Two weeks ago, the Bulls were playing a rare home game in the month of February when they were suddenly subjected to a new and foreign sound. It was quiet. It was midway through the third quarter, and we could hear not only the squeak of shoes on the court but the echo of those squeaks reverberating off the ceiling of the United Center. It wasn’t really silent in the stadium but it was quiet–silence of a very peculiar sort. There were times, in the old Chicago Stadium, when the crowd would be almost utterly still; one could hear shoes squeaking on the court from the highest rafters. Yet those were usually the anxious moments when things were not going well for the Bulls, just before the crowd erupted into boos–or, of course, just before Michael Jordan converted a steal into a thunderous slam dunk. This new silence at the Center had a completely different feel to it. There was the murmur of conversation, for one thing, but it wasn’t the loud murmur of a busy restaurant; rather, it was the quiet murmur of a bridge club just after the hands have been dealt out.
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It’s unclear which is more responsible, the Bulls’ diminished fortunes or their vacuous new arena, but there’s a blase new attitude the fans have for basketball in Chicago. Part of it must be the Center, which has a sterile, pristine quality to it–the stadium equivalent of a new-car smell. One of our editors was telling us that he went to the Center for the first time, bought his peanuts outside as usual, went in, took his seat–and found he didn’t want to crack the peanuts open. Where were the shells to go? On the floor was out of the question. We’ve heard other people describe the Center as an airline terminal and as a Lincoln Center for sports, valid comparisons when fans are sometimes welcomed by a string quartet or a smooth-jazz combo.
Even so, the Bulls as a team have contributed strongly to the drop in interest. They’ve become erratic and unpredictable, and it’s no longer the unpredictability of last year’s talented squad trying to keep itself together after Jordan. Rather, it’s the unpredictability of the mediocre. The Bulls swamp the Orlando Magic, then lose at home to the Sacramento Kings the very same week. What’s more, the Bulls as individuals have become damn near unlikable. Pippen and general manager Jerry Krause have been at war in the press, with Pippen demanding a trade. (A few months ago it would have been unthinkable that public relations for either of these two could get any worse.) New multimillion- dollar signee Ron Harper has been a bust, compared more often to Rodney McCray than to Jordan. Kukoc ought to be a popular player, but the language and his own humble personality have been barriers to fan support. Plus, while he has shown flashes of utter brilliance, he is also the most erratic player on this erratic team. Even a popular figure like B.J. Armstrong has lost his luster; a starting all-star in last year’s fan voting, this year he didn’t even make the squad.
“It got us back to .500, and hopefully we can build on that,” said coach Jackson after the game. But no. The Bulls drove up to Milwaukee the following night and promptly lost to the Bucks for the third straight time this season. Then it was down to Charlotte last week, where, with the help of the Bulls’ former defensive coach, Johnny Bach, the Hornets rallied from a 19-point deficit in the second half to win. The Bulls surprised the Hawks in Atlanta the following night, then went to Miami and lost to the Heat. Last Sunday Kukoc had an awful game shooting from the perimeter, and a couple of late hot spurts from Pippen and Steve Kerr weren’t enough to prevent a fourth-quarter collapse in Orlando, even though the Magic were without Shaquille O’Neal and Horace Grant.
