Being Careful What You Wish For

It's confusing being a sports fan. Take the Bulls, for instance. 

Last fall, I was relieved the team had finally jettisoned the awkward acquisitions of Dwyane Wade and Rajon Rondo and sent Jimmy Butler packing for Minnesota.

Fine players to be sure. But not the ones who were going to replace Derrick Rose and Luol Deng and Joakim Noah. That star-crossed group had been dispersed to the four winds, and nothing the aforementioned trio did was going to make the Bulls contenders again.

Especially with an overmatched coach in a fractious locker room.

Gar Forman pulled off a sweet deal with the Butler move, receiving three talented youngsters in return: Kris Dunn, Lauri Markkanen and Zach LaVine. They showed significant promise for much of the 2017/18 season.

To the point where after a horrific 3 and 20 start, the Bulls actually played some good ball, going 24 and 35 the rest of the way (which included an impressive seven-game winning streak in December featuring victories over Cleveland, Philadelphia, Utah, Milwaukee and Boston).

With the fruit of what is rumored to be one of the all-time great NBA drafts as yet-unplucked, I was seized with mild panic. Were the Bulls getting too good too fast? I mean, shouldn't they pick-up DeAndre Ayton or Marvin Bagley III before they lay waste to the NBA Finals?

I needn't have worried. However nicely they were jelling, schisms existed. First and foremost the one between Bobby Portis and Nikola Mirotic, the result of a bitter training camp incident. It was bitter-enough that Mirotic insisted on being traded.

This was done, with the Bulls receiving a conditional first-round draft pick from the New Orleans Pelicans. Unfortunately, New Orleans went on a tear after Mirotic's arrival, going 21 and 11 and fighting their way into the second round of the playoffs despite the absence of rejuvenated center DeMarcus Cousins.

Ironically, that success served to drive down the value of the Bulls' pick, which I'm sure gave Mirotic great pleasure.

So in this most-bizarre of seasons that saw a young core getting its groove on in fine and fabulous fashion, this was not perceived as a good thing. Winning was in fact, losing. In the league-wide race to the bottom the Bulls were struggling to compete.

To compensate for the front office's success, starters sat. Curious DNPs littered box scores. Even more-curious injuries cropped up. Bad basketball happened. In ways you don't ever want to see, the Bulls (among others) attracted the attention of NBA commissioner Adam Silver.

He acted the only way he could in an attempt to preserve the league's integrity, fining Mav's owner Mark Cuban 600K for even broaching the topic of tanking. The remaining teams were advised they would be met with the swiftest and harshest response possible from the league office if losing-on-purpose evidence was unearthed.

Regardless, the sugar plum fairies of wingspan and multi-position athleticism continued to dance in GM's heads. Fueled by hype and social media, the 2018 draft has come to represent the Holy Grail; a GM's best opportunity to lead an NBA franchise out of the darkness and into the light of career-making contention.

This, of course, is not true. There are no guarantees in the draft. Hall of Fame-studded All-Star teams can be drafted from players chosen well after the first round in baseball, football, basketball and hockey.

It is perhaps the most wondrous aspect of our humanity that we resolutely ignore what others say we can or should achieve. Fourth-round draft picks upend conventional wisdom and become all-time greats. Can't-miss first-round picks fail and drift into obscurity.

Contrary to what the talking heads at ESPN and elsewhere say, the truth is that we just don't know. Tank if you want to, but a high draft pick is all you're guaranteed.

The next Ben Simmons and Anthony Davis are not.

Which brings me back to the Bulls. Their widely-disparaged selections at seven and twenty-one could net them a very talented starter and a reliable guy off the bench. The right pick could even pave the way to moving the defensively-challenged LaVine.

If not quite requiring shades, the Bulls' future is looking pretty bright—even without a top three pick. Micro-managing draft slots and stifling an athlete's natural urge to compete is dangerous stuff.

Can we just play basketball next year?