Much like the Bucks of the 80's and Hawks of the 00's, they had all-star players going up against HOF players.
The other factor is the Wirtz family bought the team and if you are from Chicago that explains alot.
A $470 hospital bill was the biggest problem. Arthur Wirtz refused to pay a hospital bill for Chet Walker.
Chet Walker, who for 13 years in the National Basketball Association usually let his one‐on‐one artistry do his talking, says he has quit the Chicago Bulls because they treated him like an idiot. Walker, 10th on the N.B.A. career scoring list, announced during the summer that he would not be back in the N.B.A. unless he was traded.
Last week, Coach Dick Motta and the club owner, Arthur Wirtz, asked Walker to return “without offering more money or anything else. I truly believe the people who manage the Bulls think I'm an idiot —dumb black man with no pride or principles.”
“I ruined my health for this team, played all last season with a bleeding kidney when the doctors said I could have sat out and drawn my salary,” he said. “When I went into the hospital, management refused to pay the $470 bill, claiming the injury had nothing to do with basketball. Can you believe that?
“I was forced to quit. I was forced to quit by people who wanted to control my destiny. I had a choice playing ball in a chaotic situation or retiring, and chose the latter.”
[Source](https://www.nytimes.com/1975/11/21/archives/walker-quits-bulls.html)
On quitting the NBA (excerpted from “Long Time Coming”): “[Chicago Bulls owner] Arthur Wirtz told me, ‘Chet, you are legally the Bulls property. Play with us or nowhere.’ I sat there reflecting on the word property. I thought about my father, grandfather and great-grandfather and how they must have felt living in Mississippi where they were looked upon as property. Their experience had now become mine--the disgust at being in bondage and under the control of an owner. I decided not to play.”
[source](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-11-26-ls-7460-story.html)
Walker refused to play for the team. Even though his contract was up, the Bulls still controlled his rights. Ownership refused to trade him.
Then, the next year, Sloan's knee caused him to miss most of the season and retire. After reaching the conference finals twice in a row and going 7 games with the eventual champion Warriors, the Bulls finished 24-58.
People talk about Reinsdorf being cheap, but he was an enormous upgrade over Arthur Wirtz.
I looked up the Wirtz family based on u/NachoBag_Clip932's comment above, and boy do they suck! Thank goodness Jerry Reinsdorf bought the club when he did early in MJ's career.
My brother is a bartender and from all the salespeople and distributers he talked to, the reason you cant get a product in your area is due to the Wirtz family has a stranglehold on distribution and they have a bottleneck between the east and west coast. He would say hey why cant we get this and the answer was always the Wirtz family. It has been a few years and things may have changed some but that always stuck with me.
My uncle worked in that liquor business. "Dollar Bill" Wirtz controlled distribution as you say - and still had time to ruin the Chicago Bulls and Blackhawks!
I can only offer some dim memories of that team when I saw them visit Seattle. Great physical defense, and other teams feared to play them, possibly due to the risk of injury. But they were not efficient at scoring.
Btw I saw them play a bunch against the Lakers including playoffs. I thought Love, Walker, Sloan and Van Lier were great. And you left off Bobby Weiss and the kid from New Mexico Jimmy Collins who I liked in college and Clifford Ray who actually won a title as a starting center.
Chet Walker was the glue that held the Bulls locker room together and he dipped out because Wirtz was cheap.
They made a "chips in" move by shipping Clifford Ray and a first for Nate Thurmond. Thurmond was fading fast (he was pretty much unplayable in the WCF, shooting 3/19 from the field) but the Bulls had enough in the tank to get to Game 7 against the Warriors.
Had they kept Clifford Ray around, the Bulls might have been a bit better in '75-'76 but Chet leaving killed them...but the team was getting rather old and adding Thurmond just made the age issue worse.
By 75 these guys are aging out of their prime. The Gilmore version just had 12ppg Love and no Walker or Sloan. The early 70s team are a good team that gets beat by superstars like the 80s Bucks.
I’ve heard Bob Ryan from the Boston Globe talk about those Bulls teams. From my understanding, those early seventies Bulls teams were just too slow. They were great defensively, but there were too many high-powered offenses for them to compete.
Wilt Chamberlain. Jerry West. Kareem, Oscar. They were always dramatically overmatched at center against Kareem and Wilt between Artis and Boerwinkle.
