300th Post for Christmas Eve

During this time of year in which we reflect on our lives, it's often worth looking back on certain things.  For example, I'm in my fourth season of blogging about the Bulls and have experienced many ups and downs for the team in that time.  This Christmas Eve, I'm making my 300th post on here, so in the spirit of the season, let's count down my six most read posts since number 200 on Dec. 17 of last year.  These are the number of views as of Wednesday afternoon.

4) See Ya Murph - April 4 (34 views):  Erik Murphy, the Bulls' second-round pick out of Florida in the 2013 draft, didn't even last a full year in Chicago and was waived, making this post necessary.  A lot of what I wrote seemed to question why he became expendable and how the front office evaluates draft talent.  But the bottom line seems to be he's just not that good, at least for the NBA.  He's currently in the D-League, so maybe he'll get another chance someday.

4) Fanning the Philly Flames - March 19 (34 views):  It's no secret the 76ers are hardly making an effort to win right now, but this post reminds us this has been going on since at least last season.  The Bulls traveled to Philadelphia and extended their hosts' losing streak to 22.  Something like this will always draw interest.  That franchise-record streak would extend to 26 before it finally ended.  After losing their first 17 games of this season, Philadelphia might be making a run at their 1973 incarnation's NBA-worst 9-73 record.  It's just amazing.

4) Getting Anthony in the New NBA? - March 8 (34 views):  There were plenty of stories surrounding Carmelo Anthony coming to the Bulls up until he re-signed with the Knicks.  This post was merited because there were reports that Joakim Noah made an effort to recruit Anthony during All-Star Weekend.  I generally try to avoid the rumor mill on here, but when enough people are talking about it and there's a legitimate story to boot, people will be interested in these posts.  The early returns on what ultimately happened shows the Bulls earned the upper hand while Anthony's Knicks are struggling to avoid last place in the Atlantic.

3) It's Jimmer Time - March 1 (45 views):  Oh, how people lost it when they learned former college star Jimmer Fredette had signed with the team.  The anticipation of what people thought he might do were why people wanted to read this.  However, he only played garbage minutes during his tenure, so the novelty of him on the roster quickly wore off.  Fredette is currently with the last-place Pelicans and not part of their regular rotation, so that says it all.

2) They Killed Taj's Lil' Super Man - June 5 (49 views):  This post had little to do with

basketball and was more about Taj Gibson losing his 7-year-old nephew to gun violence.  I devoted a lot of this one to my young cousin Claire and how I would hate to lose her in such a way.  I shared this with my uncle, who passed it along to his ex-wife, who passed it along to relatives in Canada, which surely accounted for the spike in views both overall and in that country.  I wish it were a more positive post, but that's how the world works unfortunately.

 

1) Guest Post: Grading the Bulls' Offseason Through the Risk-Reward Prism - Aug. 2 (53 views):  I find it comical that the most viewed post in the past year wasn't even my own, but that of my co-worker Luis Medina.  He has a lot of followers on social media, so that probably helped.  Anyway, Luis shared his thoughts on the Bulls' offseason to that point.  Most of them were his reflections on Pau Gasol, Nikola Mirotic and Doug McDermott.  Of course, he noted that the season began and ended with Derrick Rose's health.  To this point, only McDermott has been a disappointment and everyone else has gone beyond the call of duty.

 

Hopefully, these next 100 posts will include something special in the playoffs and other wonderful happenings for the Bulls.  It might even improve because I'm scheduled to take a sports blogging class with Adam Rittenberg of ESPN this winter.  I'll also be taking time to blog about another team during that class, but I will continue to maintain this site as well. Until tomorrow, Merry Christmas to you all and thanks for reading!