Rozner: Filled with stars, but the house that MJ built feels empty

So many stars, so little time.

The NBA's best arrived in Chicago, put on a show and in less than 48 hours they were gone.

Sunday night was grand, the fans enthralled, the game a spectacle, the tributes to Kobe Bryant warm and the donations to local charities crucial.

As for the rest of it, including the All-Star Game itself, well, it was mostly a reminder of how dreadful the local NBA product has been and continues to be.

If you were around these parts in 1988 — or maybe even at Chicago Stadium — then you most certainly remember the celebration that was the All-Star Game that year.

It wasn't just that Michael Jordan won the dunk contest in front of the home fans, or that he followed it up with 40 points and MVP honors in a winning effort for the East in his fourth all-star nod in four years in the NBA.

It was the hope.

Jordan provided Chicago hope and a belief that there was a future on the West Side.

The Bulls took a step in '88 with a playoff series win. Then 1989 brought The Shot against the Cavs and a six-game loss to Detroit in the conference finals. The next year, the Bulls took the Pistons seven games.

Steps. Each year they took steps. Until 1991, when they swept the two-time, defending champion Pistons in the Eastern Conference finals and took down Magic Johnson and the Lakers for the Bulls' first title.

There was no guarantee in 1988 that any of it would happen, but the Bulls were building toward something and that feeling was palpable as the Greatest Of All Time took the stage at home, the brightest among all the stars, on his way to winning the 1988 NBA MVP and Defensive Player of the Year awards.

There was a lot to look forward to as Jordan and the Pips began gaining momentum.

That run in the '90s of six titles in eight years was the greatest decade by a franchise in the history of the city, a memory that remains strong in and out of Chicago, a reason for countless hours and endless nights on YouTube.

“It was a joyous moment for my community, for myself and my friends,” LeBron James said Saturday of Jordan returning to basketball in 1995. “Just having the greatest basketball player ever coming back playing the game, I needed the inspiration growing up in the inner city.

“It's kind of like I lost a superhero when he retired, someone that I needed to help me, even though he didn't know it. The basketball world, and everyone who loved him, was ecstatic when he came back.

“To see what Mike and those boys did in the 90s ... to do it at that time, they had so many different obstacles to overcome. But to retire and come back and three-peat again, it was an unbelievable run.”

Today, it also serves as a reminder of how awful the state of basketball is in Chicago, where the Bulls have won a total of five playoff series since Jordan left 22 years ago.

It was a grinding thought while attending All-Star Weekend and especially Sunday night at the United Center.

Entertaining, sure, but an event that would have meant so much more if the Bulls had a roster being taken seriously by the rest of the league.

They were shut out as James, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Anthony Davis, James Harden, Kawhi Leonard and so many huge names took over the House That Michael Built and put on a show, Bulls fans left wondering just what there is to celebrate.

Or when they might have even a little something to look forward to.

A city so rich in tradition remembers fondly those who began here, like Davis, Isiah Thomas, Mark Aguirre, Derrick Rose, Dwyane Wade, Terry Cummings, George Mikan, Mo Cheeks, Michael Finley, Juwan Howard, Eddie Johnson, Antoine Walker, Johnny Kerr, Doc Rivers and Quinn Buckner, to name only some of a long list of Chicago greats.

Many of them were at the game and featured on the big screen before the pregame introductions, cheered and honored by the hometown fans.

But Chicago had not before and never will again witness a championship run like Jordan gave us. Not in any sport. Not at any time.

And now, what are the Bulls? Worse than terrible, they are irrelevant.

Most Bulls fans, or those who used to be, have traveled beyond anger. They have given up entirely, though it didn't stop some from chanting “Fire GarPax” during a national TV broadcast.

Longtime boss John Paxson says they “don't know what they have yet” on the current roster, but everyone else seems to.

They have a bumbling head coach, a collection of underachieving talent that can't play together and an organization in disarray.

Perhaps one of the reasons the Bulls did nothing at the trade deadline was because Paxson has been told he's on the way out — or further upstairs.

Regardless, it's a mess and any search for progress is debilitating.

So yeah, the 69th NBA All-Star Game in Chicago was a reason to celebrate basketball.

It just wasn't a reason to celebrate Chicago's current NBA version of basketball.