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Bulls History and Timeline

Learn all about the history of the Chicago Bulls from the team creation to multiple championships in the 90s. The Bulls are not only Chicago’s favorite team, but loved worldwide.


The Bulls Early History:

1966 - Team Creation – Chicago was granted a franchise in January 1966, the third franchise in the city. Dick Klein became the Bulls owner, the only owner who has played professional basketball. The team was able to acquire players from other teams after the 1966 NBA Expansion Draft. The first Chicago Bulls team was led by Johnny Kerr (former NBA star), Guy Rodgers, Jerry Sloan, and Bob Boozer. The Bulls became the only team in the NBA to qualify for the playoffs in their inaugural season.

1966-1975 – Excitement for the Bulls died down after four seasons so Pat Williams became the Bulls new general manager. As GM, he was able to promote the Bulls to increase attendance to games. Williams revamped the roster and with the coaching of Dick Motta, the Bulls increased attendance to 10,000 and qualified for four playoffs. Motta eventually became the new GM when Williams went back to Philly. With Motta as the GM, the Bulls started to decline in performance. Ed Badger replaced Motta as soon as he was fired from the team.

1976-1984 - Wirtz Family “Legacy” – Dick Klein decided to sell the Bulls to the Wirtz family, the owners of the Blackhawks. Since the Wirtz family were so indifferent to basketball, the owners barely put in effort into improving the team and it ran on a small budget. Attendance and performance continued to dwindle which caused the Wirtz family to eventually sell the team to local ownership.

1984-1998 - The Era of Michael Jordan - In 1984, the Bulls drafted Miachel Jordan and that was the start of the Bulls’ greatest years in basketball. From 1991 - 1993, the Bulls won consecutive championships becoming the first team since the Boston Celtics to win three consecutive championships. In the fall of 1993, Michael Jordan announced retirement after the passing of his father. He returned to the team in the spring of 1995. In the following year, the Bulls won their 4th championship and in 1998 they won their final championship in the Michael Jordan era.

1998 - 2008 - Post Jordan Era - The legacy of the Bulls and the Micahel Jordan era came to an end in the summer of 1998. Jerry Krause, the Bulls general manager, felt that the Bulls either had to rebuild the team or the team would slowly decline. Krause traded the older talent and obtained a new coach, but the team was not able to experience success like the previous years.


The Bulls Today:

2008 - 2016 – Derrick Rose was a strong player on the Bulls. In 2011, Rose was the NBA MVP, the first Bulls player to receive this award since Michael Jordan. Jimmy Butler was drafted in the off season to the Bulls, in 2011, and became one of the primary scorers for the team. He was also awarded “Most Improved Player of the Year”. In 2016, Dwayne Wade (Chicago native) joined the Bulls, but a year later bought out the remainder of his contract and left the team. Today, the current Bull’s general manager is Marc Eversely and the current roster includes Wendell Carter, Kris Dunn, and Coby White.

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