close, and in these last two they won the game too. The Spurs win was another instance of the Bulls maintaining their insane fortune¹ in close games, now 7-0 in contests decided in the final minute where opponents have inexplicably, yet routinely, crapped themselves against the otherwise-awful Bulls defense.

The tank has been dead for a while, and (at least as intended) was D.O.A. entering the season. No matter what (and when) they do in the trade market, they’ll likely land somewhere in the 8th-11th spot in the lottery no matter what², that’s not my issue.

The biggest difference, and biggest problem for me lately is that these wins are at home. And one of AKME’s very few goals was to have a good home record, and my fandom is almost entirely motivated by seeing this group fired. So that they’re now 7-11 in their building, including their highest home matchup on Derrick Rose night³, really irks me knowing how AKME has now nearing total victory in his mind.

And it irks me further whenever I read⁴ that AKME is catering to patrons as smart strategy. Is that why they went out of their way to mention ‘home court advantage’? No, it’s because they’re fundamentally stupid and in way over their heads, and don’t even recognize that’s not actually a goal you can strive for, let alone how easily people can see that it’s pandering.

Bulls fans, including the ones that show up to games, are not dumb. They’re also not complacent or naive to the bigger NBA picture and how the Bulls have been reduced to simply a nostalgia brand now.

There’s simply a lot of people in the area. It’s why the NBA should really consider adding a team in Chicago.

If the Bulls dared to diminish the integrity of the sport more properly rebuild I don’t think attendance would meaningfully slip. People weren’t ever going to games to see Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic, and as long as you weren’t a total, Wizardsian, shitshow for multiple seasons it wouldn’t be a concern that you weren’t competitive. Even at this current status of pretty-bad, you’re still nominally in the NBA, other real stars play for opponents (unless they rest against you, but that’s happening already) and you can shoot your way into fun action. Heck, dare to dream that there’d be young exciting players providing a moment here and there. Coby White had one last night:

It’s a misconception to think the fanbase has been placated, and asinine to attempt to shame arena-goers as ignorantly placated. It’s actually the opposite, they’ve been blatantly and obviously offended by AKME’s job performance.

That ‘people keep showing up’ in spite of that should teach ownership a lesson: not the lesson that AKME is doing their job, but recognition that you could bring in anyone to do the job, and if they happened to do it completely awfully it still wouldn’t cause a revenue problem.

Appealing to their motivation: think of how much more money the Bulls could make if they had management that wasn’t terrible and pissed off everyone?

1. or when considering the Spurs, was it luck or do they not find it so bad if this result helps potentially two lottery picks???

2. instead of worrying about it, root for the Pistons!

3. in case you missed it, Rose night looked like great fun. The only thing that would’ve ruined it was a refusal to retire Rose’s jersey, and the ‘dorfs swerved and not only will retire it but milk another ‘tribute night’ next season to do so.

4. Yes a lot of this sentiment comes from mouthbreathers on Reddit and The Everything App, but not entirely. There’s a certain disgraced city newspaper beat reporter that’s the loudest/dumbest about it, but he’s not alone. And it comes from commenters here sometimes, and you are not ‘straw’!