That's the takeaway from a sleek and smart weekend of NBA All-Star festivities here in Chicago that celebrated both the local hoops heritage and a global game with equal aplomb, with the high production values they deserved. The weekend delivered the goods in all kinds of ways, with hundreds of thousands dollars generated for area charities and Sunday then culminating in an exhibition that turned into real ball by the end.
Thinking about the current Bulls felt discordant over the last few days, because it almost feels like they don't really belong at the moment, at least not to this level of play or such a strong and connective representation of Chicago.
Against this backdrop, the Bulls are a dad joke.
This party was Common emceeing the best ever free-agent pitch to a whole world watching, then an impossible assemblage of talent eventually really getting after it up and down an image of the skyline. It was about the dynamic cross-currents of music and sports and fashion from the moment fans began to arrive in town, a vibe that's just not shared by the local team.
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Not that I'm the ideal arbiter of what NBA players find cool, exactly -- being a 50-year-old white guy -- but the league just showed us on multiple levels what it looks and sounds like and how personalities and histories create certain partnerships, relationships and loyalties. The Bulls need to do a better job selling what the NBA is selling, and that starts with the people creating the product.
What's weird is that owner Jerry Reinsdorf's other team has already figured this out. The White Sox have leaned hard into a palpable evolution of baseball culture with their "Change the Game" marketing campaign, embracing the swagger and expressiveness asserting itself so refreshingly in baseball. They know the power of a bat flip, the inclusive sound of Spanish and how catchy a more urban design scheme can be to younger eyes.
It seems lost on the Bulls, despite their presence in a markedly more progressive game.
The entire design of All-Star weekend was a forward-facing celebration of a proud city too often ignored or misunderstood by many of us, the other of the "Two Chicagos" given its due by artists, native sons and daughters, former players and a former president. And it served as a reminder that there remains a real and powerful emotional interrelation between our community and basketball.
It would serve the Bulls well to find it again.