It was time for revenge.
The 4-1 Eastern Conference Finals series loss left a bitter taste in the mouth of fans and the Chicago Bulls the year before. It was a new season, though, and the Bulls had more playoff experience under their belt. The No. 1 seed in the East had Chicago destined to take another shot at LeBron James and the Miami Heat. The sad part isn’t that we never saw that rematch again, a true rematch with everyone healthy, it’s that everything went downhill for the franchise since April 28, 2012.
Derrick Rose brought the ball across half court with less than 1:30 remaining in Game 1 of the Bulls’ first round series against the Philadelphia 76ers and after a drive to the basket his career changed forever.
It’s been five years since Derrick Rose tore his ACL against the 76ers. Since then, the Bulls have returned to the postseason four times, including this year as the No. 8 seed. Yet, it’s not hard to see how that one moment led to an unfortunate spiral. The best player on the Bulls was suddenly gone. Rose missed the next year, some fans eventually turned on him, but he was simply never the same. Tom Thibodeau was fired in 2015, Rose was traded in 2016, and now the city hates the front office. Rose was once the most popular player in Chicago. Now, he’s a punchline.
I’m not sure why Thibodeau still had his starters in with a 12-point lead so late in the game, but he did. Who knows? Maybe Rose was eventually going to breakdown anyway and that’s a good possibility seeing he took a lot of punishment driving to the rim. But man, the what if is haunting. What if Rose was never in the game and didn’t tear his ACL? Would Thibs still be the coach and not Fred Hoiberg? Would Rose get better? How good would Rose have been? Would that Bulls team ever beaten LeBron?
We’ll never know.
The #Bulls were up 12 with less than 1:30 left in the game.
5 years ago today Derrick Rose's career and the Bulls future changed forever. pic.twitter.com/uYJJBsbsd0
— Aldo Soto (@AldoSoto21) April 28, 2017
