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Chicago Bears wide receiver Byron Pringle was arrested Saturday in Florida and charged with reckless driving and driving while his license was suspended, according to a Florida Highway Patrol report.Pringle was stopped in Wesley Chapel, Fla., north of Tampa, after an officer observed a cloud of smoke, the smell of burnt rubber and tire marks on the roadway “consistent with a vehicle performing ‘a donut,’” according to the arrest report.AdvertisementThe officer pulled over Pringle, who was driving an orange 2016 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat with an adult passenger in the front seat and a juvenile in the back. A check on Pringle’s license revealed it was suspended in February for “financial responsibility,” the report said.According to the report, Pringle ignored verbal commands to exit the vehicle and “then became verbally confrontational” before he was arrested at approximately 6:15 p.m. He was transported to the Pasco County Jail “without further incident.” Both charges are misdemeanors.AdvertisementTMZ first reported the news of Pringle’s arrest.The Bears in March signed Pringle to a one-year, $6 million contract with $4 million guaranteed. He was at Halas Hall last week for voluntary minicamp with new coach Matt Eberflus.He spent his first four years with the Kansas City Chiefs when new Bears general manager Ryan Poles was there. Pringle played in 46 games over three seasons, with 67 catches for 898 yards and seven touchdowns.A Bears spokesman said the team was aware of the arrest but didn’t have further comment.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers famously declared “I still own you” last October after beating the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field.But now it appears Rodgers may have to work out a timeshare agreement of Chicago teams with Grayson Allen.AdvertisementThe Milwaukee Bucks reserve guard came to the United Center on Friday with a target on his back and dominated the Bulls in back-to-back games, putting them on the brink of elimination in their first-round series.Allen scored 27 points on 10-of-12 shooting, including 6-of-7 3-point attempts, in the Bucks’ 119-95 blowout victory in Game 4 Sunday, continuing his hot shooting from Friday when he scored 22 points. Giannis Antetokounmpo added 32 points and 17 rebounds in Game 4 as the Bucks showed their superiority over the Bulls.AdvertisementAnd Bulls fans can partially blame themselves for Allen’s sizzling shooting. After they loudly booed him March 4 at the United Center in response to Allen’s flagrant foul on Alex Caruso in a Jan. 21 game that sidelined the Bulls guard with a fractured wrist, Bucks players began booing Allen in practice as an inside joke.Suddenly a tradition was born.Jrue Holiday said Sunday it was “more fun booing Grayson” on the bench than watching him hit 3-pointers all afternoon.“It started off the fans booing him, but he be hooping when we boo him,” Holiday said. “So maybe it means something to him, some form of support. I’m still going to be booing the hell out of him.”Milwaukee Bucks guard Grayson Allen (7) and forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) slap hands in the second half against the Bulls at the United Center on April 24, 2022. The Bucks won 119-95 to take a 3-1 lead in their playoff series. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)Whatever works.Before Friday Allen had a combined 44 points in nine career playoff games with the Utah Jazz, Memphis Grizzlies and Bucks, who acquired him last summer. But in his last two games in Chicago, Allen had a combined 49 points while shooting 75% (18-for-24) from the field and 79% (11-for-14) from behind the arc.“He wants the ball, he wants to be the guy that’s going to make shots, make plays,” Antetokounmpo said. “He’s not scared to make plays. He fits in really well with us.”Allen told the Tribune that the booing by Bulls fans doesn’t motivate him.Advertisement“I don’t know if I’m immune, but definitely used to it,” he said Friday with a grin.The former Duke star was even more lethal Sunday, and Bulls fans just shook their heads at the shooting display and his three steals. The Bucks joined in with the Bulls fans by booing him all afternoon.