Still Gotta Come Through Chicago

Ushering In New Eras

Happy Friday Chicago!

My father once told me that his worry-filled, sweet, late mother used to get depressed on the night of the summer solstice. Every day after that would be shorter.

He also told me that on Dec. 31, 1999, she spent New Year’s Eve by herself at the kitchen table, waiting until the clock hit midnight to make sure the world did not come to an end.

Criticizing Grandma was unofficially against family code, but I thought that both of the above were ridiculous. What’s more depressing than the summer solstice coming and going is being depressed over the summer solstice coming and going. And did Grandma not understand time zones? If Y2K were to uproot the world, it would have done so by at least 11pm CT, and likely far sooner than that.

Nevertheless, like most of my young, naive disapprovals of family members’ thoughts or feelings, I would eventually be hit square in the face with the reality of genetics.

Years later, I sit watching the Super Bowl every February, sighing like a bored dog, thinking, “it all goes down from here.”

But we make the most of it. Pick a name out of a hat this year to decide which lesser of two evils (three-peat or a douche bag coach representing a city full of 1.5 million scum bags) you’d like to win. The game will just be my intermission from the real show beneath me, which will be a legitimately sinful stack of food.

Grandma at least drew her energy from the sun, and not from a game played by other grown men on television.

Rest in peace, grandma.

And rest in peace Virginia McCaskey. Three BEARDOWNs for you, my dear. #BEARDOWN, #BEARDOWN, #BEARDOWN.

The layman hates Virginia, the son of George Halas. The historian knows that she was dealt an unexpected hand and did the most she could with it. The more I read about Virginia, the more I liked her.

She didn’t do a good job ushering the Bears into a new era after her father passed away.

But she had self-awareness, which is one of the best traits anyone can have, and perhaps the best trait someone of extreme wealth can have.

“I think it's important that all of our family remembers that we really haven't done anything to earn this," she told the Tribune in 2006. “We're just the recipients of a tremendous legacy. I use the word 'custodian,' and we want to pass it on the best way we can. ... We've been working on that for a long time.”

She and her doofus sons have failed at passing on that legacy (for now, George McCaskey shouts!). But she did a lot of good things for Chicago, and lived a truly unbelievable life. That life included watching the Bears play a championship game inside of Chicago Stadium on an 80-yard field in the 1930s, and that life included watching Matty Eberflus build a bee farm with her money in his Lake Forest backyard.

If she had gotten things right, she may be the most beloved owner in the history of sports. But she was likely to fail from the get-go, as she was never supposed to lead the Bears.

In reality, like George McCaskey, she’s just more like us than she is like another owner.

Throughout her adult life, she wouldn’t serve dessert on Sundays when the Bears lost. It’s that kind of charm that reels me back into the hunky dory ownership of the Chicago Bears, just for a second, before I remember what I’ve been subject to as a fan.

Regardless, it’s not on Virginia. I appreciate her for what she was, and ultimately, she’s one of the most consequential women in the history of football. She watched the NFL turn from a mom-and-pop shop to the most popular entertainment attraction in the U.S., and died with the Bears still being run as a mom-and-pop shop. While that may be infuriating, it’s also beyond belief.

Her family stayed on brand until the day she died. I learned today that two of her sons married women named Barbara, one married a Barney, and another married a Kathy. They are a family from another era.

This Sunday, I’ll think twice before eating a full bag of double-stack Milanos in honor of her. And then I’ll eat them all anyway.

George Halas died two years before the Bears won their last Super Bowl. Virginia died Thursday. And I’ll leave it at that.

The Halas’ and McCaskeys may be as bad as the Reinsdorfs, but the former will never draw the ire from me that the latter will.

As football does come to a close, it’s time for me to #lockin to the NBA, particularly because LeBron James has just been handed Luka Doncic in the, without a doubt, worst trade in NBA history. It’s time for late night Schadenfreude to once again commence for your boy. Lakers-Clippers 9:30pm CT tip it is.

I started to think deeply about the Bulls again this week as the trade deadline neared.

