5 NBA legends you forgot played for the Chicago Bulls

2. Dwyane Wade — 2016-17 season

It was supposed to be a homecoming for Dwyane Wade. He was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago. He grew up idolizing Michael Jordan as he used basketball to get through what was a tough childhood. He went to high school in Oak Lawn, a suburb of Chicago. His life was built in the Chicago area, so returning seemed like a fairy tale.

His actual run in Chicago was anything but. He was still averaging 18 points per season, but he was trying to lift up a team that was on the playoff bubble. Wade was used to playing on championship rosters, and he was coming to a team in transition. Joakim Noah and Derrick Rose left for the New York Knicks, which really put the team into a transition that Wade wasn’t ready for.

Wade originally signed a two-year deal with the Bulls, but the Bulls ended up buying out the final season of his deal. It clearly wasn’t working, and the Bulls had to start the rebuild. Wade wasn’t going to be a good player to start a rebuild with at his advanced age, so it made the most sense to part ways.

The deal made perfect sense on paper. Wade could be a star the Bulls needed. It just didn’t work. It happens sometimes. Wade just lost a lot of his production, and things got worse with the Cleveland Cavaliers the next season. He eventually got traded to the Miami Heat, and we all just pretend he spent his entire career on South Beach.