“They have so much fun doing it,” Allen said. “I think it’s funny. I think it’s honestly hilarious. They’ve kind of turned it into a fun thing, and it makes hearing it out there during the game a lot easier too.”Being at Duke provided the guard with an education in being verbally harassed by opposing fans. But thanks to the Caruso incident, booing Allen apparently has become a nonstop diversion for the Bucks.“Walk on the bus, ‘Boo,’” Allen said. “At the hotel, ‘Boo.’ About to watch film, ‘Boo.’ All the time. Wes (Matthews) probably does it the most. He thinks it’s the funniest.”Antetokounmpo said the bench’s booing during a 3-point play in Game 3 was iconic.Advertisement“Someone showed me a picture… and the whole bench was booing him,” he said. “I thought it was really funny. I thought, ‘He’s got to take that picture and frame it. That’s the definition of his career.’“But, hey, they (Bulls fans) did this. He’s played amazing. Maybe we’ve got to boo him even more. Maybe Milwaukee fans have got to boo him.”Antetokounmpo laughed and changed his mind.“No, we’re not going to do that,” he said. “But (we’re) being in the moment, enjoying the moment. And it’s fun.”Allen was talented but dogged by notoriety at Duke. The Caruso incident brought that reputation back to the forefront. Bulls coach Billy Donovan was livid, saying Allen’s flagrant foul could’ve ended Caruso’s career.Allen was widely criticized for not apologizing to Caruso afterward. The Bucks guard said Sunday he left phone messages and that ESPN’s J.J. Reddick falsely claimed Allen didn’t try to contact Caruso.Advertisement“I saw on J.J.’s podcast, he said I didn’t reach out, which I did try,” he said. “I tried two different ways and then when I saw (Reddick’s remarks) I got another number from somebody and tried to reach out again.“At that point, it’s not about me expecting a reply. It’s about me wanting to let him know. It’s something between me and him. I don’t expect a reply. I don’t think he would even want to (reply).”MIlwaukee Bucks guard Grayson Allen (7) brings the ball up as Chicago Bulls guard Zach LaVine (8) pursues in the first half at the United Center on April 24, 2022. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)Allen seems polite and genial in person, the polar opposite of the player many Bulls fans love to hate.“I’d still say it’s not naturally comfortable for me,” he said of the attention. “But I am to the point now where anytime I’m out playing basketball I just remind myself to go out and have fun with it… It’s what I love to do.“The ultimate joy for me is just out there playing, play free. Still though, my personality is naturally uncomfortable with the attention — the booing, the heckling. It’s not something like I feed off of. I’m not going out searching for it like, ‘Oh, I love this.’ I just go out and have fun.”Chicago Tribune SportsWeekdaysA daily sports newsletter delivered to your inbox for your morning commute.Game 4 started out like a bad case of déjà vu for the Bulls. They missed 10 of their first 15 shots and fell behind by nine points late in the first quarter. AdvertisementBut they trailed by only one early in the second quarter when Allen hit his second 3. He then made his third steal on the next Bulls possession, leading to another 3 by Pat Connaughton. The Bucks were off and running again, outscoring the Bulls 31-19 in the quarter. The Bulls had only one offensive rebound and no free-throw attempts in the first half.A finger roll by Antetokounmpo 2½ minutes into the third quarter gave the Bucks a commanding 22-point lead, but after Caruso was ruled out for the second half, the Bulls whittled the deficit down to eight with 61½ minutes remaining in the third. But the Bucks quickly regrouped, and when Allen sank his fifth 3 a little over a minute later, the lead was back up to 15, and never in doubt again.The Bulls shot 38.9% from the field (35-for-90) and 25% (9-for-36) from on 3-pointers. The only fight they showed came with 2:16 remaining when guard Zach LaVine had words with former Bulls forward Bobby Portis after Portis put LaVine in a one-armed headlock after a foul.But it was too late to get the crowd into it. Many had already headed for the exits.If the Bulls don’t win Game 5 Wednesday at Fiserv Forum, Bulls fans will have to wait until next season to boo Allen again.Or maybe they’ve finally learned their lesson.

