Luol Deng, Forever a Bull

Deng signed with the Bulls yesterday before retiring from the NBA

Luol Deng finished his career the way he made it—going the extra mile for an organization that never seemed to do the same for him. He didn’t have to sign with the Bulls before retiring yesterday, but he did.

He didn’t have to lead the league in minutes two years in a row and not once complain about it. He didn’t have to be so professional after the fact, when the team that drafted him and saw him make two All-Star teams made him a low-ball (3 years, 30 million), take-it-or-leave-it offer before shipping him for next to nothing to the Cavaliers.

But that’s who Deng is and was, a selfless player who nearly gave his life, literally, for the Bulls. After receiving a spinal tap before a playoff game, the Bulls listed him as questionable, a shallow move to keep the Nets on their toes. But it led to some fans questioning why Deng wasn’t playing, despite him almost dying due to complications from the spinal tap.

Deng was with the Bulls through good and bad, but mostly, he was the bright spot on a team that was trying for the first time to become relevant again after Michael Jordan. In 2007, a year after the Heat had won the NBA championship, Deng averaged 26 points and 9 rebounds in a four-game sweep of the defending champions.

When the new squad was ushered in, Derrick Rose may have been the MVP and the best player, but Deng was the heart and soul. It’s hard not to cave to cliches when speaking of Deng’s legacy, and it’s not an exaggeration to say he’s one of the best Bulls of all time.

He was LeBron James’ unlikely kryptonite when he took his talents to South Beach, playing two of his best games—both offensively and defensively, guarding LeBron—against the Heat in 2011. The Bulls went on to sweep the Heat in the regular season that year, and Deng was fourth in the NBA in defensive win shares with 5.2. The next year he was second team All-Defense, perhaps under-appreciated yet again.

In Darnell Mayberry’s oral history of that beloved team in The Athletic this past year, Deng said, “It was fun, man. It was fun. For a few years in a row starting with that team, it was a team where we just all got along. We played hard for each other. Everybody understood their role. But more than anything, we liked each other. Everybody on the team got along.”

Deng represents the best of the Bulls in this century, leading a team that Chicagoans were genuinely proud to root for. He played a major part in forming an identity that the Bulls often claim they have, but usually don’t: a tough, “blue collar”, winning team. A team that you’d be happy to score 90 points against, thanks to Deng, who guarded the best player on the other team the majority of the nights, oftentimes for 40 minutes plus.

"To get drafted by the Bulls is an unbelievable feeling,” Deng said. Well, Luol, to get to watch you for the near-nine years you were here was an even better feeling, one that a generation of Bulls fans won’t soon forget.

Enjoy retirement my friend. Thanks for still comin’ through Chicago.