December 11, 1996 - 15 Years Later

You're looking at the ticket stub of my first ever Bulls game, exactly 15 years ago today. You can also, on the lower left, see the stub for my first ever baseball game, but that's beside the point. How did this come to be? I'll let you in on it.

It was a typical Wednesday in December, sort of. My 2nd grade teacher Mrs. McIntyre (who died the day after I graduated college this year) was in South America for a wedding all that week, so it was a bit of an unusual week at school. Anyway, I came home that day and for the first couple of hours or so, nothing out of the ordinary happened.

Then my dad came home, which I thought nothing of. Sometime later, he called me into the living room, where my mom was sitting with him. That's when he showed me the piece of paper you're looking at in the provided photo. At first, I refused to believe it. I had been told since my fandom began earlier in the year that it was hard to get tickets. But I quickly concluded that they were in fact tickets. Still, they had today's date on them. Was today really December 11? I ran back into the kitchen and looked at the calendar. Yes, today was indeed the date on the tickets. I WAS GOING TO A BULLS GAME! TONIGHT!! As you can probably guess, I couldn't contain my excitement. Before we left the house, I fetched my Jordan jersey and put it on. Had to dress appropriately after all.

Before we made the trip to the city though, I needed a haircut, so we went to our old barber in La Grange Park, from where we had moved to Lombard a year-and-a-half prior. Of course, I told him where we were going, but he seemed indifferent toward it. Maybe he wasn't a big fan. Afterward, we drove to Chicago and before I knew it, there was the United Center in all its game-day glory, traffic and all. I know God was smiling down on me as this defining moment in my life was taking place.

Inside, our seats were on the side of the court reverse from what we see on TV, so it was a little different from what I was used to. For the first time, I had firsthand exposure to the famous introductions. The starting lineup that night was a little unusual as Luc Longley was injured and Dennis Rodman suspended. It went like this and I didn't even need to look at the box score to remember it: Scottie Pippen, Jason Caffey, Robert Parish (yes, the Robert Parish), Ron Harper and...well, I wish I could same the name, but the noise of the crowd drowned it out.

Strangely enough, Parish scored quite a few points in that game, eight to be exact. Funny how he could still contribute even at age 43. Scottie Pippen had an impressive 26-point, nine-rebound, eight-assist performance. Naturally, Michael Jordan led the Bulls in scoring with 27 points, but I remember more his pass to Toni Kukoc, which resulted in a dunk that brought the house down. I also remember he got called for traveling toward the end of the game and was brought out for good shortly thereafter. No matter though. After trailing 50-49 at halftime, the Bulls won 103-86.

The Minnesota Timberwolves were the opponent that night. Thanks to Doug West's 19 points, I left the United Center thinking he was the big player on Minnesota. However, I failed to realize that Tom Gugliotta also had that same number of points in that game. Even more so, I had no clue that an NBA sophomore named Kevin Garnett was on the bench with an injury (wonder what happened to that guy). Also chipping in was rookie Stephon Marbury and his 10 assists. Led by those players, the Timberwolves would make the playoffs for the first time ever that year, but get swept in the first round by the Houston Rockets. The Bulls, of course, won their fifth title.

It was a night I'll never forget in that a dream (though short-lived at the time) had come true. When I told my friends in school the next day where I had been the previous night, they were all impressed. Hope my story impressed you just as much. You only get one first Bulls game and this was mine. I close with a link to the box score of that game.