O’Donnell: Cleansed, hungry roster enabling Donovan to coach the Bulls again
SURE THE NCAA TOURNAMENTS are picking up more championship speed this week, and Major League Baseball's opening weekend is nudging the attention frame.
But around Chicago, the streaking Bulls are suddenly a rising topic of sports chitchat.
A key reason for the late-season kick: Billy Donovan and staff are finally getting to coach again.
A major accelerant is that Zach LaVine is gone. “'Z' Albratross” and the fumes of his laughably imposting max contract are now roiling the air in Sacramento.
Think that hasn't introduced a whole lot of cleared-channel thinking into the current CHI locker room?
After a few weeks of revamp following LaVine's overdue exit, Donovan's new order blew through a 10-4 awakening. The streak was capped by Josh Giddey's FedExed 3 Thursday night that brought down LeBron James and the fishtailing Lakers.
FOR DEEPEST STUDENTS of the franchise, its most memorable late-season flip came at the end of the 1976-77 season. Ed Badger's new regime opened that schedule a ghastly 2-14.
Two months later — with a core of Artis Gilmore, Mickey Johnson (of then-Aurora College), Wilbur Holland, Scott May and Norm Van Lier coalescing — they finished with a 20-4 run.
(Sports Illustrated asked Van Lier if he thought the team's inspiration might have come from the death of Mayor Richard J. Daley in December 1976. The remarkably good-natured Van Lier, nearing the end of his NBA line, played along with the civically cosmic inquiry.)
BADGER'S BRIGADE THEN had the misfortune of drawing title-bound Bill Walton and Portland in a compact best-of-three miniseries to open the playoffs.
Both teams held service at home, and the transcendent choreography of Dr. Jack Ramsay's Blazers prevailed 2-1.
Walton later said: “That was the most intensely fun week of basketball in my life. Those Bulls deserved a longer playoffs run.”
Donovan's reborn need some favorable pairings to make any kind of dent in their postseason. Ducking Donovan Mitchell, Max Strus and Cleveland as long as possible would help.
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THE ANNOUNCEMENT THAT DOUG BRUNO is retiring as head coach of the DePaul women's basketball team brings to an end one of the great sideline careers in Chicago basketball history.
Bruno, now 74, was first affiliated with DePaul as a Ray Meyer recruit in 1968. His critical professional link came seven years later when the North Side university hired Gene Sullivan as athletic director and Sullivan cast Bruno as his ace No. 2.
In the wake of Title IX, Bruno — among other things — was charged with the development of the school's women's basketball program.
HE DEPARTED in 1978 TO COACH RITA EASTERLING and mates on the Chicago Hustle in the pioneering Women's Professional Basketball League.
Two years later, he rejoined Sullivan to take over the men's program at Loyola. In the 1985 NCAA tourney, they struck gold when Alfredrick Hughes and Co. led the Ramblers to the Sweet Sixteen.
In 1988 Bruno began his uninterrupted 36-season run guiding the DePaul women. His 786-402 mark was good enough for the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. He has said he never expects to be summoned to the Naismith Hall.
BRUNO SUFFERED A STROKE LAST YEAR and missed the 2024-25 season. He and wife, Patti, were prominent for the night honoring Dave Corzine at Wintrust Arena in February.
He looked great, and talking to him was talking to classic Doug Bruno — friendly, engaging and the owner of an incredibly upbeat aura.
Said Corzine: “Doug and Gene Sullivan have been two of my all-time favorite people in the game. Any time I felt like (bad), talking to either of them for a few minutes was the perfect tonic. They made you feel a whole lot more positive about the world.”
Bruno will continue with DePaul as a special assistant to athletic director DeWayne Peevy.
STREET-BEATIN':
Jim Nantz told a Scottish golf magazine that he'll retire from sportscasting following the 2036 Masters. He will be 76 years old and that would be his 51st call from Augusta. Corollary truth is that his decision to depart NCAA men's basketball play-by-play has been a win-win-win for CBS/Turner, the NCAA and America. Ian Eagle is refreshing, less “country club” and owns a much more organic wit. …
He will deny it publicly until carp fishing in the Calumet River is banned, but Dan McNeil is trying to generate a record fourth comeback on Chicago sports talk radio. Following the ouster of Dan Bernstein at “The Score” last week, McNeil was accepting an array of interview requests that would make Elon Musk look shy. By his own admission, “Danny Mac” is a very different duck. …
A bleak Chicago thoroughbred racing season opened at Hawthorne Race Course Thursday. Racing secretary Dave White was all out to draw 53 horses into a seven-race card. Base Opening Day purses totaled — totaled — $99,000. (A single allowance race at Churchill, Saratoga and other A-list tracks is worth more.) Credible insiders wonder if the Stickney spa will survive its scheduled 2025 season. …
The L.A. Sparks announced that Candace Parker's No. 3 will be retired at halftime of a game vs. her hometown Sky on June 29. That's a long way from her superstar start at Naperville Central. Triggering motivator Allen Iverson is expected to attend. Now if only the supremely gifted Ms. Parker would show a little more joy at the studio desk of CBS's B-team on the current NCAA men's tourney. …
Influential Ohio state leaders are trying to generate a $600M public pot to help the Browns get their new stadium rolling in southwest suburban Brook Park. George McCaskey and current masters of Halas Hall can only hope a similar funding gift somehow takes wing out of Springfield. (Having former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel as the Buckeye State's new lieutenant governor doesn't hurt.) …
And the great Taylor Bell, on the White Sox's gray 8-1 Opening Day win over the visiting Angels: “Is that a loss for Nashville?”
Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears each week on Sunday and Wednesday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.