The Chicago Bulls lost to the New York Knicks on Tuesday night, and in the process, produced one of the more cringeworthy plays of the NBA season.
On the first possession of the second quarter, with the Bulls trailing by nine, Chicago forward Torrey Craig corralled a loose ball with nothing but open court in front of him and two teammates running right behind.
As he approached the basket, Craig threw the ball off the backboard in what he intended to be an alley-oop to himself. Unfortunately, Andre Drummond had other ideas.
The veteran big man, who was trailing the play, assumed the pass was for him and rose up to try to dunk the ball. What resulted was both players missing the dunk and Chicago somehow getting no points out of the embarrassing sequence.
The Bulls wound up losing 128-117 to fall to 37-42 on the season.
Oh man, we have the Shaqtin moment of the season
Torrey Craig just tried to throw it to himself for a dunk off the backboard on a break. Drummond thought it was for him…did not end well pic.twitter.com/QjkphNLa3c
— Will Gottlieb (@Will_Gottlieb) April 10, 2024
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“I just wanted to create some excitement and try to give us the edge,” Craig said postgame. “Try to create some momentum for us. Obviously, I didn’t know Drum was going to jump after it with me. So it was a miscommunication, or a misinterpretation or whatever. But at the end of the day, I’ve just got to dunk the ball or lay it up. So, I’ll take the blame for that.”
The Bulls have already clinched a spot in the Play-In Tournament, so at least they have games beyond the regular season to look forward to.
However, for a franchise that has made the playoffs only twice in the previous eight seasons, Craig and Drummond’s mishap was a painful reminder of how far Chicago has to go to become a legitimate team.