Once the dust had settled on the 1998 Championship season, Bulls fans were treated with a serious case of reality. Jordan retired (again), Pippen went to Houston to form a veteran superteam with Hakeem, Clyde and Barkley, and Phil Jackson rode off into the sunset — although given how much peyote he was taking at the time, he probably was hallucinating the aforementioned sunset.

Losing your best player makes it extremely hard to recover and stay relevant — much like when Beyoncé realised how much better she was than Kelly or Michelle and went solo. In a bid to re-tool the roster and get younger, the front office spent most of the early 2000s drafting raw young prospects like Tyson Chandler, Ron Artest and Jamal Crawford (who was acquired in a draft-day trade) and hiring a college coach to fill the shoes of Phil Jackson. These players all went on to have solid careers — Chandler and Artest becoming Champions in 2011 with the Mavericks and in 2010 with the Lakers, respectively and Crawford becoming a perennial 6MOTY candidate. However, the shoes that needed filling were too big and the expectations too high. Affectionately dubbed “The Baby Bulls”, the franchise slid into mediocrity for much of the early 2000s — something fans were not accustomed to.

In a sort of twisted karma for being elite for an entire decade, Bulls fans learnt to live with disappointment. Even though it could always be worse — shout out to Sacramento Kings fans — we yearned to be back on top. Fortunately, once you get past the tunnel of disappointment that includes drafting and then trading LaMarcus Aldridge for Tyrus Thomas and missing out on LeBron/Wade/Bosh in 2010 Free Agency (then ending up with Carlos Boozer and his painted-on hair as a consolation prize), there was light.

That light came in the form of Derrick Rose. With a 1.7% chance of landing the number one overall pick in the 2008 draft, the Bulls luck had finally turned, striking gold by drafting the hometown kid with that pick. Rose was the brightest glimmer of hope the Bulls had since Jordan — he re-ignited the fanbase with his electrifying play, quickly becoming a fan favourite, and eventually, the youngest MVP in the history of the league in 2011 while leading the team to a league-best record. He was the star that the Bulls so sorely needed.

Sporting a roster filled with other solid options (Luol Deng, Joakim Noah and Carlos Boozer) and complimentary role-players (Ronnie Brewer, a young Kyle Korver, Taj Gibson and a rookie Omer Asik — known as “The Bench Mob”) led by Rose and Tom Thibodeau, it was finally exciting to be a Bulls fan again. The possibility of a Championship was again at the front of everybody’s minds. The Bulls looked like they were going to be great again.

However, the Basketball Gods weren’t done punishing the Bulls for their prior dominance. I distinctly remember waking up to a text message from a friend that simply read “Derrick Rose. ACL.” — the disheartening image of Rose lying on the court after tearing his ACL in Game 1 of the 2012 playoffs is the ultimate what-if for Bulls fans. What if he had stayed healthy? Would we have beaten the powerhouse Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals and gone on to win a Championship? The franchise again — and Rose as a player — couldn’t recover from this. Or could they?

Rose sitting on the bench in a suit paved the way for the emergence of Jimmy Butler — drafted 30th overall, he quickly evolved into one of the best two-way players in the league. Joakim Noah also flourished as the de facto Point Center, racking up triple doubles, winning DPOY and coming 4th in MVP voting in 2014. The Bulls still maintained winning records and would continue to make the playoffs without Rose, but a team with a revolving door of sub-par Point Guards that included DJ Augustin, Nate Robinson, Aaron Brooks and an old Kirk Hinrich isn’t winning a Championship any time soon. The Bulls aren’t supposed to just be good, they’re supposed to be great.

Rose couldn’t stay on the court, the Bulls’ medical staff nearly killed Luol Deng and extended minutes saw Noah and Butler get played into the ground. Hello darkness, my old friend…

The rollercoaster of emotions continued when Thibodeau was replaced with Fred Hoiberg and Rose and Noah were traded in order to “get younger and more athletic”. The front office accomplished this by signing Rajon Rondo and an aging Dwyane Wade — to quote the ever-repetitive Reggie Miller: “Are you serious?!”.

So, we now had an offense predicated on ball movement and 3-point shooting, with three ball-dominant guards in the starting lineup and no shooting. Great! On top of that, a litany of locker-room/chemistry issues spawned by Butler and Wade by calling out teammates publicly was the proverbial cherry on top of the cake. Wade is the 3rd-best SG of all time (behind the GOAT and Jerry West) and Jimmy Butler is a bonafide stud, but I had seen one too many possessions where they dribbled out the shot clock to hoist up a contested mid-range jumper only to miss — it was time to blow it up.