Bulls Nation Profile: Ross Pinsler

Morris: Let's just start with who is Ross?

Ross: That's a question that I struggle with. I'm from the [Chicago] Burbs. I'm from Vernon Hills [Illinois]. I grew up there, went to school there. I moved out to Arizona, and I lived out there for a few years, and now I'm finally back here in the city [Chicago]. So I consider myself a Chicago kid for sure. Moved away for a bit, came back.

I have two cats and a dog. I've got a girlfriend that lives with me. I feel like I'm a creative person. I'm someone who likes to create things. Back when I was in college, I was a major in journalism, and I wanted to be a sports journalist. So some of the people who have been following me for a long time, probably, I used to make Chicago sports content back 10, 15 years ago. I used to make WordPress sites, and I would be writing stuff about the Bears and the Bulls, and the Cubs, and just anything going on in the Chicago sports world. I was an early adopter of Twitter, so I was back on 2009 talking about the Bears and the Bulls and stuff.

I've gone through a variety of different brands and names and stuff. I doubt anyone who knew me back then would recognize any of the names that I use today. But it just goes to show you in various capacities, I'm not alone in this. We've all probably been doing this in different ways for a long time. So it all came full circle in the past few years, where I had been doing the content stuff on the side, just making things for my friends or making things just to respond, just seeing games in the moment, just giving my thoughts. And eventually, it just snowballed from there. And yeah, that's a good transition into the Arturas fan club. That's when that started in 2020.

Morris: Okay, so you mentioned you moved out to Arizona. You went out to Arizona for school, or you just decided, I'm going to check out Arizona?

Ross: So I was at DePaul [University]. I was at DePaul in Chicago back in 2015. And yeah, I ended up dropping out. I was losing money. I needed to make some money. So I decided I was going to drop out and just enter the workforce. And at the time, Tucson [Arizona] was a place that was affordable, and it was easy to get a job. And my girlfriend at the time, she had family out there. So we made the decision to move out to Tucson. And I ended up just finding some jobs, and it worked out. So I stayed out there for a while. When I was ready, I moved back to Chicago.

Ross, Meet the Chicago Bulls

Morris: So walk me through the meeting of Ross and Chicago Bulls, because we all have, as fans, our different ways of how we on-ramped into the team. What was that like for you?

Ross: Yeah. So when I was a kid, like I said, in the Burbs, my dad was a huge Chicago sports fan. He was there for [Micahel] Jordan in the '90s, obviously. I'm a little younger, so I missed the end of that. But I was seven or eight years old when my dad took me to my first Bulls game. And that was when the scene was god-awful. There was the baby Bulls era. I think we played the [Toronto] Raptors. We got our asses kicked. I was really little, but it was such a fun experience being at the United Center, seeing the lights, seeing the fans cheering, the fireworks. I was a little too young to fully comprehend basketball, but just the atmosphere was so cool. That was my first introduction to basketball. I started watching, and that was around 2005, 2006.

Same era when I was really getting into the Bears. They had the Super Bowl run and everything like that. It was just a really exciting time to get into sports in Chicago. The [Chicago White] Sox had just won the World Series, too. So everything was happening. And yeah, that was also what, 2007, 2008?

That's when we ended up drafting Derrick Rose. And so that was the light bulb turned on for me. I had enjoyed watching and being a casual [Bulls] fan. But once the Bulls drafted Derrick Rose, I fell in love. I think a lot of Bulls fans can agree with that and probably relate to watching D. Rose was like having a spiritual experience.

It was nothing like I've ever seen before as a young basketball fan. I'd watch Ben Gordon, I'd watch Kirk Hinrich. But seeing someone [like Rose] who could dominate and take over a game on a win like that, it was just a different experience. From D-Rose's rookie season onto the MVP season. In his third year, my love grew and grew and grew. That was also when I was entering high school. 2010, 2011, when D. Rose had his MVP season, was also my freshman year of high school. I was like, 'I'm falling in love with the game of basketball.'

I'm finding who I am as a teenager, as a kid. I'm also, like I had mentioned earlier, doing that sports journalism stuff on the side. I think so fondly of those moments. And that was really what brought me in and made me a fan for life.

Arturas Karnisovas

Morris: Let’s talk about your journey with [Chicago Bulls Executive Vice President, Basketball Operations] Arturas Karnisovas from the beginning of his coming into the Bulls organization, the ubiquitous Arturas Karnisovas fan club you created. Just that whole journey. What was that like for you?

Ross: Yeah, man. And I will say before I get into this, I never expected any of it to go the way it did. And I was just having some fun in the moment. And I have so much gratitude and appreciation for Bulls fans and the Bulls community just for being so, so welcoming and appreciative. I did an Arturas fan club, and it obviously didn't work out the way we wanted it to. People still show love, and people still bring it up as a moment that they enjoyed. I wanted to preface by saying that before I start, maybe perhaps crapping on some of the things that happened.

