Despite being the team with the best record in the NBA, Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls failed to advance to the Finals bowing to the Miami Heat in Game 5 83-80 and losing in the Eastern Conference finals 4-1. But Rose considers this as a learning experience and vowed that they will improve and come back next season a much hungrier team.

After two seasons with 41 wins and first round playoff exits, the 2011 season seemed to be the Year of the Bull. Chicago ended the regular season with a 62-20 record to emerge as the league’s top team. Aside from that, the team had in their fold the league MVP in Derrick Rose and the Coach of the Year in Tom Thibodeau. But in the end, it was a disappointing finish to an otherwise outstanding season for the league’s youngest MVP and his band of Bulls.

If there is one player who understands the feeling it would have to be Lebron James, who is still searching for his first title. LBJ said that Rose has to learn to put his failures behind and be ready to take that challenge over and over again. Dwayne Wade, who won his first championship in 2006 with Miami alongside Shaquille O’ Neal, believes that Derrick Rose would only become better.

Analysts believe that Chicago-Miami has the potential to become a rivalry in the East. It remains to be seen whether the Bulls will become the Utah Jazz and the New York Knicks of the 1990s which are strong teams that did not win a title. Or will the Miami become the Detroit Pistons of the past.

Detroit behind Isiah Thomas and Bill Laimbeer eliminated Chicago for three consecutive years the Michael Jordan-Scottie Pippen led Bulls registered a sweep of the Pistons in the 1991 Conference Finals enroute to their first title.

Since the end of the era of His Airness, only once did the Chicago Bulls advance beyond the first round and that was in 2007, when they swept the defending champions Miami Heat but lost to the Pistons in six games. Only Luol Deng was the remnant of that team.

Since then the Bulls had undergone a major makeover in their quest for another title. First, they terminated Vinny Del Negro as coach and replaced him with Thibodeau. After failing to acquire Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh who decided to play for Miami, they opted for power forward Carlos Boozer and 7-footer Joakim Noah.

Derrick Rose emerged as one of the game’s top players in only his third season with averages of 25 points and 7.7 assists per game. Although he had a 23.4 points per game average in the series, he only had a 35 percent shooting percentage in the Finals and had a rough time against Lebron James and the Heat.

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