The new-look Chicago Bulls are top of the Eastern Conference standings and bona fide title contenders again for the first time since the 1990s heyday of Jordan and Pippen

To be a Chicago Bulls fan over the past two decades is to somewhat know the true pain of injuring a strong knee or a healthy hand. It takes time to adjust to the idea that the body could be anything less than perfect. And when the mind eventually catches up, alas, it’s beyond frustrating.

The Bulls I grew up rooting for were so able. They were led by the shrewdest coach, the finest sidekick and the best player who ever lived. They beat back the Bad Boy Pistons, outran the Showtime Lakers and abused the New York Knicks while distinguishing themselves as the preeminent sports dynasty. As the Last Dance docuseries explicitly showed, the Bulls were a cultural force – one that not only put my overlooked hometown on the map, but made basketball the global game it is today.

But after the 1998 NBA championship, their sixth title in eight seasons, the Bulls’ decline came swiftly. Jerry Krause, the reviled general manager, blew up the team, and over the next five years this once-enviable franchise became one of the league’s worst. Some fight returned in the mid-aughts when hero marksman John Paxson took over as GM and more hope of a return to glory with it when Paxson selected future league MVP Derrick Rose with the top pick in the 2008 draft. But those teams were never as good as LeBron James’s Cavs and Heat teams. And then after 2017, the Bulls weren’t good at all.

This season, however, feels different. Familiar. Tingly. It began with modest expectations, and then four victories on the trot – albeit against teams that, like Chicago, missed the postseason a year ago. But then the Bulls’ streak extended to seven in 10 games. After a 10-point drubbing of Dallas for win No 8, Mavericks guard Tim Hardaway Jr finally called it. “All I can say is, the Bulls are back, man,” he asserted after the game.

The declaration, while flattering, was also a bit delusional. That the players on the other side of this compliment recognized as much was oddly steadying. “Eleven games into the season I don’t think you can say anybody’s back,” retorted Bulls guard Alex Caruso, “especially for the prestige of the Bulls. They won three championships in a row twice. Being back, that’s a big statement.”

But now almost halfway through the season it’s hard not to be carried away by the sight of the Bulls perched atop the Eastern Conference standings after nearly surpassing their win total from last year. What’s more, some of these victories have come at the expense of the Super Nets and the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks. Until a Sunday night loss to Dallas, Chicago were riding a nine-game winning streak– their longest in a decade. Two of those victories would come courtesy of consecutive DeMar DeRozan buzzer-beaters.