A Toddling Team On A Rampage

Another cow could kick over another lantern. Frank Sinatra could announce that he's running for mayor. Whatever, Chicago has something more important on its mind. From the steel mills to the Gold Coast to Herm's Hot Dog Palace on Dempster Street, the Windy City is in the grip of Bulls playoff fever.

Laughed at in November as just another mismanaged 2-13 team with a stooge for a coach and a hound for a center, and written out of the playoffs as recently as the end of February, the Bulls now are rampaging right through the NBA . Last week, before three successive packed houses at "The Miracle Madhouse on Madison Street"—also known as Chicago Stadium—the Bulls walloped the Lakers , the Knicks and the Cavaliers for their 13th, 14th and 15th victories in 16 games. Meanwhile, the Kansas City Kings tripped three times on the road, giving the Bulls , however tenuously, occupancy of the Western Conference's final playoff berth. That man you see walking in the clouds is rookie Coach Ed Badger . "I read I was gone so many times early in the season," he says, "that if I had a lease I couldn't have gotten it renewed. Now my wife thinks I'm Coach of the Year. I told her Jerry West has the Hollywood vote."

When a disgusted Dick Motta quit as Chicago coach at the end of last season, the Bulls were a tail-end, 24-58 pile of rubble. Hopes for a Phoenix-like rise flared briefly when the college draft yielded 6'7" Forward Scott May from Indiana , and the ABA dispersal draft delivered 7'2" Artis Gilmore . But in short order both May and reserve Forward Jack Marin succumbed to mononucleosis, Guard Jerry Sloan could not make it back from knee surgery and Captain Norm Van Lier found himself in a backcourt with a bunch of virtual nonentities: Tom Kropp, John Laskowski and rookie Keith Starr. The Bulls didn't have a shooter who could drop a ball into Lake Michigan . Opposing defenses collapsed on Gilmore and Forward Mickey Johnson.

The Bulls ran, as Badger had promised they would. They ran off a 13-game losing streak. The blame devolved on Badger, because he was the coach, and on Gilmore , the savior. Some gentlemen of the press demanded that Gilmore be traded. "Didn't Wilt Chamberlain used to say, 'Nobody loved Goliath'?" asked Gilmore . "I can't do it by myself. What do they expect of me?"

Help began to arrive a little at a time. The guard problem eased when the Bulls bought John Mengelt from Detroit and signed 6' Wilbur Holland, who had called Badger's assistant coach, Gene Tormohlen, and begged for a tryout after being cut by Atlanta . Tormohlen had drafted Holland for the Hawks and he told Badger, "If he can't play, I'll pay his salary." Within a month Holland was a starter. May returned to the lineup in November and, after groin surgery following his mono, Marin was back in January.

Sloan could not bear to stay away altogether, so he hung around as an informal assistant coach—he later officially joined the staff—teaching the young Bulls the kind of defense that had caused his old teammates to call him "Gestapo" in practice.

"Jerry really turned it around," says Van Lier. "He came in and said, 'Let's play some defense and then do the other thing.' He'd stop practice and get on guys. I know, I played with the man. We were the best defensive-guard combination in the history of the NBA ."

After repairing the defense, which, true to Chicago custom, is the stingiest in the league, the Bulls honed the offense: they began to run more plays for Gilmore where he wants the ball—on the right side of the lane so he can take his left-handed hook, or fake the middle and drive for the dunk; they set screens for May to get him open for his baseline jumpers; they got Johnson inside for offensive rebounding and dish-offs from Gilmore ; they let "Dr. Junk" Holland fire his odd lefty heaves from the outside. Reserve Center Tom Boerwinkle got the ball to the hot hand, usually Marin , and Mengelt spelled Van Lier as the playmaker or Holland as the shooter.

The revamped Bulls opened in Chicago on Washington's Birthday, at which point their record stood at 24-34. Golden State was the first victim, 118-102. Gilmore exploded for 24 points and 15 rebounds; Johnson, May and Holland scored 19 each and Van Lier had 15 assists. Next the Bulls beat Atlanta 96-87. Then the miracle moved out of town, where the Bulls had been 5-25. Late in a narrow game at Cleveland , Gilmore blocked a shot, threw the outlet to Holland , filled the lane and ended the break with a shattering dunk. Chicago won by six. "That was the game," says Van Lier. "That made us cocky enough to think we were good."

Five more road wins followed. The Bulls had Los Angeles , the NBA 's best home-court team, down by 36 in the fourth quarter; they embarrassed Golden State, Phoenix and Detroit , and won at Philadelphia . Van Lier put it to the rest of the Bulls : "There is nobody, no-body, in this league we can't play with. We better get our butts into the playoffs."