The 45 Most Important Players to the Chicago Bulls Dynasty - #24 Dickey Simpkins

Dickey Simpkins
Let's just be real here. If you were an impressionable youth during the Bulls dynastic run, you loved Dickey Simpkins. Not really as a basketball player, but anytime you heard his name, it had to make you chuckle a little bit. It's not just the Dickey either, as Simpkins is a very fun last name as well.

On the court, he was less fun than his name, but he was good enough to stick around for a while. He was drafted in the first round of the 1994 NBA Draft (21st overall)  out of Providence. During the Bulls good years, he was nothing more than a power forward coming off the bench for about ten minutes a game.

During the 1995-96 season, he played in 60 games, and even started 12, but was not good enough to make the Bulls active roster for the playoffs. The next year he played in 48 games, but again, the Bulls denied him a spot on the active roster for the playoffs. It's a bit of a shame considering his beautiful three-point shot.

Before the beginning of the 1997-98 season, his hopes for playing for a Bulls championship team in the playoffs seemed to die as he was traded to the Golden State Warriors in exchange for Scott Burrell. He would continue in his same role for the Warriors as he had with the Bulls, playing in some games, sitting in others, and not given the opportunity to truly make an impact. In February of 1998, the Warriors mercifully released him, and Dickey Simpkins redemption story began.

A couple weeks after being released by the Warriors, Simpkins signed back on with the Bulls. Simpkins showed a new fire as he set or tied career bests with 3.7 points, 0.8 assists, 0.2 steals, 0.1 blocks, while turning the ball over just 0.6 times per game. He even put up a career high 17 points in a game against the Washington Wizards. With this new Dickey Simpkins, the Bulls had no choice but to keep him on the active roster for the playoffs.

And Simpkins delivered, as the Bulls went 11-2 in games that Simpkins got on the court. His best games were when he put in 19 minutes in a three-point win against the Nets and 13 minutes in a win against the Pacers. The Bulls would cruise to a third straight title, and Simpkins was finally able to contribute in the playoff run.

The following season would be his best statistically as he started in 35 games, and tied for the league lead in games played with 50 during the strike shortened 1999 season. He would continue his career with the Bulls through the 1999-2000 season before playing a year overseas and then playing a single game for the Atlanta Hawks in 2001.

I really struggled placing Simpkins on this list. Three championships is tough to argue with, but he only played one year in the playoffs, and he didn't really make any meaningful contributions that year. In the end, it seemed like the Bulls would have been fine finding someone else to take those regular season minutes, so I have him below some guys who only have one championship but made bigger impacts in the playoffs.

When his basketball days were over, he did some broadcasting for ESPN and according to Wikipedia, he is currently a scout for the Charlotte Hornets, but according to his Twitter account, it looks like he is broadcasting for Big East games. Either way, if you'd like to play like Dickey Simpkins, well, boy do I have a treat for you.

Previous Entries:

#45 - Jack Haley

#44 - Rory Sparrow

#43 - Chuck Nevitt

#42 - David Vaughn

#41 - Jo Jo English

#40 - Ricky Blanton

#39 - Matt Steigenga

#38 - Joe Courtney

#37 - Keith Booth

#36 - Mark Randall

#35 - Ed Nealy

#34 - Rusty LaRue

#33 - Corey Williams

#32 - Joe Kleine

#31 - John Salley

#30 - James Edwards

#29 - Robert Parish

#28 - Darrell Walker

#27 - Rodney McCray

#26 - Dennis Hopson

#25 - Trent Tucker

The 45 Most Important Players to the Chicago Bulls Dynasty - #30 James Edwards

James Edwards
James Edwards made me feel like a bad NBA fan. Edwards may be the Bulls ideal third center. They loved super experienced guys at the end of their careers who could just provide veteran leadership off the court as they knew their on the court contributions probably weren't going to blow anyone away. What should blow you away is James Edwards played 19 seasons in the NBA. He was primarily a starter for his first 14 years in the league, because James Edwards was pretty damn awesome.

After starting his career in 1977, he joined up with the Bulls before his final season in 1995-96. Unfortunately, before I can get into his Bulls tenure, I have to address the elephant in the room. James Edwards was also a part of the Bad Boy Pistons. Due to the Pistons rule on this list, he must rank as low as justifiably possible. But he was probably the least offensive player on those teams, so I can at least be somewhat objective on Edwards' contributions.

For the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls, Edwards played in just 28 games and failed to crack 100 points on the season. But he was a third center so not a whole lot was expected of him. The Bulls had a tendency to bring in grizzled veteran big men just to Michael Jordan wouldn't immediately try to bury them and ruin their confidence. With a player that had been around as long as Edwards, there was already some respect built in between him and Jordan, so even though I'm sure Jordan talked shit to him; it wasn't nearly as bad as he was to some other teammates.

His highlight during the regular season was probably a February 2nd game against the team that originally drafted him, the Los Angeles Lakers, where he played 23 minutes, put up 12 points (shooting 67% from the field), 3 rebounds, an assist, and a steal. Starting Center, Luc Longley, was unable to play during this game, and Edwards stepped up to provide some points off the bench.

