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I know what everyone is thinking. Why are sitting here and torturing yourself with this? I'm asking myself the same damn thing. Well I was thinking of doing the best moments over the last decade but there seems to be many more bad memories than good. To my dear Chicago readers, I'm very very sorry. Enjoy.
10. Bulls Hire Jim Boylen
In the last 10 years I have watched every Chicago sports team go though a terrorizing coaching hire. Marc Trestman, John Fox, Matt Nagy, Jeremy Colliton, and more. This move was looking like it would set the Bulls back years. Obviously along came Arturas Karnisovas to save the day . I truly believe he ruined the development of Lauri Markkanen, Wendell Carter, Kris Dunn, and plenty others. He was clueless out on the court. He would be down 25 and call a timeout with :12 seconds left to run a play. He would make zero sense of his coaching decisions when asked in interviews. He lost full control of his locker room with his army style mentality. Like that worked on 14 year olds, not 24 year old professionals. I truly don't even believe Boylen could take a D-III basketball team to a tournament. How anyone is letting this man handle the USA Teams is beyond me.
9. Cubs Lose 2015 NLCS
To start this off let me get one thing straight. The Cubs were playing with house money by this point in the season. They were already well ahead of schedule finishing with a 97-65 record which was the 3rd best record in both all of baseball and the NL Central. Super weird right? They faced the 98-64 Pirates in the Wild Card game although the Cubs were favored. Then they faced off against the 100-62 St. Louis Cardinals in the NLDS which the Cubs won in just 4 games. After that the Cubs became the World Series favorites. Then the Dark Knight happened and it was just a brutal series to watch. I don't think the losing is what hurt. We all knew 2016 was the year. I think no one wanted it to be over. It was the first NLCS trip since 2003 and fans have already gone way past the 100 year mark of suffering. No one wanted the fun to end.
8. Rose/Noah Head to New York
This one was bad. The years of promise were over. The rebuild was in full force. It was definitely due, Rose couldn't stay healthy and it was clear the team wasn't going to win a title. It's just too bad we had some idiots running the show. It was also extremely tough watching them go to a team like New York. You knew damn well the Knicks weren't going to do anything special with them. Two guys who gave it their all always were no longer there on your tv. It wasn't the fact that they didn't get a ring. It was the fact that two of Chicago's favorite players were gone. That Bulls team is one of the greatest what if stories in the last 20 years of the NBA. The injuries, the constant free agent misses. It will always be what if this, or what if that. Regardless they were the heart of the promise it gave Bulls fans. Something the older ones missed since Jordan. And for someone my age, the reason I fell in love with Chicago Bulls basketball.
7. LeBrons Dagger
Mothers Day 2015. I remember it clear as day. Derrick Rose tied the game up with 8 something seconds left and LeBron went down missed a lay up and had 0.8 seconds remaining. Let's not forget the officials missing David Blatt calling a timeout when they had none left. Should've been a technical foul. Free throw and ball. Bulls would be up 85-84 with 8 seconds left and the ball. They would've gone up 3-1 in the series. Instead LeBron delivers a dagger that ties the series up 2-2 and sends us back to Cleveland with full momentum in favor of the Cavs. We all knew it was over then. The craziest thing is I listened to game winner in my dads truck. We had to be at my grandma's for Mother Day dinner. I watched LeBron miss the layup sprinted to the truck and turned on the radio. I wasn't missing overtime so I wanted to get to my grandma's as fast as possible. Instead we pull out of my driveway and LeBron kills my dreams over the radio. My mom was screaming at me because I was driving so fast due to my anger. I knew the series was over, along with the hopes and dreams of the Bulls reaching a title.
6. Bears Hire Marc Trestman Over Bruce Arians.
On New Years Eve of 2021 the Chicago Bears fired Lovie Smith. He was 3rd all time in wins at 81 behind Hall of Famers George Halas (318), and Mike Ditka (108). He had taken his team to the Super Bowl in only his 3rd year. Nothing has been the same since. I'm not saying Lovie Smith didn't fully deserve to be fired but he also was dealing with a very old defense. 10-6 finish with more than likely the oldest defense in the NFL is enough to keep your job in my opinion. You know how it goes with the McCaskey's though. George needs to win a title for mama and a CFL legend Marc Trestman will for sure do better than Lovie Smith. He will for sure do better than Bruce Arians. Phil Emery has to be the biggest dumbass in Chicago sports over the last decade. Yes bigger than Jim Boylen. I'm telling you right now this move was worse than trading away Greg Olsen. Bruce Arians with Jay Cutler would've set every single passing record in Bears history. I'm not saying they win a Super Bowl but I guarantee you they would've gone to the postseason many many times. Bruce Arians made Carson Palmer look like an MVP. It costed us many seasons of joy which turned into nothing but pain.
