Chicago Bulls fans are entering dangerous territory

The longer the Chicago Bulls play this poorly, the tougher it will be for fans to recover.

To say this season has been a monumental disappointment for the Chicago Bulls would be a gross understatement. The team is currently 9-27, has won consecutive games one time, and have lost to the Golden State Warriors — the worst team in the entire NBA — twice. Now, they are running the risk of experiencing perhaps their most important loss of the season — the fans.

While the season has been a disaster if you ask most Bulls fans, it is not a surprise, unfortunately. Most reasonable fans, who looked at the situation objectively at the start of the year, likely saw this coming. In fact, anyone who witnessed the beginning of the Jim Boylen era last year probably saw this coming.

However, even the fans who saw this coming seem to have given the team the benefit of the doubt and were willing to throw their support behind the team.

As the losses have mounted almost as high as the excuses and empty promises, fans are starting to show their displeasure in a way that should concern owner Jerry Reinsdorf.

You see, players may not like it, but when fans boo to show their displeasure, at least you know they care. They boo because they’re not happy with what they see and expect better. Once the fans stop booing, it likely means they’ve stopped caring because they no longer expect better. They’ve simply resigned themselves to the fact that a substandard product will be trotted out each night. This is when apathy sets in.

And that’s just about where Bulls fans are right now. Since 2010, the Bulls have ranked No. 1 in total attendance, except for last year when they were No. 2 behind the Philadelphia 76ers. This season, they are No. 11, and with each passing game, the numbers seem to be dwindling.

On the positive side, Reinsdorf losing money might be the only thing that motivates him to make meaningful changes to the coaching staff and front office. On the negative side, once a fan base becomes apathetic, it becomes exponentially more difficult to bring them back into the fold. it would take signing a marquee free agent or drafting a sure-fire superstar to get fans interested again in the team.

The longer apathy has to set in, the more difficult it is to shake. Therefore, it would be in the owner’s best interest to make a move sooner rather than later.

Whether that happens remains to be seen, but if the Chicago White Sox can be looked at as a guide (Reinsdorf’s other team), fans shouldn’t be optimistic, as he seems content talking a big game without actually making any moves.