A man seen on video wheeling a bulky suitcase out of a woman’s Chicago apartment has been acquitted of murder.Cook County Judge Diana Kenworthy noted a lack of evidence against Jimmy Jackson, 75, and said the video was not enough to convict him.AdvertisementDaisy Hayes, 65, disappeared in 2018. Family members were stunned by the verdict Friday.“All I could do is scream and just run out the courtroom — like what didn’t you see?” daughter Teresa Smith said of the video.AdvertisementJackson, 75, and Hayes, 65, had an intermittent relationship.“You see him struggling with this suitcase. You see him actually put the suitcase in the dumpster. You actually see him take garbage from other dumpsters to put on top of her so it can be concealed,” Smith said.Jackson was arrested in Tennessee after Daisy disappeared.Column: A boy found in a shallow grave and a woman dumped in a landfill both deserve a proper burial »

The Chicago Bulls delivered hope in Game 4 of their series with the Milwaukee Bucks. That was an improvement, at least, for fans at the United Center after the beatdown of Game 3.The offense matched blows with the Bucks throughout the first half, avoiding an early hole. Patrick Williams finally delivered on his young promise, scoring 20 points in his best performance of the playoffs. The Bulls scored more transition points in the first half (6) than they had in any game in the series so far.AdvertisementBut all that didn’t matter when Giannis Antetokounmpo woke up. The Bucks star carved open the Bulls defense with surgical accuracy, scoring a series-high 32 points. With Antetokounmpo slicing the Bulls open on both ends of the court, the Bucks waltzed to a 119-95 win.The game changed for the Bulls when Alex Caruso took an inadvertent blow to the face from Jevon Carter in the second quarter. Although Caruso took several minutes to clean blood from his nose following the collision, he appeared prepared to playafter returning for the final minutes of the quarter. But after halftime, he spent the rest of the game in the locker room undergoing evaluation for a possible concussion.AdvertisementThe injury removed the Bulls’ best defender from the court for the second half of the game — and potentially longer in the series if Caruso remains under concussion protocol.Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo shoots over Bulls forward DeMar DeRozan (11) as Derrick Jones Jr. (5) looks on in the first half at the United Center on April 24, 2022. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)Rookie Ayo Dosunmu took on a heavier rotation in Caruso’s absence. Dosunmu sank back-to-back 3-pointers in the third quarter, igniting the crowd at the United Center as the Bulls went on a 17-3 run to pull within eight points. But the Bucks absorbed the run effortlessly, responding with seven unanswered points of their own to reclaim a double-digit advantage.Dosunmu wasn’t the only young Bull to step up in Game 4. Williams finally broke a shooting drought of 12 consecutive misses — which stretched back to Game 2 — with a 3-pointer in the second quarter. Although Williams still grappled with the oversized matchup of Antetokounmpo, his improved aggression helped lift the Bulls in their third quarter run.The Bulls starters were aggressive in the first half but couldn’t hold that pace. DeMar DeRozan scored 23 points but couldn’t offer any fourth-quarter wizardry. Zach LaVine cooled off after a 12-point first quarter but still finished with a team-high 24 points. Nikola Vučević didn’t make a shot in the second half after scoring 11 in the first half.And the starters had no help from their bench. Derrick Jones Jr. was the only bench player to score in the first half. The entire bench tallied only 17 points while the Bucks bench scored 39 to support its starters.The Bucks bench unit was led by Grayson Allen, who continued to feed off the jeers thrown at him by Bulls fans at the United Center, scoring 27 points on 6-for-7 shooting from behind the arc. Each of Allen’s 3-pointers delivered a demoralizing blow to the Bulls, cutting runs short and punctuating the end of quarters.Game 5 will take place Wednesday at Fiserv Forum.

