The Rising Stars game on Friday night was supposed to be the welcome to Chicago moment.
The official tip-off of the All-Star Weekend, with the host city opening up its arms to the NBA world.
Who could have guessed that a disgruntled Bulls fan base would hijack the show hours earlier?
During the Friday morning episode of ESPN’s “First Take,’’ the program brought Bulls guard Zach LaVine onto the set for the live interview, and co-host Max Kellerman made the mistake of uttering a name from the Bulls front office.
Any name would have set the crowd off, but it was actually a question about if LaVine had confidence that vice president of basketball operations John Paxson could bring more talented players to the roster to help out LaVine.