5. Hawks vs Kings Game 7 Western Conf. Finals 2014
The greatest hockey series of the decade. This isn't just my opinion it's literally the NHL's opinion. It was ranked the best series of 2010-2020. Two absolute titans facing off in their peaks. It was hockey euphoria. Unfortunately the Blackhawks came up short in this one. Everyone in the country knew that the Blackhawks or Kings were winning the Stanley Cup. The Rangers stood no shot against either of these power houses. The Kings started with a 3-1 series lead but hope wasn't lost in Chicago. They battled against adversity like this the year prior when they came back down 3-1 against the Detroit Red wings and went on to win their second Stanley Cup. The hockey gods were in major favor of the Kings this night. The Blackhawks jump out to a quick 2-0 lead in the first. The Kings somehow get away with a high stick goal, then followed by a redirected shot off Crawford's right pad from Justin Williams and into the net. 2-2. Hawks go right back down and make it 3-2. Then Kings defenseman Matt Greene lays a slap shot down from the blue line which was blocked ricocheted over to Tyler Toffoli with and it's 3-3. Yada yada Hawks go up up 4-3. Then with 7 minutes to go in the 3rd period the Kings send a BS shot at the net blocker save right into the hands of Marian Gaborik and it's 4-4. Then to overtime a shot from Alec Martinez, off Nick Leddy's arm, up and over Crawford's shoulder. It made the loss so much worse, but the series so much better. Luckily this wasn't the end of Chicago's reign. Just next year the Hawks would hoist Lord Stanley for the 3rd time.
4. Cubs Blow It All Up
I'm going to tell you right now the last four spots on this list have each made me cry profusely. This one was heart wrenching. The Cubs have blown it all up. The big three that helped the Cubs win their first World Series since 1908, were all on the move. Kris Bryant to San Francisco. Javy Baez to the Mets. Anthony Rizzo to the Yankees. The end of an amazing era was here. We all knew it was coming too. Since 2017 the Cubs had not won a postseason game. I thought blowing it all up was a little stupid. One or two guys I understand but every single player crushed me. We're the 3rd largest market in sports and we're hitting full reset? The joy that these three brought Cubs fans who waited their whole life for a championship was gone in a flash. When it was all set and stone I just reminisced on the memories of 2016 and it made me cry. Now the Cubs, who claim to not be rebuilding, are in an obvious rebuild. Build Rizzo a statue, give good players good money, and get back to winning. Anything to make this day's pain go away.
3. Rodgers to Cobb
This was one of the toughest moments I ever felt as a Bears fan. Brett Favre owned me as a kid. Aaron Rodgers was on the brink of doing the same. Even after we lost the NFC Championship game to Green Bay it didn't feel like they were still in full control. From 2009-2013 those games were battles man. In those 11 games over that span only two were settled by more than one score. Green Bay did win a majority of the games but they were battles. It never really felt like Green Bay had full control over us yet. But this game was a message. A deep message to Chicago from Aaron Rodgers. The message was simple and clear. No matter how close you get I am going to own you. Year after year you will try to overcome me, you wont. In that exact moment when he made that throw to Cobb it hit me hard. This man is going to haunt me for the rest of my teenage years and beyond. I felt as if I had been run over by a bus going 90 mph. I crumbled and let out instant tears. The tide was never going to turn after that and I knew it. Imagine you're fighting your whole career for a promotion. Your competitor is Brett Favre. You don't get the promotion because Brett's better. Then he retires and you think you got the promotion in the bag. They bring in some hot shot who is supposed to take Favre's spot but you think after 17 years there's no way. You battle back and forth for years trying to get that promotion. You don't again, because you suck again. That's what it's been like my whole life.
2. Double Doink
Talk about the absolute worst thing that could've ever happened to a Bears fan. He didn't just miss this field goal 3 yards right. No he hit the left upright followed by the crossbar. A double doink. The words immediatley came out of Al Michaels mouth. Every damn time that a kicker hits a ball off the uprights Al Michaels reiterates the word doink. Stabbing Bears fans in the heart once more. The worst thing about looking back on this moment is that it would be the last time Bears fans enjoyed football for a long time. 2018 was the most fun I have had in my life watching Bears football. They had one of the best defenses of the decade. The offense was sustainable at the time. The trick plays, the media coverage, the club dub, it was amazing. You thought to yourself how could it all end like this? It didn't feel real. It took only about 45 seconds to sink in that my Bears fun was over and I cried like a baby. It was different then because I immediatley was like "okay this sucks but 2019 is our year". It wasn't and neither was 2020. The fun was over. We were the laughing stock of the NFL in just one day. I hope one day to feel the joy that 2018 season brought me. But I hope to never again feel the pain and agony that the double doink brought me.
1. Derrick Rose Tears His ACL
I don't think that you can really comprehend the impact that this injury had on the city of Chicago. The Bulls were once again the best team in the NBA with a 50-16 record. This year they looked like real competition to the Miami Heat, who had bounced them from the Eastern Conference Finals just the year prior. I understand that Tom Thibodeau was a coach who put grueling minutes on players but this game was well over and for some reason he was still in the game. The big reason that this is number one on the list is the impact it left on Chicago. Not just the short term impact but the long term impact. The short term is simple the Bulls were bounced by an 8 seed Sixers which is understandable when you lose your MVP. The long term is much worse. No one will ever know how far these Bulls could've gone. How far Rose's talent could reach. He was only 22 years old. I'm fucking 22 years old. He had already won league MVP and he easily could've gone down as one of the greatest point guards to ever play the game. Imagine a 2015 season with Derrick Rose entering his prime. No injuries. Jimmy Butler is now becoming a huge name. You still have Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson, great role players off the bench. The possibilities were endless for this team. This was something that sucked the life out of the city and became one of the greatest what if stories in the history of sports. Derrick Rose was never again the same player and neither were the Bulls.
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