In both the NBA and NHL, the All-Star breaks are over and the trade deadlines have passed. Chicago, for the first time in – well, my entire life – has two teams with legitimate playoff hopes entering the month of March.
The defending Stanley Cup Champion Blackhawks, who are still trying to find their stride after losing a major portion of their championship team to salary cap issues, and the young, talented Bulls have windy city sports fans strapped in for a wild ride.
Personally, I’m thrilled…for the Bulls.
I must admit, I’m biased. Hockey is very hard for me to get into, if only because I find regular season hockey mind-numbingly boring. It’s a great event to watch live, but a lot is lost on television; mainly, the ability to follow the puck.
A hockey puck zips across the ice at an incredible speed and unless you’re blessed with a 60-something inch high-definition TV, you just can’t see it. At best, you can guess the position of the puck by the movement of the players on the ice. At worst, it’s mass chaos.
That, combined with the fact that the Hawks have been (ATTENTION: critical understatement to follow…) consistently inconsistent for most of the season makes me less than excited to follow their playoff chase.
The Bulls have my full attention. For the first time since His Airness dominated the league in his retired No. 23 jersey, basketball has actually taken precedence over my admitted baseball addiction.
This Bulls team, led by the MVP-candidate Derrick Rose, is just so much fun to watch. Rose breaking ankles and blazing past defenders, Joakim Noah dominating the offensive boards, and Carlos Boozer scoring in the post – all with the intensity of a team that has played the whole season with a visible chip on their shoulder – has me sucked in.
And here’s the best part – they’re not just exciting, they’re winning. As they enter the stretch run of the season, they finally have their whole team healthy and they appear poised to make a serious run at an NBA championship.
Even the Bulls strongest supporters couldn’t have seen this coming at the beginning of the season, and that’s what makes it all the more thrilling. Everybody loves an underdog – especially when they win.
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