5 NBA legends you forgot played for the Chicago Bulls

5. Charles Oakley — 1985-88 seasons and 2001-02 season

Charles Oakley is known as the tough man in the New York Knicks lineup in the 90s. He brought an aggressiveness that couldn’t go unnoticed in a fun era of Knicks basketball. Was it a championship run for the Knicks? No, but comparing it to the past 20 years, this was the most fun Knicks fans had in a long time.

Later in his career, Charles Oakley ended up moving from team to team before retiring at the age of 40. Before he even went to the Knicks, Oakley started his career with the Chicago Bulls. He was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers and immediately traded to the Bulls. He was growing with the Bulls, averaging a double-double by his second season. He was a rebounding machine in an era where you had to get a little nasty to come out with the ball.

Michael Jordan reportedly hated the idea of trading Charles Oakley, who in 1988 could have been one of the core pieces to a championship roster. They ended up adding Bill Cartwright, a veteran who ended up being the team’s starting center for three of their championships. Horace Grant was becoming one of the great power forwards in the league, and the Bulls needed to play around with pieces.

Oakley returned for a final stint with the Bulls in 2001, where he was mainly a bench player and veteran presence. He held onto his career for two more seasons after that before retiring after a year with the Houston Rockets.