Chicago Bulls: 5 most polarizing figures of the 2010’s

2. Power Forward Carlos Boozer (2010-2014)

After all of the free agent dominos fell, the Bulls felt like they had to do something. Bulls fans were upset. They had missed out on almost every big name available to them in 2009 and 2010. At one point, there was a slim chance that Chicago could land LeBron James or Carmelo Anthony — maybe even Dwyane Wade.

Neither of those three ended up a Bull, and the same can be said for all of the other premier names.

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Enter: Carlos Boozer.

The Bulls signed Boozer to what was a monster 5-year, $80 million contract back in 2010. At first, most fans were pretty happy with the signing. Chicago desperately needed a true starter at power forward, and they got a guy who could score in Boozer. He was coming off a year in which he averaged nearly 20 points and over 11 boards per game.

In Chicago, Boozer definitely had his moments. He never averaged the production he put up in Utah, but Boozer was sufficient on the offensive end.

The problem was, though, that Boozer couldn’t even spell the word ‘defense.’ He was so bad on that end of the floor that Thibodeau ended up benching him in the fourth quarter of many games in favor of backup Taj Gibson. In crunch time, there was not a single fan who trusted Boozer on the defensive end.

After a couple of years, most fans were shouting it from the rooftops: “Amnesty!”

Boozer’s negatives seemingly outweighed the positives after a while, and fans were done with him. He was no longer wanted in Chicago — and after four seasons with the Bulls, he played his final NBA season with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2014-2015.