I’m sure most of you are familiar with Slack, a work-specific messaging application. It’s one of the worst inventions ever, filled with eager users who enjoy “its interface,” who like making “threads” and “channels” to annoy everybody they work with.

But I’ve developed a pen pal at my new job through it. I have secret admirer, and also am a secret admirer. At least I think.

When my hiring was announced, someone reached out via Slack to welcome me to the company. We had similar backgrounds. I read on his bio that he was a diehard Bulls fan, so I struck up a conversation about our favorite team.

We went back and forth on the Bulls for about an hour that day, and then he reached out again the next day. We’ve continued messaging about the Bulls.

Here’s the thing. I see his profile on Slack, and he sees mine. I have now seen him 4-5 times in the cafeteria, but neither of us have said anything to each other.

It’s strictly business, talking Bulls virtually.

I’ve tried to make eye contact with him to introduce myself, but he seems uninterested. Would that be a breach of our arrangement? Is he not ready to take this beyond the talking stage?

I would talk Nikola Vucevic over lunch, but perhaps he thinks that’s too much, too soon.

Distance does make the heart grow fonder, and I’m going to start getting the butterflies when I see this young man from down the hall.

Should I leave him a note at his desk? Thanks for being you… LETS GO BULLS.

We’ll see.

For now, I’m a guy who gets clinically depressed when football ends and talks to anonymous co-workers online about the Bulls all day.

What a weirdo grandma was for the Y2K fear.

Let’s get into it.

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Zach LaVine is no longer a Bull.

Strangely, his run in Chicago lasted almost a decade, beginning in 2017 and ending in 2025. Even more strangely, I feel somewhat emotional about his departure.

Emotional For No Reason may replace Still Gotta Come Through Chicago as the namesake of this newsletter.

I’m not sad LaVine is gone, but it does mean another Bulls era is over. And it was a completely wasted one. The Bulls shipped away Derrick Rose, and then Jimmy Butler, and ushered in a new group of players they hoped would take them to contention.

At first, I was on the record saying the then-young LaVine would be an All-Star at some point. Therefore, that’s what I was rooting for. Him and I ended up having a very toxic relationship. The early readers of this newsletter know that I spent a lot of time here trashing LaVine.

Then, he did become an All-Star, and actually was fun to watch for a couple of years.

Still, his decision making remained poor, particularly at the end of games. After a brief hiatus from LaVine bashing, I got back to it. The Bulls should have traded LaVine multiple times over the past two to three years, and they waited for the worst possible time to do it — when there were hardly any suitors because of the new salary cap restrictions.

The Bulls had some seriously enticing assets over the past few years, even without a good team. Alex Caruso, Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan were all worth a first-round pick or two at some point. In the end, the Bulls basically got Josh Giddey for all three of them.

Here’s the whole breakdown of the three-team trade that sent LaVine to Sacramento on Sunday.

Bulls return: Zach Collins; Tre Jones; Kevin Huerter; their own 2025 first-round pick back from San Antonio

Spurs return: De'Aaron Fox; Jordan McLaughlin

Kings return: Zach LaVine; Sidy Cissoko; 2025 Charlotte first-round pick (protected 1-14); 2027 San Antonio unprotected first-round pick; 2031 MIN unprotected first-round pick; three second-round picks, one being from Chicago

There’s nothing this front office loves more than throwing someone a second-round pick for no reason. They hang up, call back, and say, ‘Wait do you guys want a second-round pick too?’ The other team goes, ‘Uh, yeah sure. Thanks.’

The Bulls got a pick back from the Spurs in this deal, but the pick was their own. It was already going to stay with the Bulls this year, though, because it was top-10 protected. In reality, the Bulls did not get a pick back. They just got rid of LaVine.

That pick was also given to the Spurs for no reason. The Bulls gave that away when they signed DeMar DeRozan, after offering him a deal nowhere near what anyone else was offering (also a common theme), which meant they had to give away assets in the deal, and work with the Spurs as a sign-and-trade partner even though DeRozan was a free agent.

