The Night I Was a Windy City Bulls Star (Sort Of)
I’ve been wanting to see the Windy City Bulls ever since they were established over a year ago. I finally fulfilled my wish Tuesday. It could not have turned more differently from what I expected. In a good way.
There were some very pleasant sights. The Bulls beat Raptors 905, 99–91, behind 30 points from Antonio Blakeney, 12 rebounds from Cristiano Felicio and 14 assists from Ryan Arcidiacono. The halftime entertainment was Mr. Cha Cha Slide himself, DJ Casper, inviting people onto the court to dance with him while he performed his signature song. During the third quarter, the crowd was informed that Bobby Portis was sitting courtside, and he even agreed to sign autographs for a few young fans after that.
https://twitter.com/gfclark89/status/963597028361162758
But none of that compared to what transpired for yours truly. Only a few minutes into the game, a woman approached me and asked if I wanted to take part in an on-court contest during one of the breaks in action. Eager to show myself off, I accepted. Hey, I couldn’t do worse than a couple of Trail Blazers fans less than a week ago.
So there were two parts to the game, which pitted me against one other contestant. First, we’d have to put together a giant puzzle of a BMO Harris Bank card (fortunately all edge pieces). Once we did that, we needed take a basketball to the other end of the court and make a layup. Whoever completed both tasks first would be the winner.
Before I go further, I should mention I have a history of doing in-game promotions at sporting events. In 2013, I tried and failed in a shooting contest at an Eastern Illinois women’s basketball game. The next year, I won a plunger-tossing contest presented by the Schaumburg Boomers. Months later, the Chicago Wolves picked me as a contestant for a trivia contest.
With all this experience behind me, I didn’t exactly have jitters. My only hope was that I wouldn’t embarrass myself. After all, I was up against another player. One slip and it would all be over.
After the signal to start, I began assembling the six-piece puzzle and was able to figure most of it out pretty quickly. I had a little trouble with the last piece, but realized it went in a different direction than I previously thought. With that corrected, it was time to take the basketball and run three-quarters the length of the court on my way to victory. I’ll let my girlfriend’s footage take it from here.
After relishing my win on camera for a few seconds and departing the court, I flailed around for about a minute with no idea what was happening next. I didn’t even know what I had won. Finally, they took me into the area that was curtained off and presented me with my prizes. I’m now the owner of a Zach LaVine bobblehead and two tickets in the fifth row of Section 106 for Bulls-Grizzles on March 7. I’ve never had Bulls tickets that good before and probably never will again.
There aren’t many game experiences in my 22 years as a sports fan that topped this one. It goes without saying I’ll be attending another Windy City Bulls game in the future. I probably won’t be able to top this one, but they built a lot of goodwill with me during my first game. Plenty of tickets are usually available, so check out the Baby Bulls for a better price and likely a more intimate experience than you’ll get attending the United Center.
By the way, who wants to challenge me to a puzzle/layup contest? We’ll play for some nice stakes to make it interesting. After all, that’s the spirit of competition, isn’t it?
