I've probably told most of my life story on my podcast at some point, but here's goes anyway.
My name is Doug, I'm a computer consultant for a living. I work from home which is great and horrible. The flexibility is outstanding, but the lack of seeing other people as much is terrible. Except for my work with draftexpress, I haven't even met the any of my last seven clients in person which can take something from your life. I still have my family and friends of course, but my friends are all starting families, so it's hard to see them as much as I used to, and my family is great, but you need people to talk to besides your kids and wife. People to talk to guy stuff about. That's where all of you come in.
My podcast and my forum posting is largely replacing the social network many people would have at their job for me. Which is probably why I put so much time into it.
As far as Bulls history, I grew up hating the Cubs, Bulls, and Bears. My only Chicago team was the White Sox. In retrospect, I believe this was just to be difficult because my step dad (whom i got along with just fine and was a great guy, well I guess still is, but he's no longer my step dad, and I haven't spoken to him in 15 years) was a huge fan of the Bulls, Cubs, and Bears. So I think sub consciously I choose the White Sox just to be competitive with him.
I started liking the Bulls when two things happened. First, was that Jordan retired and went to play with the White Sox. At this point, it turned Jordan from one of my most hated enemies (I grew up liking Magic Johnson and the Lakers, so that title against the Lakers really hurt) into a Jordan fan. Right around this time I also went to college, and my roommates and my whole floor were huge Bulls fans and basketball fans. While I never liked the Bulls, my hatred of them was never that strong because it was probably the least important sport to my stepdad, so I got over it really quick being forced to watch probably 70 Bulls games that first year in school and spending all our time playing NBA Live 95.
I had become a casual Bulls fan at this point, and it stuck with me through Jordan's return. I grew to appreciate how awesome Jordan was, and I had parties at my house to watch the finals games every year. I never elevated my status above casual fan in the Jordan era, and while I enjoyed the Bulls the three titles of which I was a fan weren't run around the streets and cry happy for me. Thw White Sox winning in 2005 was bigger for me because I'd been a huge White Sox fan for 2/3rds of my life even though I hadn't followed them recently, when the White Sox won I had tears of joy and unrelenting happiness for about a week. Maybe it was the expectations the Bulls would win, but I never got that from Chicago.
Ever since I grew up, I've wanted to have season tickets to a sports team. I don't know why, but I always thought that would be the greatest thing ever. I had originally wanted to do that with the White Sox, but in realizing how far away Comisky Park is, I figured that wasn't necessarily practical, and I could never go to 81 baseball games a year, and I no longer was super into baseball anymore anyway. The strike had really killed me as a fan given the White Sox had a good shot to win the world series that year. I never fully recovered.
So I went with Bulls tickets. They were available, the UC is on the outskirts of Chicago instead of having to drive through the city, there are a lot of games, but half as many as baseball, and basketball is a sport I enjoy watching regardless of the teams.
I started with a half season of season tickets in Elton Brand's second season, and it worked out pretty well. It was a tough sell on my wife to do it, but she figured why not, at least we'll be going out, and we didn't have kids at the time, so we were frequently bored and looking for things to do. This is where my love of the Bulls really started. I was so pissed that the Bulls traded Brand that off season that I didn't renew though.
However, during the 04/05 season, I was so happy with the Bulls draft that I decided to give it another go, and I ordered season tickets again which I've kept since then. My favorite moments as a Bulls fan are hard to say. I'd say they come down to the Bulls first playoff win against Washington when everyone was chanting Nocioni. It was still the best game, by far, that I've ever attended. I'd gone to a couple Jordan era playoff games and the atmosphere was no where near as intense as that 04/05 playoff game, but that may be because I went to 1st round games where the Bulls were heavy favorites.
Some more great moments would be the time I was in the Bulls locker room doing reporting for draft express and interviewed a bunch of Bulls players. Also going to summer league with draft express and watching basketball from the press row at mid court was just amazing. While not strictly Bulls related, all of the draft parties I've thrown have been incredibly enjoyable.
I don't really have favorite Bulls of the past or present. I enjoy the team as a whole, and I enjoy following the players that are there. I have guys whom I feel are overrated or underrated based on how well they've played to date. For Gordon's first two years I felt he was overrated, and people would have said I'm not a Gordon fan. For his past two years I feel his underrated, so people would think I'm a huge Gordon fan. I personally just find how people feel about different players interesting more so than I have attachment to them though I probably cheer for the guys I find to be underrated more in order to hope that I'm correct.
Other than basketball, which is now my favorite sport by a huge margin, I enjoy the NFL. I used to cover the NFL as a fantasy football writer and owned my own fantasy football business for awhile. Now I can't tolerate fantasy football at all. I tried to pick it up this past season and had a job writing for Time Warner cable's fantasy football site (metro sports) which has a TV, Radio, print, and online section. I just couldn't get into it, and the pay wasn't worth the work. If I had followed fantasy football as closely as I used to, the work would have been nothing at all, but I jut hated it this time around.
Still, I enjoy watching the NFL, and much like basketball, I can throw on any NFL game and watch it regardless of which teams are playing. I'm marginally a Bears fan above other NFL teams, but I'm more of a fan of great players in the league and follow their teams just as much. When the Bears went to the Super Bowl, the Colts and Bears were my two favorite teams in the league, so I got tickets to the game. It was one of the most amazing experiences to go to the superbowl and crossed off one of those "I want to do this before I die" things off my list.
The game wasn't nearly so depressing for me as it was for my buddy because the Colts were my second favorite team due to my man crush on Peyton Manning who's been one of my favorite players in the league since he entered it. Him and LaDanian Tomlinson (I told you I'm a front runner when it comes to players). So for me it was a dream super bowl match up. I still went as a Bears fan though, and cheered the Bears throughout the game and had mild depression upon their loss even though I could look at the bright side (for me anyway) that they lost to my second favorite team.
When Hester ran that kick back, it was simply amazing. One of the greatest sports memories of my life. The people next to me, whom I had been in a bidding war for my tickets on ebay with (the person selling htem had four seats and we each bought two) won $4000 by betting on Hester to score the first TD, and so he was especially happy. I guess that made up for the hard time I was giving him about getting my seats (which turned out 2 closer to mid field) for $500 less than he paid for his.
I don't know, I'm rambling now without purpose, so I'll end this.