That’s what they got back. A pick they gave away for no reason, and a pick they actually weren’t going to lose because of the protections. In fairness, the pick eventually would have turned into something — multiple second-round picks, I’m guessing.

As for the players, none of them will be with the Bulls in a few years. Zach Collins is on a terrible deal, and will be here over the next year and a half. LaVine’s deal has a year and a half left on it, plus a player option year (which he probably will pick up). Tre Jones and Kevin Huerter are fine, but are not close to difference makers. Huerter has been awful this year, but has shown signs of shooting promise in the past.

Basically, the Bulls got rid of LaVine, and in return, they got back his contract just broken up into pieces. Huerter is also on the books through next year, while Jones’ deal expires after this year.

It would have made sense to move Jones or Huerter before the deadline, but the Bulls decided against it.

I wrote last week that I wanted to go through with the LaVine trade and rip the Band-Aid off, so I can’t complain. He is gone, and that was the goal.

But the reason why that meager goal was set in the first place is because of how the Bulls have operated. They’re continually striking when the iron is not hot, and always negotiating against themselves or negotiating in a position without any leverage.

There’s nothing exciting about that deal, in a vacuum.

The one thing the deal would theoretically do is help the Bulls bottom out, to give them a chance at one of the top picks this year. But it’s too late for that. (And they beat the Heat a day after the deal). They’ll have next to no chance of winning the lottery, as they don’t know how to be really good, good, or really bad. They’re just good at being bad to average.

They also did not trade anyone else. Not moving Vucevic during his best year as a Bull is, once again, malpractice. He’ll never have value again in his career like he does now.

But he was also likely hard to move because of the deal the Bulls gave him in the first place.

They could have easily gotten a superior return for LaVine at another point. Like when DeRozan left through a sign-and-trade, they also probably could have executed a better deal — even when it was too late. But they’re unwilling to take on money that would take them into a different salary cap threshold. That limits their options and keeps them from aggressively moving to a new phase.

LaVine is not worth an entire post-mortem, but he’s such a strange figure in Bulls history.

He was with the team for a long time. He has the most three-point makes in team history. He scored more points in a Bulls uniform than anyone besides Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Bob Love, Luol Deng, and Jerry Sloan.

Though he seems like a nice guy, he never had what it took to become a no. 1 guy. His injuries robbed him of some, but so did his poor and selfish decision making. His trade request was a terrible move last year. Eventually, he became underrated, and that’s both his fault and the Bulls’.

The Bulls made the actual playoffs once with him, where they eked out one win.

He also was the poster boy of this post-Rose, post-Butler era. He — like the Bulls — was sometimes good, sometimes bad, and always frustrating.

Now, he’s back with DeRozan in Sacramento. The $140 million left on his deal is someone else’s problem now.

Arturas Karnisovas didn’t have to be a good GM. He just had to be a league average one. It’s been clear for a couple of years, but is now crystal clear. He is in over his head, and doesn’t understand how the NBA works. He’s really dumb.

It’s actually gotten to the point where it’s an argument over whether he is worse than the GarPax regime.

That, too, is beyond belief.

Instead of trading away Nikola Vucevic, the Bulls extended Lonzo Ball this week. The deal is worth just $20 million, which is also fine in a vacuum. Maybe they’ll get something for him next year.

I wouldn’t bet on it, though.

Matas Buzelis did have a great game this week, and that’s about all we have to look forward to for the foreseeable future.

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For the first time in seemingly forever, the Bears were unpredictable this offseason. And, for the first time I can remember, they were unpredictably good.

In digesting the reporting coming from the beat writers after the Johnson hire, it reads as if the Johnson-Bears marriage was set in stone for a while. ESPN’s Courtney Cronin even reported that Johnson said “I want this job” in his virtual interview with the Bears, which led off with him and Poles in one-on-one and then went into a group setting with the entire hiring committee.

The Bears were unpredictably on the mark and stealth. They were also unpredictably lavish, giving Johnson $13 million per year on a 5-year contract. That’s also double what Eberflus was making.

