Bulls in Their New Court

Since the United Center opened in 1994, the Bulls had never changed their court design.  Sure, there were markings changed to conform to new NBA rules, the lettering on the side was sometimes altered and the wood was often replaced.  But for 21 seasons, you could watch a Bulls home game without recognizing a complete overhaul to the floor.  All that has changed.

Starting with the Oct. 6 preseason game against the Milwaukee Bucks, the court design that saw the Bulls' second 3-peat will be no more.  The new design features a center-court Bulls logo 75 percent larger than the previous one and the basketball in its background has been removed.  The lines have gone from red and white to all black and the "Chicago Bulls" text at the endlines now matches the font used in the official team logo.  Added to the court's south apron are the four stars on the Chicago flag.

I've often heard people criticize the Bulls' game day presentation for being stuck in the 90s.  They need to dump Sirius as their opening song, they say.  Others might say Rock and Roll Part 2 shouldn't be played anymore or some in-play sound effects are outdated.  But those elements and the never-changing court design never bothered me, partly because I associated them with my childhood.

Still, the Bulls have tried their best to stay modern while holding to more cherished traditions.  The Running of the Bulls video has been remade numerous times, one of them being paired with the Sirius remix we've heard since the 2006-07 season.   Newer music cues during game action usually take precedence over older ones.  Modern music in general is heard throughout games and especially during pregame warmups.

This latest change was arguably overdue and the result is terrific.  I'll miss the old court design greatly, but at some point, the Bulls had to move on from it.  Every team has to change it up once in awhile to go with new times, new brands, new marketing and new ideas.  Here, the Bulls decided to go for a bolder, more Chicago-branded look.

Perhaps the emphasis will give future NBA stars from Chicago a greater sense of civic or even state pride.  Derrick Rose is around, but even he played his college ball at Memphis.  Anthony Davis, Jabari Parker, Evan Turner and Jahlil Okafor also took rides elsewhere before jumping to the pros.  Maybe this tiny touch to the court can tell these kids they can make Chicago basketball proud from a college basketball standpoint again by staying local instead of going to the Dukes and Kentuckys of the world.

Even if that doesn't work, the Bulls still did a fine job redoing their court to how they saw fit.  Hopefully, this will be part of a new era in which the team gets to an even higher level than we've seen for most of this decade.  Given how close they've often come to breaking through the ice, that says a lot.  A different coach, different game strategy and slightly different look at the United Center could got a long way in helping this organization both on and off the court.