Devil in the details for Bulls

The good times are rolling for the Bulls.

With 24 games remaining in this regular season, the Bulls have as many victories as in each of the past two seasons.

The Bulls are in contention for the best record in the NBA East. They have a charismatic superstar in Derrick Rose. Their rookie head coach Tom Thibodeau is a real find.

Yet one particular four-letter word represents a caution flag for the Bulls:

D-u-k-e.

Yes, the legendary college basketball program coached by the legendary Chicago native Mike Krzyzewski.

Fans of basketball schools around here have enough reason to dislike the Blue Devils and now Bulls fans might have reason to join them.

To be honest, I’m not sure what I’m about to say isn’t trivial and will have no bearing on the Bulls. But it’s just too quirky to ignore.

I started thinking about this all the way back in 2004 when the Bulls selected Duke products Luol Deng and Chris Duhon in the same NBA draft.

The concern lingered under the surface until this season when Carlos Boozer, another former Dukie, joined Deng in the Bulls’ starting lineup.

So, how could all this dampen the ecstasy permeating the Bulls?

Well, there’s this little matter of how many Blue Devils went on to win an NBA championship, how many who were starters on their title team, and how many played in college during the Krzyzewski era.

So many Blue Devils made it to the NBA during the past 20 years alone: Grant Hill, Christian Laettner, Shane Battier, Mike Dunleavy and Bobby Hurley among them.

A few like Duhon, Elton Brand and Jay Williams passed through the Berto Center.

However, I couldn’t think of any Dukies who won NBA titles, which was surprising because Duke players won so many national championships before matriculating into pro ball.

Only now, with Deng and Boozer starting for the Bulls, did I become curious enough to Google “duke players with NBA championships.”

The findings were startling. The best I can tell is that only two Duke players have gone on to win an NBA title and only one played for Krzyzewski.

The first was Jeff Mullins with Golden State in 1975, before Krzyzewski’s time at Duke; the last was Danny Ferry with San Antonio in 2004, the only one since Coach K has been in Durham.

Mullins and Ferry weren’t even starters on their NBA championship teams.

One of the country’s best universities and one of the game’s best coaches apparently conspired to prepare so-called student-athletes for everything in life but winning NBA titles.

This might be mere coincidence or bad luck or a jinx or simply something that doesn’t translate from the water in college to the champagne in the pros.

Whatever the reason, Duke players have been paid a lot to play basketball, but their money hasn’t bought them a particular ring that is every pro’s goal.

To be honest, I’m not a great researcher, so if you can find other Dukies who belong on the list of NBA champions, please let me know. A good guess is that you won’t.

Today let’s assume Deng and Boozer are trying to double in one year the number of Dukies who have won NBA titles over the past six decades.

The Bulls are on such a roll that maybe they can, but for now beware of that single four-letter word of caution.

D-u-k-e.

mimrem@dailyherald.com