Thunderstorms, wind gusts, and cooler temperatures are approaching the Chicago area midday Sunday.Between noon and 4 p.m. ,there will be chances for thunder, particularly in the southern half of the Chicago area and northwest Indiana, according to Matt Friedlein, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.Advertisement“Temperatures are not going to climb much and will peak right around 70 degrees, maybe 72 degrees and then temperatures will gradually fall later this afternoon and will be breezy until early this evening,” Friedlein said. “There will be some wind gusts of 30 to 35 mph.”By Sunday evening, temperatures will hover the 50-degree mark, according to Friedlein.AdvertisementOn Monday, clouds will slowly clear but temperatures will remain in the low 50s.“So it’ll be around 20 degrees cooler than today (Sunday) and about 30 degrees cooler than yesterday (Saturday),” Friedlein said.

MLB’s broadcasts aren’t just play by play and commentary of the action on the field.We get broadcasters forgetting they’re still live. We get mic’d up players and umpires. We get chaos in all forms.AdvertisementSo every week this season, we’re rounding up some of our favorite hilarious, botched, and/or outlandish calls and moments over baseball’s broadcasts.

Minneapolis — Chicago White Sox left fielder Eloy Jiménez will be out an estimated six to eight weeks after suffering a right hamstring strain, the team announced Sunday.The Sox placed Jiménez on the 10-day injured list.Advertisement“After returning to Chicago, Eloy will undergo further evaluation by White Sox team physicians at Rush and a treatment plan will be put in place,” the Sox said in a team statement. “The club expects to be able to provide an update prior to Tuesday’s game.”The injury occurred in Saturday’s 9-2 loss to the Minnesota Twins.AdvertisementJiménez hit a grounder to third in the second inning, stumbled after crossing first base and fell. He got to his feet but was taken off the field on a cart.He is slashing .222/.256/.333 with one home run and seven RBIs in 11 games. He dealt with a bruised left ankle for a portion of this season. Jiménez played just 55 games last season after suffering a ruptured left pectoral tendon during a Cactus League game.

Former professional South African rugby player Pedrie Wannenburg died Friday in Houston in a police car chase started by a teenager who fled a traffic stop, according to officials.Wannenburg, 41, was driving northbound around 6 p.m. with his wife in the front seat and their 10-year-old daughter Isabelle and 8-year-old son Pedrie Jr. in the back, when 16-year-old Ali Alabadi, driving southbound, hit another car and crossed the median, slamming into Wannenburg’s car, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office said Saturday.AdvertisementHarris County sheriff’s deputies were trying to pull Alabadi over when he sped off instead, reaching up to 100 mph before the series of crashes.In total, Alabadi hit at least two other cars, and a fourth collided after being unable to stop in time. Another driver, Kathy Lawson, was also hospitalized with injuries.AdvertisementPedrie Wannenburg, center, was killed in a Houston car crash. (stringer/AP)Alabadi and his two teenage passengers, both 16, have also been hospitalized.Wannenburg and his son were immediately rushed to the hospital, where the father was pronounced dead an hour later. Pedrie was listed in critical condition as of Saturday and a spokesperson for the Harris County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately return a request for comment from the Daily News Sunday.His wife, Evette, and daughter, Isabelle, were uninjured.Alabadi has been charged with felony murder, reckless aggravated assault serious bodily injury and aggravated assault bodily injury with deadly weapon.Wannenburg played for the South African Bulls from 2002 to 2010, securing three Super Rugby titles and five Currie Cups before playing in Europe for Ulster in Ireland and Castres in France. In the U.S., he served as team captain for the Denver Stampede, then moved over to the Austin Elite, which he also coached after retiring in 2018.The teenage driver has been charged with murder. (Cy-Fair Fire Department)“Pedrie will be remembered as one of the first real versatile loose forwards who could play in any position in the back row and even though he played in only 20 tests, his record in the colors of the Bulls, during a period where they dominated on all levels, is nearly unmatched,” Mark Alexander, president of the South Africa national rugby union team, said in a statement.“Pedrie was a fun-loving and hard-working man and someone who gave all he had on the pitch, but afterwards always had a smile on his face. He represented his country with aplomb — who will ever forget the try he scored in the narrow victory over the All Blacks in Rustenburg in 2006?“To lose someone at the cusp of the rest of his life with a young family, after a long and storied rugby career is extremely sad and our thoughts are with his wife, Evette, their two children, Isabelle and Francois, as well as his parents and other family members, loved ones and friends during this very difficult time.”

