The Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers don’t make many trades together. The two teams have only made seven trades together in their franchise histories and only one from 1983. That deal was in 2016 when the Bulls sent Jose Calderon, a 2018 second-round pick, and a 2019 second-round pick to the Lakers in exchange for Ater Majok.
The question is, why do these two teams not make trades with each other? There’s no definite reason, but Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report believes that it has to do with Chicago’s ownership not wanting to help LeBron James, as the GOAT debate between him and Michael Jordan has gotten stronger and stronger over the years.
He discussed this with Jovan Buha of The Athletic during a recent edition of the “Buha’s Block” podcast. (H/t Farbod Esnaashari of Bulls News)
“Go look at the transaction logs of Lakers-Chicago,” Pincus said. “They don’t make trades together. The last one was like during when the Lakers were rebuilding and were terrible. The Bulls dumped an older Spanish point guard on them…I think their owner doesn’t want LeBron infringing upon Michael’s legacy,…The intel is that they’re just not gonna help LeBron.”
Are the Bulls just being petty? And is that a good thing?