(670 The Score) Since the great Michael Jordan left the Bulls after the 1998 “Last Dance” season, Chicago has not seen a more popular basketball team than those led by Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah.
Rose, Noah and their Bulls teams made the playoffs seven straight seasons from 2008-’15. Though they never won a championship – or even reached the NBA Finals – those teams are still remembered fondly in Chicago.
As Noah told the Parkins & Spiegel Show on Wednesday, the players from those teams also cherish those memories together.
“Those teams were just really special because of that,” Noah said. “Maybe it was because (head coach Thom Thibodeau) was so tough that it just made us that much tighter. … You hate him to love him. I think that was definitely a huge factor. He worked us really hard. All we had was just each other to just talk (stuff) about how hard he trained us and stuff.
“It was a great time. I think that we can all go back to those times and say those were probably the most special times. The city was on fire. There was a lot of hope in the air for about team. It’s unfortunate we never got a championship but I think that the camaraderie of those teams was like a championship team because we’re still so tight. It’s a real brotherhood. And I couldn’t be more proud of those teams.
“At the end of the day, we protect that at all costs because we went all out and tried our best.”
The Bulls reached the Eastern Conference Finals in 2011 but lost in five games to the Heat. A year later, they finished 50-16 and seemed poised for a deep playoff run before Rose suffered a torn ACL during Game 1 of the first round. Chicago lost that series in six games to Philadelphia.
In June of 2016, the Bulls traded Rose to the Knicks in a deal that sparked a roster reboot for Chicago. Noah followed him to New York on a four-year deal on the first day of free agency in July.
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