But yeah, so when it first started, back in 2020, let's put ourselves in those shoes again. Pandemic had just started. It's April of 2020. We were watching 'The Last Dance' airing on television. The Bulls were relevant in everyone's minds, and there was so much frustration around GarPax [former Bulls' front-office executives John Paxson and Gar Forman]. It was like the end of the line for a lot of Bulls fans. There were the 'Fire GarPax' billboards, there were the shirts, there was the boycotting of games. It just felt like a lot of fans were at the end of their straw.

Then we got the news. Then the news comes out of nowhere. The Bulls are going to fire Gar Foreman. They're going to hire Arturas Karnisovas as an executive. Coming into it, I didn't really know who he was. I did a bunch of research on where he had been. He was with the [Houston] Rockets, he was with the [Denver] Nuggets most recently. Seeing the team he had built in Denver with [Nikola] Jokić and [Jamal] Murray and some of the other players that he had helped acquire, it was just really cool to feel like for the first time in my fandom.

The first time in a long time, oh my god, we have a guy who has built a championship team in the building. This guy has built a team that can make a playoff run. He's drafted an MVP. This is the team builder that you dream of as a fan. It was such a night-and-day, or at least we felt like it was going to be a night-and-day difference. I think the biggest thing to me is that it felt like for the first time, the [Bulls majority owners] Reindsdorfs were opening up their pockets and saying, 'Okay, enough is enough.'

In retrospect, I think that [change in Bulls' front-office leadership] should have been a moment of skepticism in our minds. What is the incentive to suddenly start to turn things around in the mind of the Reindsdorfs? Why is it that they suddenly feel this urge? And it was money. We know it's the bottom line. So at the time, it's really exciting. We see this guy, Arturas, coming in. There's so much going on in the world that's awful. For the first time in a long time, we're seeing something that could be good, and it was a positive. And yeah, for me, at least, what I was doing on Twitter at the time, I was just making Chicago sports content under my own name. It was just like 'Ross something.' And I had 2,000 followers. It was okay. I was doing a modest job. It was a time when I was really bored and I needed something to do.

I thought, in my mind, it felt like this is it. We're back. The Bulls are back. I made the Arturas Karnisovas Fan Club. It's just like a tongue-in-cheek [thing]. Things were so bad for so long that all it took was hiring this guy. That's how all things were, is that all it was to hire a guy. He hasn't even done anything yet, and I'm already a fan of his. I think that was the joke for a lot of Bulls fans. Things have been so bad for so long. We just, in a way, needed that comic relief. That was how it started in earnest.

Someone would post something about Arturas or the Bulls, and I would reply to it, and I would make a joke about like, 'Arturas Karnisovas saved my life,' or 'Arturas Karnisovas restored my hair growth,' or something like that. It was just really silly stuff, and it definitely started to catch a little bit. I think it was, again, just an exciting time for fans. It was an exciting time for the team, and it was also just an awful time in the world.

I do think a lot of the jokes, the memes were funny, so that resonated with people. That was a moment where we were all really excited about what was about to happen. I picked up on that. That was probably why the account took off the way it did, is because there was so much excitement, there was so much discussion about what's next. I tapped into that and I honed into it. I gave fans, I feel like, a place to express those frustrations and also the excitement of like, 'Hey, we've been a laughing stock to the rest of the NBA for so long. Not anymore. We're back. We're making moves. You can't talk about us the way you were talking about us.' That was a point of pride for a lot of fans.

Morris: There are three things I hear when you talk about going back to that experience. One is the fan excitement, just a lot of energy, a lot of excitement in this Bulls' fan base. And then you as a creator, seeing that, and then you come up with premises, and you come up with ideas and things that you're putting out into the fan base that are just generating all this interesting discourse, and it's fun in an un-fun period of the world. Was there a process that you had formulated your mind, or were you experimenting on a daily basis and just seeing where this thing goes?

Ross: It was really organic. Because like you said, it was just like, excitement when bad things were happening. So that was my escape, too. And I was in and out of work at the time, as everyone was. And I was spending a lot of time at home. I wasn't sleeping a lot. It was so stressful. And that was also when the Marko Simonovic hour started. Marko hours.

When I couldn't sleep in the middle of the night, I'd be like, All right, who's up? It's time for some Marko Hours, and I posted highlights. It's stuff like that. It just happens organically. It's like, I'm up at night. It's like, 'What am I doing? I'm watching Bulls highlights,' and I just share that on the timeline in my own way.

I don't think that there was any formula, really. It was just in the day-to-day, Zach LaVine made a really good defensive play. Okay, here's a meme of him being Defensive Player of the Year. It was just stuff like that. It just happens organically. People come up to you with ideas, too. Some people have tweeted me and be like, 'Hey, can you make an edit of Vooch dunking on someone?' Something like that.

I think at the end of the day, like you said, people liked it, and it gave people a sense of happiness in a really dark time. That was important to me, too. It was just like, keep this going because it's working, it's giving me an outlet, it's making other people happy. There is sometimes that little sense of responsibility that creeps in the back of your mind of, okay, there's a Bulls game going on. Something big just happened. Do I have something ready? Do I have something to post? But for the most part, I think for most of the time, it just happens organically.