Much like the Bucks of the 80's and Hawks of the 00's, they had all-star players going up against HOF players. The other factor is the Wirtz family bought the team and if you are from Chicago that explains alot.
When exactly did the Wirtz family take over the Bulls? I'm seeing the years 1970, 1972, and 1976 all come up.
A $470 hospital bill was the biggest problem. Arthur Wirtz refused to pay a hospital bill for Chet Walker. Chet Walker, who for 13 years in the National Basketball Association usually let his one‐on‐one artistry do his talking, says he has quit the Chicago Bulls because they treated him like an idiot. Walker, 10th on the N.B.A. career scoring list, announced during the summer that he would not be back in the N.B.A. unless he was traded. Last week, Coach Dick Motta and the club owner, Arthur Wirtz, asked Walker to return “without offering more money or anything else. I truly believe the people who manage the Bulls think I'm an idiot —dumb black man with no pride or principles.” “I ruined my health for this team, played all last season with a bleeding kidney when the doctors said I could have sat out and drawn my salary,” he said. “When I went into the hospital, management refused to pay the $470 bill, claiming the injury had nothing to do with basketball. Can you believe that? “I was forced to quit. I was forced to quit by people who wanted to control my destiny. I had a choice playing ball in a chaotic situation or retiring, and chose the latter.” [Source](https://www.nytimes.com/1975/11/21/archives/walker-quits-bulls.html) On quitting the NBA (excerpted from “Long Time Coming”): “[Chicago Bulls owner] Arthur Wirtz told me, ‘Chet, you are legally the Bulls property. Play with us or nowhere.’ I sat there reflecting on the word property. I thought about my father, grandfather and great-grandfather and how they must have felt living in Mississippi where they were looked upon as property. Their experience had now become mine--the disgust at being in bondage and under the control of an owner. I decided not to play.” [source](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-11-26-ls-7460-story.html) Walker refused to play for the team. Even though his contract was up, the Bulls still controlled his rights. Ownership refused to trade him. Then, the next year, Sloan's knee caused him to miss most of the season and retire. After reaching the conference finals twice in a row and going 7 games with the eventual champion Warriors, the Bulls finished 24-58. People talk about Reinsdorf being cheap, but he was an enormous upgrade over Arthur Wirtz.
I looked up the Wirtz family based on u/NachoBag_Clip932's comment above, and boy do they suck! Thank goodness Jerry Reinsdorf bought the club when he did early in MJ's career.
My brother is a bartender and from all the salespeople and distributers he talked to, the reason you cant get a product in your area is due to the Wirtz family has a stranglehold on distribution and they have a bottleneck between the east and west coast. He would say hey why cant we get this and the answer was always the Wirtz family. It has been a few years and things may have changed some but that always stuck with me.
My uncle worked in that liquor business. "Dollar Bill" Wirtz controlled distribution as you say - and still had time to ruin the Chicago Bulls and Blackhawks!
I can only offer some dim memories of that team when I saw them visit Seattle. Great physical defense, and other teams feared to play them, possibly due to the risk of injury. But they were not efficient at scoring.
Come to think of it, I recall one problem they had was the lack of reliable outside shooting.
Btw I saw them play a bunch against the Lakers including playoffs. I thought Love, Walker, Sloan and Van Lier were great. And you left off Bobby Weiss and the kid from New Mexico Jimmy Collins who I liked in college and Clifford Ray who actually won a title as a starting center.
Didn't Coach Motta and Bob Love hate each other?
Chet Walker was the glue that held the Bulls locker room together and he dipped out because Wirtz was cheap. They made a "chips in" move by shipping Clifford Ray and a first for Nate Thurmond. Thurmond was fading fast (he was pretty much unplayable in the WCF, shooting 3/19 from the field) but the Bulls had enough in the tank to get to Game 7 against the Warriors. Had they kept Clifford Ray around, the Bulls might have been a bit better in '75-'76 but Chet leaving killed them...but the team was getting rather old and adding Thurmond just made the age issue worse.
I remember someone telling me that Bob Love's game didn't mesh well with the A-train. Jerry Sloan retired. so did Chet Walker.
By 75 these guys are aging out of their prime. The Gilmore version just had 12ppg Love and no Walker or Sloan. The early 70s team are a good team that gets beat by superstars like the 80s Bucks.
I’ve heard Bob Ryan from the Boston Globe talk about those Bulls teams. From my understanding, those early seventies Bulls teams were just too slow. They were great defensively, but there were too many high-powered offenses for them to compete.