Hawks vs. Bulls a rivalry worth watching

In the competitive world of big-time Chicago sports, all sorts of games are played within the games.

There are the White Sox against the Cubs, the Cubs against a goat, the Bears against mediocrity …

And currently the Blackhawks against the Bulls for winter supremacy.

Forget the NHL and NBA titles as the playoffs begin this week. As important from a purely local perspective is the subplot of how the Bulls and Hawks match up.

Think of Benny the Bull and Tommy Hawk wrestling in the middle of Madison Street or John Scott head-butting the Jordan statue.

Maybe Carlos Boozer will post up Duncan Keith, or Brent Seabrook will check Derrick Rose into the scorer's table, or Tom Thibodeau and Joel Quenneville will test each other at chess.

OK, so it won't be anything that silly. It'll be more like two marketing departments trying to dunk each other into a think tank.

After years of oblivion the Hawks played themselves back into this conversation, perhaps even moving ahead of the Bulls while winning the Stanley Cup last season.

The Hawks were the buzz of the town. They had the better team, the more attractive young players and overall the more likable franchise from top to bottom.

If the Hawks weren't ahead of the Bulls they at least pulled even, meaning they escaped Chicago's cellar while still behind the Bears, Cubs and White Sox.

This year, well, not so much.

The Hawks' have a couple problems sustaining mass popularity. One is that hockey still is sort of an unnatural act in the United States compared to basketball, and the other is that the NHL doesn't do much to help.

It wasn't always this way. The Hawks were winter wonders from the time Bobby Hull arrived in 1957 until Michael Jordan joined the Bulls in 1984.

Then it was no contest. The Bulls were more exciting, right up to winning six NBA titles while Bill Wirtz allowed the Hawks to deteriorate to nearly minor league status.

The Hawks couldn't rally ahead even after Jordan left and the Bulls fell into their own disrepair.

However — Bingo! — last year at this time the Hawks became everything they could hope to be.

Now, the UC is jumping with young superstars from both teams like Rose and Jonathan Toews and complementary stars like Joakim Noah and Patrick Kane.

But it's outside the building where the competition intensifies to win casual fans, TV viewers, newspaper space and airtime on sports-talk radio.

Even a year ago Hawks' mover John McDonough and shaker Jay Blunk understood that even if they kept filling the United Center, which they did, retaining the hearts and souls of the rest of the town would remain a challenge.

What the Hawks couldn't have expected was that Rose would become this megastar, Thibodeau would become a head-coaching savant, and the Bulls' record would become the best in the NBA East.

So here these teams are, the Bulls entering their playoffs on a roll and the Hawks entering theirs on a prayer.

The outcome of the game within the games isn't decided yet. The Bulls could stumble in the postseason and the Hawks could surprise.

The competition the Hawks and Bulls will provide each other will be as compelling as anything the Celtics and Red Wings could provide them.

mimrem@dailyherald.com