Three games left.After falling to the host San Jose Sharks 4-1 on Saturday, the Chicago Blackhawk are left to play out the string.AdvertisementOr perhaps it’s more akin to performing last rites.The Hawks host their final two games at the United Center — against the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday and Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday — and wrap up the season on the road Friday against the Buffalo Sabres.Advertisement“These are the grinds that are not easy to grind out,” coach Derek King said before the game. “These are the ones that you’ve really got to dig deep to find a way to motivate yourself or just figure a way to win that puck battle, shorten that shift, do all the little things right.“And it’s a challenge for us.”Sharks defenseman Ryan Merkley, left, reaches for the puck in front of Blackhawks center Reese Johnson during the first period Saturday in San Jose, Calif. (Jeff Chiu/AP)And afterward, it’s ready, set, rebuild.General manager Kyle Davidson got a big jump on his roster reconstruction last month, trading Brandon Hagel in a deal that netted two first-round picks in 2023 and ‘24 and promising rookie forward Taylor Raddysh, who has four goals and four assists in 17 games with the Hawks.The Hawks also are holding onto a couple of long shots at gaining a couple of first-round picks in the upcoming draft: a 7.5% chance at winning the lottery if they stay in the sixth slot or winning the second draw, which would mean they keep the top-two-protected pick instead of sending it to the Columbus Blue Jackets; or upgrading the Minnesota Wild’s second-rounder if the Wild reach the Western Conference Finals and ex-Hawks goalie Marc-André Fleury wins four games in the first two rounds.The Hawks already were eliminated from the playoffs for the second straight season and fourth time in five years.So other than improving or worsening their lottery fortunes by a percentage point, the Hawks have nothing to lose or gain by winning or losing the last four games.But how they finish matters to the organizational mindset.AdvertisementThe Hawks plan on losing, perhaps for several seasons, to build up the roster through high draft picks. But the culture that takes hold during what promises to be lean years either could nourish the rebuild or prove poisonous.Small cracks in the foundation could become fissures.This is not a cohesive roster as currently constructed.Sharks right wing Timo Meier, left, looks back toward the puck next to Blackhawks center Jonathan Toews during the second period Saturday in San Jose, Calif. The Sharks won 4-1. (Jeff Chiu / AP)The Hawks have a top-heavy side, made up of the last two Stanley Cup veterans in Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane and 40-goal scorer Alex DeBrincat. And you have a bottom half of either veterans who could be dispatched in the offseason or young skaters who just as easily could find themselves in Rockford next season.The Hawks look schizophrenic, alternating between playing “sleepy,” as King terms it, and resorting to hero hockey, perhaps borne out of frustration.Credit to Tyler Johnson, who has spent enough time on the sideline to be considered an outside observer, for identifying this potential flaw in the Hawks’ team-building.Advertisement“I think our compete and everything is there, I just think our decision-making — we make the game way too difficult,” Johnson said after the Sharks game. “We’re all over the ice. We just kind of play one-on-one battles instead of play as a team.“And when you do that, teams in structure, especially this time of the year when every team is playing at the top of their game, you just start losing. We’ve got to do a lot better job of playing as a team.”The Hawks to a man have said the right things — that they’re still trying to jell as a team and haven’t retired to their respective corners — but what they’ve shown on the ice much of the season suggests they could be in for a tug of war between development and indifference, which only stands to get worse if they know going in they’re not playoff-bound.Toews called a recent eight-game winless streak “pretty embarrassing,” and given his storied history he absolutely should feel that way.Said Seth Jones after Saturday’s game: “Any time you’re missing the playoffs, it’s no fun. But we can continue to grow together and play the right way, try to play consistent through 60 minutes.