The Chicago Bulls and their terrible luck with point guards

From Jay Williams to Lonzo Ball, the Chicago Bulls have had the most rotten luck when it comes to point guards.

© Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

Just when the Chicago Bulls get a player who they believe would be the point guard that would lead them to glory, something goes wrong. The recent announcement of Lonzo Ball going through another knee surgery—his third with the Bulls—brings to mind the team’s bad luck when it comes to finding a reliable point guard in the last two decades.

Jay Williams

After an incredible college career at Duke, Jay Williams was poised to be the Bulls’ savior at point guard. He was taken with the second overall pick in the 2002 NBA Draft and had a promising rookie season, averaging 9.5 points per game and 4.7 assists. All that came to an end, though, on June 19, 2003.

On that day, Williams got into a motorcycle accident that nearly cost him his life. He suffered serious injuries that included a fractured pelvis, a severed main nerve in his leg, and three torn ligaments in his left knee. Williams would never play a game in the NBA again, and is now working as a respected basketball commentator.

Derrick Rose

Then, of course, there’s Derrick Rose. The youngest league MVP in NBA history, Rose was set to bring the franchise back to its glory days. With his unparalleled athleticism and fearlessness, Rose had the potential to be one of the greatest point guards in NBA history. Unfortunately, his career was sidelined with an ACL tear in his left knee which he suffered in Game 1 of the 2012 NBA Playoffs.

Although he would return, Rose’s career was never the same, and he was eventually traded to the Knicks in 2016. Rose is still in the NBA, but his career has been shadowed by injuries and unmet expectations.