Chicago Bulls’ season saved by the unlikeliest of heroes in win over Raptors

When I was 12 years old, my father took me to my first Chicago Bears game, only it was in Minneapolis against the Minnesota Vikings. It was far from sweet home Chicago. I happened to be that obnoxious little kid at an away game, screaming at the home team and poking fun at their misfortunes.

A couple of drunk Vikings fans in front of us just about had enough of my hollering, “Vikings suck!” when they turned around and nearly said something, only to see my father (an American record-holder in powerlifting) standing next to me, in a cutoff t-shirt, smirking.

“This is gonna be a long game, man,” the one Vikings fan said to his friend.

Wednesday night, Chicago Bulls guard Damar DeRozan saw something similar happen to his daughter, Diar. Except, this was on a national stage, in a win-or-go-home matchup on the road against the higher-seeded Toronto Raptors.

Every single time a Raptors player would step to the free throw line to take their shot, Diar DeRozan would proceed to scream at the top of her lungs. Even those watching the television broadcast could hear the high-pitched distraction. At one point, ESPN’s commentating crew even made a comment and started zeroing in on her with the camera crew.

It went from being cute, to being hysterical, to being a game-changing aspect of this game.

DeMar DeRozan’s daughter, Diar, played a huge factor in the Chicago Bulls’ play-in tournament victory

The Raptors went on to miss a whopping 18 free throws over the course of the game. The Bulls would become the first 10th seed ever to win their play-in tournament game, beating Toronto 109-105.

And, love her or hate her (Raptors fans probably err on the latter side), Diar’s vocal cords made an impact.

The Raptors went from a team which made over 78 percent of its free throws throughout the regular season, to finishing just 50 percent from the charity stripe in their most important game of the season.

You could call it an off game, a bad game, an anomaly — whatever you want to call it, go ahead and give it a label.

But, Bulls fans know exactly how they will remember this one.

It was The Diar DeRozan Game.

Raptors stars Pascal Siam and O.G. Anunoby shot 77.4 and 83.8 percent from the free throw line, respectively, throughout the 82-game regular season this past year. In Wednesday’s play-in game, they shot a combined 8-for-19, good for just 42.1 percent.

On a night where the Bulls were dead in the water, all it took was some good defense, resilience, and the voice of an angel … or something like that.

On behalf of Bulls fans everywhere, thank you, Ms. Diar. Dad owes you something real nice.