During the 1990’s, few tickets in sports were harder to find than Chicago Bulls tickets. The Bulls were sports and even cultural icons, and their following was as large as any sports team in history. They won six championships, and the names of Jordan and Pippen still echo in the Windy City years later.

After that all-time nucleus was broken up, the Bulls expectedly struggled mightily for awhile. However, they’ve slowly been building another core of great players, and the current Bulls are beginning to look like a team that could be a threat to come out of the Eastern Conference and into the NBA Finals. Below we’ll take a look at what needs to happen for Chicago to see another historic run.

The first “requirement" is that the Eastern Conference must maintain its level of play at the current mediocre level. Unlike the powerful Western Conference, the East is almost devoid of true power teams. Most experts agree that the main contenders are the Pistons and the Heat, but each of them has serious holes to either fill or cover up if they’re going to make a run in the playoffs. The Pistons are old and injured, and the Heat are not nearly what they were last year without Dwyane Wade, who established himself as perhaps the premier player in the NBA during last year’s title run.

Therefore, the Bulls appear to have as good a chance as anyone else to win three rounds in the playoffs. They’re young, they’re fast, they’re loaded with athletes and they play great defense. These are all not only reasons that Chicago Bulls tickets are once again in high demand, but they are qualities that will present big-time problems to either the Pistons or the Heat in a seven-game series.

Secondly, the Bulls’ internal leadership must come to the forefront, as this intangible quality is vital to any team. The biggest offseason acquisition in the NBA last summer was the Bulls’ signing of C Ben Wallace. Everyone knows that Wallace is a beast in the paint, and that even at a somewhat-advanced age, he can still run opposing centers into the ground over the course of a game with his energy.

Now is also the time that Wallace needs to justify his contract with his championship-bred leadership ability. Other than Wallace and P.J. Brown, this is still a young team without much in the way of playoff battle scars. Anyone who’s ever been there will tell you that there’s no substitute for playoff experience, and the Bulls will need Wallace’s guidance and inspiration when they inevitably face adversity in the postseason.

In terms of the overall outlook, it’s anyone’s game in the Eastern Conference. If the Bulls can get hot at the right time, if Wallace can provide that leadership and the Bulls’ young guns can hit their shots with regularity, then Chicago Bulls tickets could once again be a chance to see a team appear in the NBA Finals.