With this year’s Eastern Conference Finals set to be an all out slugfest between the Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat, many Bulls fans are apparently still bitter over Lebron James’ “Decision” to “Take his talents to South Beach” rather than play alongside Derrick Rose in Chi-Town for the foresee-able future. So surely all those Lebron haters had to be ecstatic when a gigantic anti-LeBron billboard popped up in the Windy City recently poking fun of James’ proclamation of potentially winning upwards of 7 World Titles with the Heat, all before even wearing the Heat uniform.
The new billboard featuring the words “Unfinished Business” and “Chicago, Beat Lebron” could mean a lot of things. Is it referring to the fact that James’ Heat were 0-3 against the Bulls during the regular season? While it’s a noble thought, I don’t take much stock in it since Lebron didn’t even suit up for one of the contests and both teams are playing at an unbelievably high level during the post-season.
Could it mean that the Heat are just a stepping stone in Chicago’s run at title number 7? No doubt, Bulls fans are proud that they are one of the elite NBA franchises, ranking 3rd all time in titles (behind Boston and Los Angeles), winning 6 World Championships during the 90’s. After the Jordan/Pippen era un-ceremonially ended at the turn of the century, the organization has spun it’s wheels searching for it’s next franchise player. Enter Derrick Rose, who’s fantastic, yet short resume already includes an MVP, and features a lot of remarkable stats that either start or finish with “the first player since Jordan to.”
Thanks primarily to Rose, the ’10-’11 Bulls are ahead of schedule, winning 62 regular season games, en-route to garnering the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference. After struggling a bit in the early rounds versus Indiana and Atlanta, they now face a vastly improving Heat squad. The key to the series has to be up front where the Bulls have the advantage with a number of talented big men like Noah, Boozer, Gibson, Thomas, and Asik. We all know just how good James, Wade, and Bosh can be but can the Miami bigs defend Chicago’s daunting front-court? Oh, I forgot to mention the whole Lebron/Noah feud.
Should be an entertaining series. Selfishly, I’m hoping for another classic 7 game tilt loaded with highlight reel plays and drama filled moments. Oh, thats right…..with D.Rose, Lebron, and D. Wade that’s a given.
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen also provides content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
