My June 28 column from CBS Chicago …
(CBS) So multitudinous were the Blackhawks fans swarming downtown Chicago on Friday morning that when the gates to Grant Park were opened to let them in, one of my Facebook friends said it looked like a scene out of “World War Z.”
Eat it up, Chicago.
After all, championship celebrations don’t come along like this every year. Except, of course, when they did. Friday’s raucous Blackhawks rally in Grant Park reminded me of Petrillo Band Shell parties past back when Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls turned trophy-hoisting into a summertime tradition.
With that in mind, I thought I’d take you on a trip down basketball memory lane today by sharing these fun Bulls moments from back in the heyday.
Rally No. 1: June 14, 1991
Even before the Bulls had won Game 5 in Los Angeles to clinch their first NBA Championship, politicians back in Chicago were already bickering about where to hold the championship parade.
Mayor Richard M. Daley wanted it held downtown. West Side aldermen, meanwhile, wanted it to go through their wards and past Chicago Stadium.
(Not surprisingly, Daley won.)
In L.A., where the Lakers had staged five championship parades during the 1980s, the Windy City bickering prompted Lakers guard Byron Scott to comment, “Those people are like rookies. It’s like a rookie when he first comes in the league, he doesn’t know how to accept being in the NBA. Those people don’t know how to accept being in the championship series. It’s all new to them. Of course they’re excited, and they have a right to be.”
Chicagoans also became championship parade vets, Byron.
Continue reading at CBSChicago.com …