For the record, it’s way too early to tell whether LeBron made a “mistake” choosing Miami. And, actually, we’ll never really know. Maybe he’ll win nine championships with the Heat. Maybe he could have won 10 with the Bulls. There’s no way, nor will there ever be a way, to know, with certainty, what his theoretical “best decision” should have been.

So, to sum up, phooey to the LeBron portion of the video. All I cared about were the Bulls highlights.

I’m with you on that sum>parts aspect of this team, and Thibodeau has been simply amazing in being able to get a whole roster to buy-in to his defensive commitment for his first season, the roster itself getting credit for being willing students, too. The man-love is palpable and enjoyable to see.

I’m not sure how uniquely extraordinary it is, though. They’re a very good team and usually those teams get along.

I don’t like how this video is framed in the context of LeBron, as if the Bulls wouldn’t have succeeded if he came to Chicago and we’re somehow ‘better off’? I’m fine with being simply ‘well off’ without him, and glad his team has his own problems (though the music doesn’t seem like it aligns properly with such a slight difference in the standings…), but I can’t jump to that conclusion.

I remember reading a lot of stuff about the ’09-’10 Cavs and the great chemistry they had. Heck, I don’t see any pre-game choreography from the Bulls, they may be slacking! They didn’t win in the playoffs, and all of a sudden that camaraderie didn’t matter as much. Heed Derrick’s words: it’s about winning.

Our perspectives have shifted quite a bit through this year of injuries and achievements.

One thing we know is that Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah have stepped up in the big games against the big boys. Now, they have the support team to back them up.

We have every reason, as Bulls fans, to expect to win the Eastern Conference Finals. The reason we didn’t trade Taj and/or Asik? Boston – clear and simple. The whole idea is to get past Boston. Beyond that, I can’t say …

Help me out though, guys, because I’m starting to worry that our Bullies might start to suffer from Bill Simmons’s patented “they were so underrated that they became overrated” theory…

People (players, coaches, teams, media, fans, etc.) have been sleeping on the Bulls throughout the entire season, but they aren’t anymore. They can’t afford to. Now our beloved team’s outstanding play isn’t just a pleasant surprise…it’s expected, and not just by us, the fan base of the Chicago Bulls. It’s expected by everyone. How will the guys handle this, especially if the wheels start to come off a little bit? What will happen if they aren’t deemed as just an above-average, up-and-coming underdog team with no real shot at winning the Title, as they were viewed up until this point in the year? What if they can’t live up to the hype descended upon them by…all of us?

Granted, their record and recent play speaks for itself, but if the Bulls don’t finish strong and/or fizzle out quickly in the playoffs, I think we are all going to be mighty disappointed. We might have to talk some people down from the ledge. Of course, we are obviously in a position to be a great team for years to come, but we’ve talked this team up so much…and we’ve invested ourselves so much in this particular team…in this particular year…that I feel like we are right in the same category with the Lakers and Heat in regards to “NBA Champions or this year is a failure.” Anything less at this point will be somewhat heartbreaking considering the narrative of the season (the spurn from all three top tier FA’s, the injuries to Boozington & Noah, the ascent of Derrick Rose to superstar from pre-season / self-proclaimed MVP).

I’m totally with all of you: I freakin’ love this team. More than I’ve loved a team – in any sport – since the Jordan days, and I love them for all the reasons you outline here in your post. The hustle. The dedication. The brotherhood. I’m giddily excited for every minute these guys are on the court together…but I’m hesitant, wary, and guarded that we (and the players) are going to be let down after getting our hopes up so high, especially considering the fact that we don’t really have any sort of all-around experience come playoff time.

Bottom line: Whether we want to admit it or not, everything we’re witnessing and experiencing as Bulls fans is gravy right now because it isn’t what we expected from them. We didn’t expect them to come this far this quickly at the beginning of the season. We had no idea Derrick Rose was going to will himself to be the MVP this year. We knew this team was going to be a project (hopefully a short term one), and we knew we were setting ourselves up for the near future…not for the immediate present. What we have here this season is glorious: they play ball the way it was meant to be played, and they love the game as much as we love to watch them play the game. But they are still unproven, inexperienced, and young…all of which spells for disaster come playoff time. I’m not sure our time is now. It’s coming, it’s definitely coming. It’s on the horizon. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel that we were forced in to by Jerry Krause, Tim Floyd, Marcus Fizer, Tracy McGrady, Jay Williams, Eddy Curry, Eddie Robinson, Ben Gordon, Vinny Del Negro, the Miami Cheat, and so on. But that light is still a-ways away. Let’s appreciate this team for what they are right now, and let’s get jacked for what they are bound to become in the future, and let’s cheer them on as they take on every opponent in their way…and…

…and I don’t know how to end this. I’ve rewritten six different conclusions. Every time I’ve come up with some Debbie Downer uber-crap like, “Let’s just not get our hopes up too high because it’s more than likely the Bulls’ season will end prematurely, causing ‘everyone’ (mass media members and stat cronies) to chirp ignorant I-told-you-so’s all over the Internet, causing the confidence of the players to irreplaceably and irreversibly shatter, causing the expectations of DRose to be too impossibly high next year, causing the start of the end of something fantastic that never really happened in the first place.” But you know what? In writing this, and in not allowing myself to post this negative bullshit as my conclusion, I have realized something: These Bulls HAVE made a believer out of me.

So ‘eff it. Bulls over Lakers in 7.