At 15-8 on the season, the Chicago Bulls are proving to be one of the top teams in the East this season. With the arrival of DeMar DeRozan, Lonzo Ball, and Alex Caruso, many in the NBA community saw it coming well before the season began.
ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith was not one of those people.
In fact, Stephen A. got roasted on Saturday after his take of the Bulls back in August went viral online. Here’s what he said:
“I don’t think the combination of DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine works. One or the other, yes, but not both of them together,” Smith said when discussing what team has a brighter future between the Chicago Bulls and New York Knicks.
It’s a glaringly bad take given how well the Bulls have performed so far, and fans made sure to remained everyone in the comments:
After settling on Zach LaVine as a building block, the Bulls made a series of moves to help propel the team into title contention. Besides the trades for Nikola Vucevic and DeMar DeRozan, they went out and hired head coach Billy Donovan, who has been key in the team’s resurgence.
Through the first 23 games so far, things have gone better than anyone in the franchise could have hoped for.
The Bulls sport a top-10 defense and offense, and as new players like Lonzo Ball, DeMar DeRozan, and Alex Caruso continue to acclimate to the rest of the roster, the few miscues they’ve made so far should wither away. The 2021-2022 Chicago Bulls aren’t going anywhere. They’re for real.
Over the past few years, Chicago has been somewhat of a laughing stock around the league.
Riddled with dysfunction and disappointment, the Bulls lost the respect they once commanded so loudly decades ago.
But thanks to some changes and quick thinking by the people in charge, a new culture is starting to develop, and the Bulls continue to prove their doubters (which includes Stephen A. Smith) wrong with every victory.