Edwards also played in six playoff games, but his most notable contribution was a one trillion in an overtime loss in Game 3 against the Knicks. Outside of that, he just played some garbage time in games that were already decided.

But Edwards is a 3-time NBA Champion, although two of those should have asterisks since he was part of the Pistons. He spent most of his time being a key contributor, although he always fell short of All-Star status. Still, the guy played 19 seasons in the NBA, and you really can't find much information about what he is up to today. Considering how many of the players from the era turned out, that can probably be counted as a success.

Previous Entries:

#45 - Jack Haley

#44 - Rory Sparrow

#43 - Chuck Nevitt

#42 - David Vaughn

#41 - Jo Jo English

#40 - Ricky Blanton

#39 - Matt Steigenga

#38 - Joe Courtney

#37 - Keith Booth

#36 - Mark Randall

#35 - Ed Nealy

#34 - Rusty LaRue

#33 - Corey Williams

#32 - Joe Kleine

#31 - John Salley

The 45 Most Important Players to the Chicago Bulls Dynasty - #34 Rusty LaRue

Rusty LaRue
Let me just start out by saying that Rusty LaRue may be the greatest athlete on this list. That includes Jordan, Pippen, hell, even Bill Wennington, it is really tough to make an argument that somebody else was a better all-around athlete than Rusty LaRue.

LaRue went to Wake Forest and played basketball for four years. That's a pretty nice resume right there. Oh yeah, he also played football for four years, including starting at quarterback for his final two seasons. And just because he could, he also played baseball for a season before he decided to focus on only being a badass in two major college sports. The dude was a freak.

Since he didn't light the world on fire as a college basketball player who moonlighted as a starting college football quarterback, he went undrafted in 1996, but he now had time to focus on one singular sport in basketball and started to hone his skills. He did not make the NBA in the 1996-97 season, but he showed enough for a preseason invite from the defending champion Chicago Bulls before the 1997-98 season.

Although he was released on the eve of the season, he was brought back just two weeks later and would remain with the team through the end of the season. LaRue didn't earn a ton of playing time, as he appeared in just 14 games, although he did average ten minutes per game during that time. He didn't do anything particularly noteworthy during that time but did contribute in a variety of ways. And unfortunately, it wasn't enough to get him any playing time during the 1998 playoffs. But was it enough to get him a highlight video from a random game against the Celtics? You bet your ass that it was enough to get him a highlight video from a random game against the Celtics.

Check-in! Defense! Layup! Long 2-Pointer! Mid-Range Jumper! This highlight video is lit.

But yeah, my claim that he was a better athlete than Michael Jordan may have to be walked back a bit. My claim that he was a better athlete than Bill Wennington stands though.

Previous Entries:

#45 - Jack Haley

#44 - Rory Sparrow

#43 - Chuck Nevitt

#42 - David Vaughn

#41 - Jo Jo English

#40 - Ricky Blanton

#39 - Matt Steigenga

#38 - Joe Courtney

#37 - Keith Booth

#36 - Mark Randall

#35 - Ed Nealy

The 45 Most Important Players to the Chicago Bulls Dynasty - #45 Jack Haley

I just read "The Jordan Rules," Sam Smith's story of the 1990-1991 Chicago Bulls season that primarily focuses on Michael Jordan, but through nearly 400 pages, everybody gets a fair amount of ink. It made me long for those Chicago Bulls glory days, so I am going to go back and rank every player's contribution to the Bulls six NBA Titles during the 1990s.

Jack Haley
Somebody had to come in at 45, and just like many other roles that most would not have wanted to take, I feel like Jack would embrace his role in kicking off this series. Jack Haley spent ten years in the NBA. Well, okay, not really. He started in 1989 and ended in 1998, but he had some stops at other leagues in between there. His best work was during his first stint with the New Jersey Nets. In the 89-90 season, he started 26 games for the Nets and averaged six points and five rebounds per game. He also had less illustrious stints with the Spurs and Lakers.

Although it may not be greatly remembered, Haley also had two stints with the Bulls as he got there before they started winning championships as he was drafted in 1987 and played for the Bulls in 1988-89. He was claimed on waivers by the Nets in 1989 but came back to the Bulls for the 95-96 season.

His impact on the court was about as small as it could get. He played in a grand total of one game. He played seven minutes but did manage to put up six shots and two free throws. I have not been able to confirm that Jordan made him sit on the bench for the rest of the year because he was jealous of anybody getting up that many shots in that little of time.

But Haley made the most of his experience on the bench as he was an enthusiastic cheerleader for the team and provided a friend to Dennis Rodman which is not an easy job to do.

Unfortunately, Jack Haley passed away in 2015 due to heart disease. He was only 51 years old. He's one of those guys that seemed like a great guy and you never really heard anything bad about him.

I don't want to end on a sad note, so just in case you forgot how awesome Jack Haley was, here's some photos to help jog your memory.

I know what you're thinking. There is no way there is a better picture than that. Oh, but there is.

I know that now you are thinking, that this is the photo that cannot be topped, but it was.

Perfection.