“That’s the best thing we’ve got right now.”AdvertisementDeBrincat’s recent comments indicate he hasn’t quite reconciled himself to what he’s likely in for in the future.“I think we have a lot we can work on and build off of and obviously next year, with the rebuild, we might lose more games than we win, but that’s obviously never the goal,” he said.“If we come out hot or (start) doing well, there’s no point to rebuild after that, right?”No, that’s not right.Davidson and CEO Danny Wirtz have made it clear that plugging in high-priced free agents hasn’t worked, and the Hawks don’t have the talent in the pipeline to properly support them anyway. The main way to build up a perpetual contender is by acquiring high draft picks and top-end prospects, and that comes at a cost: the sacrifice of veterans and wins.ExpandAutoplayImage 1 of 21Blackhawks chairman Rocky Wirtz and CEO Danny Wirtz introduce Kyle Davidson as their new general manager with Jaime Faulkner, president of business operations, on March 1, 2022, at the United Center. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune)So that begs the question: What can the Hawks possibly hope to gain from these last four games?Advertisement“Well, play for pride and respect,” King said. “We talked about today in the meeting. Should be a little embarrassed about what happened last game (a 4-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings), only getting six chances (according to naturalstattrick.com, the Hawks had only three high-danger chances).“That’s not good enough. I don’t care how bad you are as a hockey team, you can get more than six chances in a game. They’ve got some pride on the line, they’ve got to earn that respect back, and it’s a good time to redeem themselves” against the Sharks.The Hawks started this trip with a 4-3 win against the Arizona Coyotes, but even that game featured some egregious defensive breakdowns that allowed the Coyotes to rally with two goals in the third period to force overtime.That win was a blip in a 2-10-2 stretch in which the Hawks were outscored 60-35.Chicago Tribune SportsWeekdaysA daily sports newsletter delivered to your inbox for your morning commute.At times, the Hawks show life but either are outmanned by more talented teams or undermined by youthful miscues, such as key mistakes by defensemen Alex Vlasic and Alec Regula that led to Sharks goals Saturday.“We just made some young errors, some mental mistakes that cost us,” King said. “That’s been our problem for a lot of this year. Anytime we make little mistakes or a few mental errors or lapses, it’s usually in the back of our net.”AdvertisementOther times they look like a team that has given up the ghost — pick any second period at random — but the Hawks insists they hasn’t checked out.“I don’t think I’ve been out this early as we were, said Jones, who made the playoffs in five of his nine seasons between the Nashville Predators and Blue Jackets. “But the main thing is we stick together in that locker room, we don’t let any outside noise come in and continue to try to be better and work for each other.”Said King of the possibility of players checking out: “Even if I thought it I would never say it. They can’t check out. There’s no way these guys are checked out. They’re struggling to find a way to play better.“Mentally, they’re fried, I would say, and it’s just draining right now. They’ve got to find a way as a team, not individually … to just overcome all these speed bumps and just fight through it.”If it’s draining now, just imagine what it could be like for 82 games next season.

