On every best-of list for a team, there is one that is one player that seems impossible to rank. For the Chicago Bulls, that is Dennis Rodman, who we have rated lower than most other publications have, though statistically, we can actually justify placing him five spots lower.
Orlando Woolridge was taken no. 6 overall in 1981 by the Chicago Bulls, and the Small Forward played his first five seasons there.
B.J. Armstrong left the University of Iowa as their all-time Assists leader, and who was he going to pass to as a pro? Michael Jordan.
Ben Gordon led the University of Connecticut to an NCAA Championship in 2004, raising his draft stock to where he was taken number three by the Chicago Bulls.
Tom Boerwinkle had a good college career with the Tennessee Volunteers, where he helped them win the SEC in 1967, and the big man landed with the Bulls as the No 4. Pick in the 1968 Draft. This would be the only team that Boerwinkle ever played for, though it was a decade-long career.
Norm Van Lier played at Saint Francis, and though it was a small school, the Chicago Bulls took him in the Third Round in 1969. So, this is where run in Chicago started, right? No.
Bob Love played his college ball at Southern, and he did well enough for the Cincinnati Royals to get drafted in the Fourth Round in 1965. Love didn't make the team, but after a year in the Eastern Basketball League (where he was the MVP), he tried again to make the Royals, and he made the roster.
A two-time ICC (Indiana Collegiate Conference) Player of the Year when he was an Evansville Purple Ace, Jerry Sloan's professional career began with the Baltimore Bullets, but would only last there one year. This was not due to a lack of skill, but rather because the Chicago Bulls were formed, and Sloan was taken in the 1966 Expansion Draft.
A Third-Team All-American at the University of Kansas, Kirk Hinrich was taken by the Chicago Bulls with the Seventh Overall Pick in the loaded 2003 Class. Hinrich was never a star NBA player, but his workmanlike skills carved out a long career in the Association.
Bob Boozer had a long list of accomplishments before he ever donned a Chicago Bulls uniform.
Reggie Theus is arguably the player who put UNLV on the map, as he was the star that took the Runnin' Rebels to their first Final Four. This put Theus on the national radar, and he was the Ninth Overall Pick, taken by the Chicago Bulls in 1978.
Toni Kukoc was a superstar in Europe in 1990, where he played for Jugoplastika in Croatia and was the reigning EuroLeague Final Four MVP after taking his team to the EuroLeague Title. Despite those accomplishments, Chicago fans scratched their heads when the Bulls used their Second Round Pick to take him. Two EuroLeague Titles later (the second one being with Treviso of the Italian League), Kukoc was ready to join the Bulls.
When we began this, we thought Derrick Rose would be ranked a little higher, but here we have an MVP who was never the same after a torn ACL.
From Sudan, raised in England and schooled at Duke, Luol Deng was a top-ten pick by the Phoenix Suns, who, as part of a pre-arranged draft day agreement, entered the National Basketball Association with the Chicago Bulls.
Jimmy Butler is an interesting basketball player. He is phenomenal on the court, enigmatic off of it, and when his career ends, we want to see a detailed career retrospective on Butler in the vein of Jordan's "Last Dance." We're serious; we find him fascinating!
One of the more enduring scenes of the 2007 Draft was the image of Joakim Noah, in a suit that only he could wear, a Bulls cap on his head with a mountain of hair spilling out of it. The son of the former tennis star, Yannick Noah, might have looked a little silly to some "traditional" viewers. What they should have been seeing was an excellent basketball player.
Horace Grant was the 1987 ACC Player of the Year when he played at Clemson, and that allowed him to be a First Round Pick (10thOverall) by the Bulls.
Walker’s NBA career began in 1962 as a Syracuse National, and when the team moved to Philadelphia and turned into 76ers, his career grew alongside his team's audience. Walker was a three-time All-Star in Philly and a champion when the team won the title in 1967. But this isn't a list about the greatest Sixers, is it?
After the selections of Jordan and Pippen, it does not become as easy to rank the greatest Bulls of all-time. But that makes it all the more fun, doesn't it?
Choosing Michael Jordan as the greatest Chicago Bull of all-time was the easiest decision we have ever made. It was almost as easy to anoint Scottie Pippen as number two.