Last week, I wrote that the Bears now had two coaches on staff more qualified to be head coaches than Eberflus at the time of his hiring, including Johnson and defensive coordinator Dennis Allen. Arguably, there’s now three, as Eric Bieniemy was hired as the running backs coach this week.

Bieniemy, formerly the offensive coordinator for the Chiefs, was a hot head coaching candidate for a couple of years. He wasn’t able to land a job (given he worked under Andy Reid), so he rightly took a leap of faith to prove himself as the offensive coordinator elsewhere. He erred in his judgement on where to go, however, and tied himself to Ron Rivera in his last year in Washington, D.C.

He then landed as the offensive coordinator of UCLA last year, in a situation where there had just been an awkward head coaching tunrover.

Now, he’s with the Bears and set to coach the running backs. He played the position in the NFL in the ‘90s. Bienemy’s story is a very NFL one, a very football one. You’re hot, and then you’re not.

But what matters for us is that he has landed in Chicago as he tries to climb his way back up. I don’t expect him to be here for long, but am happy to have him for the time being.

The Bears opened up their pockets to get Johnson, and he has already paid them back with the staff he put together in his first two weeks.

If the Bears struggle again next year, it won’t be because of coaching. Or, at least, it won’t be because of a lack of coaching capability or experience.

Former Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett is set to be the quarterbacks coach, which I did not mention last week. Dan Campbell coached him in New Orleans, and thought enough of him to bring him on the staff in Detroit years later. Barrett was an offensive assistant, and then was promoted to assistant quarterback coach. He now gets another promotion in his move to Chicago.

This week, the Bears hired Richard Smith as linebackers coach. He has been a defensive coordinator or linebackers coach in the NFL since the late ‘90s.

Now do me a favor and picture what you want your linebackers coach to look like. Picture a guy that could force Tremaine Edmunds to stop standing up straight and making tackles exclusively 10 yards down the field. You got a picture?

Okay…

I didn’t prompt an AI model with this one. That is, in fact, Richard Smith.

You get a one-word reaction to that hire from me: Yes.

The Bears also hired Jeremy Garrett as the defensive line coach, who served in the same role last year with the Jaguars.

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I love (most) all Bears fans, and I love (most) all of my friends. But my least favorite brand of NFL conversation is, “this star wants out of his current spot, the Bears should get him.”

That happens often, and hardly ever comes to fruition. When it does (for any team), it rarely works out as hoped. The best example of it working is when the Rams depleted their assets for top-of-the-line stars in 2021, and subsequently won a Super Bowl. But they were 90% of the way there, looking to get the last 10%.

The Bears won five games last year, and have gaping holes on their roster.

You can’t go outside and play until you finish your homework.

You especially can’t go outside and play until you finish your homework if you’ve been failing your tests.

Right now, to me, giving up first- and second-round picks for a nearly 30-year-old Myles Garrett is going to play outside before the homework is done.

(It hurts — bad — to talk about a player in a bad light due to their age, only to look up their birthdate and see it is yours exactly. )

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Garrett is a game wrecker, an unbelievable player. He also fits a need for the Bears, who are always in need of an elite pass rusher (who isn’t)?

The Bears would also likely have to give up at least three picks, all of the first and second round variety. The Athletic, for instance, projected this as the return if the Bears traded for him: 2025 first-round pick (No. 10), second-round pick (No. 41) and 2026 first-round pick.

Yuck.

The equation is simple. Before you can go outside and play (star hunting), you have to do your homework (fix the offensive line, through the draft and otherwise).

We’re all intoxicated right now. But that’s why you don’t make big decisions when you’re a few whiskeys sideways. Hand over the keys, ladies and gentlemen. Put the phone down. Let’s sleep on it and we’ll talk more tomorrow (after free agency and the draft).

#BEARDOWN

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Rest in peace, Virginia McCaskey. Thanks for reading another newsletter, Still Gotta Come Through Chicagoans. Comment below!