Evaluation Essay Essay

The National Basketball Association, popularly Known as the NBA, was established in New York City on June 6, 1946, as the Basketball Association of America and the Chicago Bulls became a member of the NBA after their establishment in 1966. Since becoming the NBA, the basketball played during the playoffs has proven to be far more competetive than that played during the regular season of at least 60 games per team. This was proven beyond doubt when the Chicago Bulls defeated the Brooklyn Nets in the 2013 playoffs after trailing by 14 points with only 3 minutes and forteen seconds of regulation time left. This was quite hard to believe and turned out to be an unexpected reality despite the susceptibility of the Chicago Bulls to injury and the absence of their superstar, Derick Rose. With the emergence of the 2008 number 1 draft pick of the NBA, Derick Rose, drafted by the Chicago Bulls, there was hope for an NBA title for the city of Chicago which has not had any hope since the Michael Jordan era. After the horrible 2012/2013 regular season in which the Bulls suffered a great deal of injuries worst than any other NBA team, the Bulls head into the playoffs still short handed. The first impression about this Bulls’ team is their resilience considering their success into the playoffs despite the injury woes. The first round featured the Bulls and the Nets in what is suppose to be a seven game series with the winner being any team with the first four wins. The two teams meet at the Barclays Center in New York for game 4 of the series with the Bulls leading two games to one. The game appeared to be pretty even within the first three quarters untill the nets blowout to a 14 point lead with exactly 3 minutes and 14 seconds of playtime left on the clock. At this point, no one could see the possibilty of a Bulls win considering the absence of a superb playmaker like their all-star point guard, Derick Rose who used to lead them to numerous comeback wins. Notwithstan ding, the bulls backup point guard, Nate Robinson, who is just 5†² 9†³ tall, Weighing 180 lb popularly reffered to as ‘little Nate’ by most basketball journalists and analysts went to work. He can be reffered to at this point as the savior, but who could have imagined that at a crucial point like this, it will be the backup point guard, who is not ony the smallest player on the bulls roster but also one of the least regarded who will bail them out. With the nets leading by 14 at this point, all hope was lost but the Bulls coach, Tom Thibedeau, was still on his toes with the hope to salvage the situation.  Nate took over, first by hitting a three point basket. The lead was down to 11, but the Nets’ coach was pretty relaxed and still had hope for a victory while little Nate thought otherwise. He made 90% of all the points made by the Bulls from this point on. With the Nets loosing the ball at the other end, the bulls converted at the other end. By the time the short clock was at 1:14, the bulls had made and 8:0 run, and the battle was far from done. This was quite unexpected for many reasons. The basketball played during the playoff is way more competitive such that it is rare to see an 8-0 run at a crucial point such as in this situation. In addition to this, the bulls were very short handed compared to a very health Brooklyn team with promissing reserves as well. It all came down to this; â€Å"Who had the passion, who had the drive† as one of the journlists noted. At this point, even though ‘Little Nate ‘ was the main playmaker for the bulls, all the players stepped up their game. Everyone was alert. The rebounding was up, the defending up, the players seemed unstopable at this point. Still, everyone still doubted a bulls win who were still down by 6 points with 1:14 left on the clock. Notwithstanding, the bulls believed in themselves and kept the pace. With the players doing a great job, there was one man who can be reffered to at this point as the fuel, the coach, Tom Thibedeau. He was sensational, and constantly on his toes and he is regarded as someone who believes in winning with no regards to whoever is on the court, whether they are stars, superstars, rookies or average players. This was the mentality he impacted on the bulls despite the absence of their best player. With 1:11 left, the bulls continue to make their run through Nate. Relative to his performance that night, this little guy appeared very tall and not even Brook Lopez, a very big guy of 7 ft 0 and 275 lb on the opposing team could stop him. Lopez put a huge body on ‘little Nate’ whose intelligence overcame the doggy defence. He continued to nock down shots to everyone’s suprise. â€Å"Big things come in small packages† one of the journalists said in reference to his astounding performance. Both teams were level at the end of the fourth quarter and headed for overtime. This was a turn ing point for both teams. While the nets played well, the bulls were clearly the team with the bigger drive to win. Nothing could be seen to limit the bulls not even age in the case of veteran center Nazr Mohammad, the oldest guy on the bulls roster who came off the bench and hit a huge basket with a great offensive rebound that  solidified the bull’s win in the third overtime. In conclusion, the bulls win over the nets in game 4 of the 2013 NBA playoffs was a thriller and no body could have seen it coming. It is worth noting that, believe and hardwork was the driving force of such an unexpected comeback.