NEWSLETTER
After the premiere of The Last Dance last night, Zach LaVine joined ESPN’s Marc J. Spears and former NBA All-Star Kenyon Martin Sr. for a special edition of The Undefeated’s “Roundball Rap.” The trio gave their thoughts on the first two episodes of the documentary and briefly touched on the current state of the Chicago Bulls. Go ahead and check out the full interview here!
Now, with the formalities out of the way, we have to talk about the end of the interview, when Spears asked LaVine to share his all-time Bulls starting five. Doesn’t sound that hard, right? I mean, realistically, there are at least several starting-five combinations that would be widely acceptable.
Well, LaVine managed to find one that is worth an aggressive head-scratch.
Are you ready for this? Are you sure?
Okay, it’s your funeral:
• PG: Derrick Rose
• SG: Zach LaVine
• SF: Michael Jordan
• PF: Scottie Pippen
• C: Pau Gasol
To be fair, I’m not even mad about him throwing himself in the mix. Would anyone other than him do it? Heck no. He’s just trying to have fun, and I can’t fault him for taking the “I’m going to be one of the best” approach. However, his inclusion really does muck up the rest of this list. Not having MJ and Scottie at their two normal positions (even though they technically could play SF and PF well enough) takes away a spot for a true PF. That means we’re deprived of other legends like Bob Love, Dennis Rodman, Horace Grant, or Toni Kukoc.
And he could have at least made up for some of this nonsense by putting Grant or Joakim Noah or, I don’t know, hall of famer Artis Gilmore at center! But no, LaVine chose PAU GASOL. Bruh … what!?
Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed Gasol’s time here in Chicago, and LaVine at least defends that pick by mentioning Gasol’s All-Star appearance with the team in 2014-15 (he averaged 18.5 points and 11.8 rebounds per game). Yet still, Gasol shouldn’t be anywhere near the Bulls all-time starting five. Ugh, this whole thing has got me riled up.
I respect LaVine for trying to think outside the box, but if you’re going to do that, just throw Jerry Sloan or Norm Van Lier into the mix somehow.
Anyway, I’ll forgive the guy for now. After all, he’s still basically the only reason the Bulls have been remotely fun over the past couple of years.