A small crowd of 3,739 showed up at the Coliseum on March 23, 1967, for the first home playoff game in Chicago Bulls history, a forgettable 113-107 Game 2 loss to the St. Louis Hawks.It was the inaugural season of an expansion team that surprised everyone by making the Western Conference playoffs before getting swept in three games by point guard Lenny Wilkens and the Hawks.Advertisement“For the new Chicago Bulls, the season is over,” Tribune beat writer Bob Logan wrote after the final game. “They surely will be heard of again, however, on the Chicago sports scene.”That was how it all started for the Bulls, a brand that became internationally known by the early 1990s.AdvertisementPro basketball was a tough sell in Chicago 55 years ago. The Bulls once drew the ire of the NBA by announcing a crowd of 594, and owner Dick Klein was ordered never to release figures like that again. John “Red” Kerr, the first Bulls coach and later a popular TV analyst, always brought a pocketful of dimes to games in the early days so he could call the newspapers afterward.“I’d dial up the papers’ sports desks and say something like: ‘Hi, this is John Kerr, coach of the Bulls,’ ” he recalled in ’91. “‘The Bulls won tonight 110-106, and Bob Boozer was our leading scorer with 26 points.’ The desk guy would say: ‘Boozer? How ya spell that?’ I’d say: ‘B-O-O-Z-E-R,’ and then the operator would jump in and say, ‘Please deposit another dime.’”When fans would call up the old Chicago Stadium and ask what time that night’s game was, Kerr would reply: “What time can you be there?”ExpandAutoplayImage 1 of 24Chicago Bulls guard Zach LaVine (8) heads to the locker after a 111-81 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks at United Center on April 22, 2022, in Chicago. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune)As playoff basketball returned to the United Center on Friday night with Game 3 of the Bulls’ first-round series against the Milwaukee Bucks, it’s hard for many to imagine a time when the team struggled for attention, even going so far as to stage halftime shows in which fans could take to the mat against Victor the wrestling bear.After having to play in an empty stadium for almost all the home games last season because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bulls led the league in average attendance in 2021-22 at 20,881 per game, moving back into the top spot for the first time since 2017-18.The Bulls are now an iconic sports franchise like the New York Yankees or Green Bay Packers thanks to the six NBA titles they won from 1991-98, when Michael Jordan, the greatest player of all time, dominated on the court and Hall of Fame coach Phil Jackson pulled the strings.The Bulls haven’t returned to the NBA Finals since the “Last Dance” season in ’98 and barely competed the last four years. But executive vice president of basketball operations Artūras Karnišovas junked the former regime’s rebuild last summer and brought in DeMar DeRozan, Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso, who teamed with Zach LaVine and Nikola Vučević to change the direction of the franchise.It didn’t look that way Friday night in a 111-81 loss to the Bucks before a shellshocked sellout crowd of 22,667 that booed from the third quarter on. The Bulls desperately need a wake-up call Sunday afternoon in Game 4 to avoid falling behind 3-1 and facing elimination Wednesday in Milwaukee.AdvertisementDeRozan said “a loss is a loss,” even one as abysmal as Game 3.“Whether we lost by 30 or by one point, we’ve got to come back and compete and protect our home floor,” he said.No matter how this series turns out, it’s safe to say the future of the Bulls is much brighter than it was one year ago. Re-signing LaVine obviously will be job No. 1 for Karnišovas, but the Bulls have reestablished themselves as an Eastern Conference contender. With a healthy Ball returning next season, the maturation of Patrick Williams and some offseason tinkering, expectations will be even greater for coach Billy Donovan’s team in 2022-23.And that’s good news for the NBA, which always seems better when big-market teams such as the Bulls, Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers are in the mix.Well, two out of three ain’t bad.ExpandAutoplayImage 1 of 23Johnny Kerr coached the Bulls from 1966-1968 (62-101) and was named NBA coach of the year in 1967. Later, the Tilden H.S. and University of Illinois graduate was a color commentator for the Bulls for 33 years. As a player, he was elected to Illinois’ ‘All-Century Team’ and played 12 years in the NBA. As