Another Heated Rivalry?

(Fan blog 3 of 6 - idea provided by Brad Zoeteman)



Pistons/Bulls: The Start of Rivalries in Chicago Basketball

Back in the late 1980s, the Detroit Pistons were the thorn in the side of the Chicago Bulls. The Bad Boys from Motown knocked the Bulls out of the playoffs 3 straight times (1988-1990). In all three of those seasons, the Pistons made it to the Finals, winning back-to-back titles in 1989 and 1990. It was the type of rivalry that sparked interest in Chicago basketball to a new generation of fans all across the country. It had the perfect set-up of good guys vs. the Bad Boys, and right at the dawn of the merging of Jordan and Nike. It was a fan's dream and a marketing firm's wet dream rolled into one.

As everyone knows, the Bulls took "the next step" in 1991, overcoming the Pistons in impressive fashion- a 4 game sweep en route to their first franchise championship. Many people took note of the classless way the Pistons left the court without shaking hands with the Bulls - I say it doesn't really matter much and if anything, should be expected from the Bad Boys.



bullsheat

Fast forward 20 years later. The Bulls are in their first conference finals since the Jordan era ended (1997-98). By all accounts, this season came as a surprise to Bulls nation, who were expecting an improvement with the added free agents and another offseason of improvement for Rose, but nothing like this. Vegas thought the same, pegging the Bulls over/under for wins at 47, which was eclipsed with ease.

Their conference final opponent had much different expectations entering the season. Following "El Decision", the Heat were considered co-favorites (along with the Lakers) to win the title. ESPN couldn't get enough footage of these guys, and the cockiness of the newly-formed trio of Wade, James and Bosh leaked into the community. A bar owner promised to pay $25 credit to each customer who watched the whole Heat game every time the Heat lost a game- here's the damage that their season did to him, as of March 8th: (Heat bar owner).

Miami has righted the ship and are actually 2/1 favorites against Chicago despite the Bulls owning the home court advantage. This has to do with the Bulls looking human against fairly average teams in Indiana and Atlanta as much as it does with the Heat looking like the team many expected them to be in the first two rounds. Chicago enters as the underdog despite beating the Heat all three times in the regular season (by a total of 8 points).

And I agree - the Heat should be favorites in spite of those two factors (home court and regular season success). As the playoffs have shown- save game 6 with Boozer playing for his $15M in one game, where Derrick Rose goes, so go the Bulls. If the size/length of whoever they have covering Rose (Wade, James, etc.) affects Rose, more game 6-like performances from Boozer and others are going to need to appear in order for the Bulls to even have a chance in the series. Also, if Udonis Haslem is able to shake the rust of recovering from his injury that kept him out for the whole season up until the middle of last series, the Heat will get an inside presence that will make the lane that much more difficult for Rose to drive through.



Bulls/Heat: Can it deliver like Bulls/Pistons?

Now, the point of the blog, as addressed by Brad: Will the Bulls/Heat rivalry mirror that of the Bulls/Pistons? I believe the short answer, in terms of the intensity of it and the long-term success of both teams, is NO.

I believe the Heat are in much better position to win multiple titles over the next 7-8 years compared to the Bulls. Everyone critiques the Heat for lacking a bench, but when these guys are playing 43-44 minutes in the playoffs and playing better than all of their peers, who the hell needs a bench? Sure, there may be a game where foul trouble plagues James and/or Wade and their opponents capitalize. In the long run though, I'd rather have the Heat's core of players than the Bulls, who outside of Rose don't have anyone who you can say will be a consistent All-Star player for the next 6-8 years.

That's not to say that the Bulls won't get those pieces in the future. However, if the NBA institutes a hard salary cap, these big salaries to Noah, Boozer and Rose (only the latter deserves to be paid like an all-star) will make it difficult to get the elusive second scoring option for Rose to dish it off to. You can forget about the Bulls getting Howard if that happens (even if the hard cap doesn't happen, I see Howard going to Boston or LA before he goes to Chicago).

For the Bulls/Heat to even come close to Bulls/Pistons, some of these players need to make themselves true enemies to the opposing fans (taunting, technical fouls, etc.) as opposed to offseason shenanigans (like The Decison and what followed from that) and it should be a defensive-dominated series, where points are a struggle and you can see the players' frustrations with trying to break each team's defense (two of the top defenses in the league this year). But most importantly, they need to face each other at least a handful of times in the next 2-3 years and need to have competitive series. It can't be a rivalry if one team sweeps the other year in, year out (cough, Michigan/Illinois football).

To properly judge this, we will need to see how each of the teams do in the next 3-4 years. Unfortunately for the Bulls, I see their shelf life short-lived if they can't add players better than Boozer and Noah to compliment Rose.