The Chicago Bulls got short shrift in the NBA’s newly announced national TV schedule — perhaps deservedly so.
Chicago has made the playoffs just once since the team foolishly traded away future Hall of Fame wing Jimmy Butler in the 2017 offseason.
Across the past three seasons, the Bulls have made the league’s relatively new play-in tournament, only to get roundly pummeled each time by Butler’s now-former team, the Miami Heat, before Chicago can reach the playoffs.
This year’s vintage seems destined to finish among the NBA’s Nos. 7-10 seeds (or perhaps worse), and its mismatched roster could, for the fourth straight year, have difficulty surviving the play-in tournament and actually qualifying for the playoffs proper.
The Eastern Conference is ostensibly pretty open, however, after the East’s last two Finals representatives — the Indiana Pacers and Boston Celtics — saw their best players, All-NBA point guard Tyrese Haliburton and All-NBA power forward Jayson Tatum, tear their Achilles tendons during the postseason.
Nine-time All-Star former Milwaukee Bucks point guard Damian Lillard also ruptured his Achilles, effectively putting the kibosh on Giannis Antetokounmpo and co.’s title aspirations. Team general manager Jon Horst opted to stretch and waive Lillard’s contract, but will be saddled with $22.5 million in dead cap money across the next five seasons as a consequence. Lillard had been at least an intriguing trade asset pre-injury. Horst’s one-time move with the extra real estate afforded by his waived deal was to sign 3-and-D center Myles Turner, who’s never been an All-Star.
So Chicago does at least stand a chance to squeak into the postseason — although its offense-first, defensive-never approach virtually guarantees the club will struggle to advance to the playoffs.
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Now, Ricky O’Donnell of SB Nation has taken Chicago to task since news of the Portland Trail Blazers’ impending sale broke earlier this week. The Paul Allen estate, led by executor Jody Allen (Paul’s sister), sold Portland to a new group led by Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon for a cool $4.25 billion valuation.
Pick up the phone Adam Silver and get these bozos outta here for like a chill $7 billion https://t.co/QYIqKoPPic
— Ricky O’Donnell (@SBN_Ricky) August 14, 2025
“The Bulls only have three national TV games, two of them are on streaming only, and none of them are at home,” O’Donnell writes. “The Reinsdorfs have made one of the league’s signature franchises deeply irrelevant, and continue to get away with it.”
Three games represents just one contest more than the the Brooklyn Nets, New Orleans Pelicans, Utah Jazz, Toronto Raptors, Washington Wizards. — all of whom have been awarded a scant two nationally broadcast games per.
The top teams — the Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks and reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder — were all awarded 34 national games.
“Pick up the phone Adam Silver and get these bozos outta here for like a chill $7 billion,” O’Donnell understandably pleads.
Beyond Portland, both of the league’s two signature franchises also sold for exorbitant tallies this year: the Los Angeles Lakers (sold for a $10 billion valuation) and Boston Celtics ($6 billion).
There is a precedent for Reinsdorf selling a legendary Chicago sports team he has driven into the ground while alienating fans.
He’s reportedly agreed to terms with private equity billionaire Justin Ishbia, co-owner of the Phoenix Mercury and Suns with his brother Mat, to sell the Chicago White Sox. Reinsdorf bought into the franchise in 1981.
Reinsdorf, who’s infamously more into saving cash than constructing a champion club, is 89, and already has son Michael handling basketball operations. During its halcyon Michael Jordan/Scottie Pippen days, Chicago won six titles in eight years, from 1991-98. Reinsdorf first bought into the franchise in 1985, one year into Jordan’s Hall of Fame career. He’s been largely coasting off the Bulls’ dynasty era since Jordan left the team for good in 1998.
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