a first-year coach, his 33-48 Bulls were the first expansion team to win a playoff berth in its first season. (Chicago Tribune)The dynasty era may have fully transformed Chicago into a Bulls town, but the team still had a core following before the arrival of Air Jordan in 1984. Brian McIntyre, the former NBA director of media relations who began in the same capacity for the Bulls in the late 1970s, remembered when Chicago Stadium was less than half full after the era of teams led by Chet Walker, Bob Love, Jerry Sloan and Norm Van Lier came to an end.AdvertisementBut in 1981, a scrappy Bulls team led by Reggie Theus and Artis Gilmore upset the New York Knicks in the first game of a best-of-three series at Madison Square Garden, then came home to a raucous Stadium filled to the brim with 19,901 fans. Trailing by 15 in the third quarter, the Bulls rallied to take it to overtime and eventually won 115-114.“I swear that was the loudest I’d ever heard the Chicago Stadium,” McIntyre said. “It was a late start for CBS, and everyone in the upper deck was plastered.”The Bulls’ reward in the Eastern Conference semis was the Celtics. Larry Bird was so confident that he and his teammates were drinking into the wee hours at Butch McGuire’s on Division Street. A bartender asked Bird if he was worried about drinking so late the night before a game.“Bird says, ‘We can beat the Bulls drunk or sober,’ ” McIntyre said.Bird was right. The Celtics swept the series in four games on their way to the ’81 title.The Bulls regressed again until selecting Jordan with the No. 3 pick in the ‘84 draft. There were good moments — Jordan hitting “The Shot” over Cleveland’s Craig Ehlo to clinch a first-round series in 1989 — and down moments, such as being swept by the Celtics in ’86 and ’87.AdvertisementExpandAutoplayImage 1 of 87Michael Jordan flies through the air to dunk against the Jazz in a playoff game in Utah on June 5, 1998. (Nuccio DiNuzzo / Chicago Tribune)After tough back-to-back playoff losses to the Detroit Pistons’ more physical “Bad Boys” in 1989 and ’90, the Bulls beat Magic Johnson and the Lakers for their first title in ’91, setting the dynasty in motion. Jordan always stepped up his game in the postseason, but Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, John Paxson, Toni Kukoč and Steve Kerr all had playoff moments that will live forever in Bulls lore.The last time I covered the Bulls in the playoffs was in 1993, the third title of the first 3-peat. During an off day of the NBA Finals between the Bulls and Phoenix Suns, Jordan was asked if he thought the fan base would dwindle once he retired.“That’s something (the organization) will have to pay attention to from a business aspect,” he replied. “I don’t know how long the fans are going to be as supportive. Or will they be as supportive? I hope that they will, because I certainly will be a fan of Chicago when I’m gone, and I’d love for the fans to maintain that support even when I’m gone because of what we’ve built here.“It’s a good system now. I’d hate to see it change.”Chicago Tribune SportsWeekdaysA daily sports newsletter delivered to your inbox for your morning commute.Little did we know Jordan would retire the following October on the eve of the 1993-94 season. But fans continued to flock to the West Side after Jordan’s departure and when he returned at the end of the 1994-95 season following his baseball sabbatical.The real test came after the breakup of the dynasty following the Bulls’ sixth title in 1998.AdvertisementIn the first year of general manager Jerry Krause’s rebuild, the Bulls still finished first in average attendance despite a 13-37 record in a lockout-shortened season. But the losing wore on fans, and the Bulls sunk to ninth in attendance by 2001-02, when Tim Floyd — Krause’s hand-picked replacement for Jackson — finally was fired midseason.Derrick Rose’s knee injury in the first-round series against the Philadelphia 76ers in 2012 ended what might’ve been a championship season, and neither Rose nor the Bulls recovered in the ensuring years. The post-Jordan drought continued.But a decade after Rose’s franchise-altering injury, DeRozan, LaVine, Vučević and Caruso are hoping to pull off a first-round upset of the defending champion Bucks, making the United Center into a madhouse again.If they repeat their Game 3 performance, it’s likely to be the final home game until next season. DeRozan promised a more aggressive effort in Game 4.“We’ve got an opportunity to tie this thing up Sunday on our home court,” he said. “And that’s what we’re going to do.”