Chicago Sports Weekend Poll: Chicago's Next Champion

Bulls have the best player in the NBA, the best coach in the NBA, are incredibly young for their experience and talent levels, and are legitimately 12 deep in a condensed schedule. I don’t think there is any team since MJ’s Bulls (maybe Shaq’s Fakers) that could boast something like that. I think that the majority of the Bulls’ players would either be Starters or 6th Men on most of the other NBA teams. With the grueling schedule, the Bulls have probably their best title chance since MJ’s Final Shot.

I haven’t watched too much Hawks, but they’re #2 in points in the West, behind only modern nemesis Vancouver. If SCH is to be believed, the Hawks have the best Top 6 in the NHL, and they have some of the most talented, if mismatched, defensemen around. I know that SCH is prone to overstatement where the Hawks are concerned, but they’ve still got their core of Kaner, Tazer, Sharpie, Hossa, and Keith, the core of the Championship team.

The Sox and Cubs are years and years away with their horrid contracts and dearth of young talent.

Bears probably had a year or two of Playoff-caliber play before the D is gone. I’m not sure if they’re Championship-caliber yet, but in the NFL, if you can make the Playoffs, you have a chance (unlike the other 3 majors).

But I really do think both the Hawks and Bulls have a legit shot at winning it all this year. The NHL is getting ripped apart by injuries and the Hawk have managed to stay healthy (knock on wood) and still have a deep team that can roll 4 lines at any time. And the Bulls have one of the best starting 5 in the league and the bench mob is clearly better then most teams starters this year, so it’s going to be tough to beat them in a 7 game series with the shortened season.