Chicago Bulls: Did one missed call in the 2015 playoffs derail franchise?

The Chicago Bulls were one of the premier teams in the league during the 2014-15 season, but a single missed call seemingly derailed the franchise entirely.

Over the 2014-15 regular season, the Chicago Bulls finished with a 50-32 record and placed at third place in the Eastern Conference behind the Atlanta Hawks and Cleveland Cavaliers. Led by a rejuvenated Derrick Rose, the Bulls seemed capable of making some noise in the postseason as genuine contenders.

Chicago defeated the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round after six games and now faced the Cavaliers in LeBron James‘ first year back with the team. Three games into the series, Chicago had won two games compared to Cleveland’s one and faced a crucial moment in the final seconds of the fourth game.

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With 1.5 seconds to go and a scored knotted at 84-84, the Cavaliers had a sliver of hope to get a shot off and beat the Bulls on their home floor. Sure enough, LeBron James got off a shot and sunk a jumper with no time left to tie the series up 2-2. Cleveland would famously win the next two games and advance on to the Eastern Conference Finals. However, had one call occurred, history may have changed entirely.

Moments before LeBron’s shot, Derrick Rose made a layup to tie that game 84-84 and gave the Cavaliers that final opportunity to score. Cleveland’s  head coach at the time, David Blatt, called for a timeout, having believed they had one left when they did not. If the referees made the proper call, Blatt would have earned a technical foul, which would likely lead to the Bulls taking the lead with a foul shot rather than being tied up in the final seconds.

With a much more difficult shot to take after the technical and the pressure of being down rather than tied, the likelihood of the Bulls going up 3-1 was all but certain. Instead, James made the shot and headed back to Cleveland for Game 5 with the series tied 2-2.

Chicago soon lost the series in heartbreaking fashion, as this looked like a genuine opportunity to compete for a championship with this roster, but that missed call took its toll. The team gave it all they had as Derrick Rose and ascending star Jimmy Butler both averaged over twenty points per game, while veterans Pau Gasol and Mike Dunleavy provided significant contributions as well. In the end, it did not matter as they could not get over the hump that was the Cavaliers.

Although only speculation, had the Chicago Bulls gone up 3-1 in that series, the odds that they take down the Cavaliers one more time within the next three games were very high. Who knows how they might fare against the Atlanta Hawks or the Golden State Warriors as the Cavaliers did, but after their postseason defeat, Chicago turned disastrous.

Long time head coach Tom Thibodeau lost his job, Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler were reportedly feuding, and the team dropped off significantly after such a promising year last season. Led by new head coach Fred Hoiberg, the Bulls went 42-40 and missed the postseason for the first time since the 2007-08 season.

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After that season, the Bulls traded Derrick Rose to the New York Knicks and handed Jimmy Butler the keys to the franchise. With a three-headed monster in Butler, Rajon Rondo, and Dwyane Wade, Chicago seemed to be in a position to contend once again. However, the top-seeded Boston Celtics eliminated them in six games and capped off another disappointing season for the Bulls.

In the following offseason, a displeased Jimmy Butler got shipped off to the Minnesota Timberwolves for a package centered around several young players. Chicago has not made a postseason appearance since then and was very unlikely to change that this season before the coronavirus pandemic brought things to a pause.

What was once a top-tier contender nose-dived into a downhill spiral and never made their way back up to real contender status. Had a simple whistle blown in a postseason game half a decade ago, perhaps the Chicago Bulls would be in a different position today.

If they advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals, could they have dismantled the Atlanta Hawks as Cleveland did? Could they have challenged the Golden State Warriors as Cleveland did and possibly bring home the franchise’s seventh championship? Maybe Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler never split up, and they remain among Eastern Conference contenders for years to come. All of these are possible as they were a fantastic team top to bottom, unfortunately, demolished by a single moment in NBA history.

This scenario is one of the biggest “what-ifs” in the franchise history of the Chicago Bulls, and it all transpired because of a single missed call. Had the call happened, the Bulls could look far different than they do now.