I had the pleasure of attending my first Chicago Bulls game since the Jordan era on Saturday night because of my wonderful girlfriend who bought us two tickets to the game against the Milwaukee Bucks as a Valentine’s gift.
To represent the Bulls, I found a couple old jerseys I used to wear on a daily basis as a kid (and luckily loved wearing clothes 3 sizes too big). Unfortunately I wasn’t able to find the Toni Kukoc outfit I wore as a NBA Jam character for Halloween last year, so I dressed in the rare home white Michael Jordan “45” jersey and she sported Dennis Rodman.
We arrived about 45 minutes early to the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, where Chicago was very well represented. My initial guess was there was about a 50-50 ratio between Bulls and Bucks fans. But as the game neared closer the stands seemed to be a sea of red and black.
The Bulls received a much bigger 
ovation during introductions than the home town Bucks and Bulls fans were already chanting “M-V-P” as Derrick Rose handled the ball on their first possession.
The boo-birds were out as well for former Bull John Salmons, who was dealt to the Bucks at the trade deadline last season, but the game tied 39-39 going into the half.
The Bulls quickly took control outscoring the Bucks 31-20 in the third quarter. And as a desperation call to the Milwaukee fans, the Bucks placed a “Green Bay Packers – Super Bowl Champions” banner up on the JumboTron.
However, Bulls fans swiftly started screaming “F— The Packers” and that was the last the Super Bowl champs were mentioned. It was a pretty ugly game with the Bulls winning 83-75. Rose had an off night with only 17 points and 4 assists. Luol Deng added 19 and Joakim Noah pulled down 17 rebounds, 9 on the offensive end in only his third game back from injury.
I felt bad for the Bucks players towards the end of the game. Milwaukee has some good young talent, like Brandon Jennings and Andrew Bogut, who should be getting more support from their hometown fans.
Bogut has even made an effort to get their fans more involved buying out an entire area of seats called “Section 6”. The only clause to the free tickets is fans must stand up and cheer the entire game. But after witnessing the game Saturday night, I couldn’t make an argument to keep the Bucks if the NBA ever considered contraction.
Whats Your Verdict?