(670 The Score) Sometimes having a player make an All-Star team ends up as mere consolation prize, a bright spot in an otherwise disappointing season or amid a larger downturn in a franchise's competitive arc.
For Zach LaVine and the Bulls, this isn't one of those times.
It's the opposite, in fact -- a stamp of validation for their organizational turnaround and a marking point to remember on what seems to be a path out of the basketball wilderness. LaVine is currently holding the torch as the Bulls trek back from darker times, lighting up the league by averaging 28.6 points per game while shooting 51.8% from the floor, 43.4% on 3-pointers and 86.4% from the foul line, all while playing vastly improved defense.
This is natural talent and hard work matching up just right with strong coaching and a thoughtfully constructed roster, and that entire breakthrough being rewarded appropriately. It's a deserved individual honor for LaVine in already his seventh NBA season, but the context also merits recognition.
The Bulls were in a bad, bad place a year ago, even as they were hosting the All-Star Game and all the attendant festivities. Remember that it was LaVine himself who was feeling the immediate sting of not being selected for the event and yet still sitting at Navy Pier for a live appearance on ESPN's "First Take" when the crowd erupted spontaneously in a chant of "Fire GarPax!" LaVine handled it professionally, but his nervous laugh may have betrayed an element of understanding.
It was easy enough for anyone paying careful attention to see in LaVine's sideline and locker room demeanor in the last two years under the painfully overmatched Jim Boylen, a coach who's now widely understood to have set the Bulls back with a poisonous combination of misguided tactics and insensitive relationships with players, resulting in a culture of discomfort and mistrust that undermined any effort on the floor. LaVine would look away from Boylen when he spoke during timeouts, was appropriately dismissive of ill-considered in-game instruction and veiled his occasional postgame disgust only just enough.
But Gar Forman was indeed fired by new executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas after John Paxson kicked himself far upstairs to make room for new minds and voices. Boylen was dismissed before he could do any more lasting damage.
And listen to LaVine now, talking about his new coach, Billy Donovan.
"Billy's been great, man," LaVine said. "Total 180 from what we had last year, 'cause we pretty much have the same team."
Ouch.
"We've had our share of ups and downs, games we should have won and didn't come out and play the right way," he added. "But our approach and my approach is just so much different, mentally."
The difference is evident everywhere, on every level of the Bulls' revamped operation that's still in its early stages of development. One of the most important beliefs held by Karnisovas is that the players have to come first, and he has taken concrete steps to listen to their concerns, facilitate their well-being and give them what they need to improve and succeed, even amid a viral pandemic that continues to affect all aspects of their work.
Other players and coaches around the league have been paying attention to how this is starting to manifest in more wins and competitive nights against contenders, and reputation matters for such things as All-Star nods, with the individual aided by the rise of what's around him.
While the goal remains to win NBA titles, that doesn't preclude us from noting tangible evidence of the beginning of a turnaround for the Bulls. One player's successful pursuit of a personal achievement is, in this case, symbolic of what should be to come on a larger scale.
Dan Bernstein is the co-host of the Bernstein & Rahimi Show on middays from 9 a.m. until noon on 670 The Score. You can follow him on Twitter @Dan_Bernstein.
