Far too often lately, it’s become easy to forget what Chicago basketball is.
Not Bulls basketball.
Please, that’s what’s actually clouded things from outside observers. After all, the casual fan equates the NBA team to the state of basketball throughout the city.
Big mistake in this case.
No, we’re talking the raw essence of Chicago basketball, and what it means to the city. The players it has always, and continues, to produce.
The hope at the start of this season was that this weekend’s All-Star Game and festivities would strip away some of the muck that the Bulls have built on the window, but even that is in jeopardy for the host city.
The Bulls only have themselves to blame.
Not one player was good enough in the eyes of the fans and the coaches to make the All-Star Game, only Wendell Carter Jr. was good enough to be picked in the Rising Stars Game — and he’s out with a right ankle injury — and as far as the Saturday night spectacle, some would argue that guard Zach LaVine chose the wrong contest.
Just don’t try selling LaVine on that.
Yes, he’s a two-time Dunk Contest winner with nothing to prove, but what a story it would have been for the hometown fans to see LaVine come back after having anterior cruciate ligament surgery three years ago, and reclaim the iron throne.
And in doing so, again beating dunk rival Aaron Gordon, as well as holding off Miami’s anti-gravity forward in Derrick Jones Jr.
Instead, LaVine has been practicing on the racks, figuring out the intricacies of the Three-Point Contest.
“Yeah, I’ve done it a couple of times,’’ LaVine said, when asked how much practice time he’s been getting in leading up to the weekend. “Just get my timing down with the racks. Just like anything else, just practice the routine and hopefully you get in a rhythm, and you know, come home with a trophy.’’
Not that it wouldn’t be an amazing accomplishment if he did just that.
LaVine would be the first player in NBA history to be both slam dunk and three-point shooting king. A feat that would definitely open some more eyes on the evolution of his game.
“If people think I’m just a high-flier still, I think they’re just a casual NBA fan that just checks their phone and stuff, so I ain’t really doing it for them,’’ LaVine said. “It’s something I haven’t done before, obviously. I think it’s going to be fun, and I think I have a chance to win.’’
LaVine is a 38.5 percent three-point shooter this season, and if he gets hot, who knows? Considering the rest of the field, however, it won’t be easy.
But LaVine is all Chicago’s got this weekend.
There was hope in mid-week when it was announced that Miami’s Tyler Herro would not be able to answer the bell for Friday’s Rising Stars Game, but rather than give the nod to Bulls rookie Coby White, they grabbed Cleveland’s Collin Sexton.
A decision that ticked off an already salty organization that felt like the host team was being ignored by the league.
“I don’t understand that situation,’’ Bulls coach Jim Boylen said of that news. “Yeah, I really don’t have a good answer for you. Would I like to see him in that game? Of course I would. And do I think he’s deserving of playing in that game? Of course I do. He’s not, so we’re going to move on and coach him.’’