It just happens in the moment. I'm watching a game. A lot of the time, I'll be taking a screenshot or a picture of what's going on in the game, and then I just look at it for a couple of minutes and just think about it. I'm like, 'Oh, okay. I could put that on top of it. I could put some captions on it.' I'm never thinking about this will generate a bunch of likes or this will generate a bunch of retweets. It's more just like, is someone going to find this funny? Is this amusing? Is this entertaining? Does this provide some value to someone? So that's really what I go back to is, would this make me laugh if I saw it? Would I find this interesting if I saw it? And that's how I gauge whether I should post it or not.

Comedy

Morris: What would you point to as your comedic inspirations, the things that inform your humor?

Ross: I grew up in the YouTube era. Grew up watching a lot of Nickelodeon shows. A lot of sketch comedy. I grew up on a lot of sketch. I watched a lot of "SNL [Saturday Night Live]" growing up, as we do. But I also watched... You ever watched "Whitest Kids U’Know" back in the day?

Morris: I never watched it.

Ross: Dude, oh, god. Those guys were so funny. "South Park" was really great. Just a ton of raunchy, out there, comedy. I definitely think of myself as a pretty open person, I'm open-minded. I don't get offended very easily. I like dark comedy. I like that stuff. Like I said, I grew up on YouTube, grew up on a lot of sketch comedy, a lot of "SNL," "MadTV." Just sketch comedians on the internet, too.

The internet was a big part of my childhood. I grew up on... I had a MySpace account when I was way too young and a Facebook account when I was way too young. I was there at the beginning of YouTube, watching that develop. I think my humor definitely is... It's born of the internet. It's a comedy born of the internet age. I think it definitely speaks to the way that I create content. It's all intertwined. It definitely resonates with people from my generation, I would say.

I think it has a lot to do with just the way that people in my generation grew up with tech evolving at the same time. I was a little kid and I was playing on MS [Microsoft] Paint, going in AOL [America Online] chat rooms and stuff. And it's like, as I get older, it started to evolve into Facebook and social media and Twitter. So I think we grew up as the internet grew up. And yeah, I would say my comedy comes from that.

Basketball Xs and Os

Morris: One of the things that has been cool to see, is you’re really getting into the analysis side of basketball as well. What has that experience been like for you?

Ross: Yeah. So I definitely have been interested in doing analysis for a while. Candidly on my YouTube channel, I go through stretches where I'm productive. I make some videos. I go through stretches where I need to take some time off and focus on personal life. So I've had my moments where I've gone really deep on the analysis side. I've done a lot of deep dives on Bulls players, done some game recaps. And on the flip side of that, I've also spent some time just doing news and updates and even doing 2K videos and things like that. So that's the feeling-out process of just figuring out what I want to do, what resonates with the audience.

As far as game recap and stuff and analysis, when I started working with Swish Theory back in 2022, that was the group that I helped build the website. We have a group of contributors who write about the draft, who write about just basketball at large. And these guys are so talented. They're amazing writers.

The crux of the Swiss Theory idea was, if we're not informing in some way, if our content does not lend itself to some developmental trait or some basketball fundamental that you can learn about, then there's really no point in posting it. It needs to be fun but also informative. So working with Swish Theory, I've really learned a lot about how to break down analysis and how to present that information. And I credit a lot of our writers over there. If there's any plug that I could put into this, it's definitely for Swish Theory to check out our writers, our website, to check out our Twitter account.

Yeah, because the writers that I work with now on a daily basis, they're going to work for NBA teams one day. And these guys are super talented. Some of them already do. These guys are super, super talented. And it's just learning, how do teams currently evaluate players and how can we improve upon that process? And so a big part of that is context and roles. So something that I've tried to incorporate a little more into my content is speaking a little bit more to those basketball fundamentals, but also thinking long-term career, talking about younger players, especially of career progression.

Instead of just using terms like he's a wing or he's a forward or he's a 3&D guy, what is it about their game style that can actually develop into this particular role? Or what is it about the way they shoot or the way they pass that can help them develop? You get what I'm saying. It's like, provide that context for that development. When I start talking about [Bulls forward] Dalen Terry as one of the guys, I talk a little bit more about the player he could grow into rather than just the player he is today. I do that with [Bulls guard] Ayo Dosunmu. I do that with [Bulls forward] Patrick Williams.

So I think I'm making myself a more intelligent basketball fan by working with these creators at Swish Theory. And through that, I hope that I'm informing my audience and incorporating that to help inform not just Bulls fans, but basketball fans at least, because I know that there are a lot of people who watch my videos who aren't only Bulls fans, who want to learn more about the game in general. But the goal there is to make content that is welcoming, just with my style of being a little bit comedic and hopefully welcoming and informal, but also to really give that high-quality analysis to break things down in a way that's understandable. I'm trying to become a more intelligent basketball fan, and through my content, hopefully, conveying that to my fans.

Ross and Bulls Nation

Morris: What does Bulls Nation, this community that we're privileged to be a part of, what does that mean to you?

Ross: It has been a life-changing experience for me. When I was not a part of this Bulls community, I struggled a lot with making new friends. I was still living in Arizona at the time, and I was isolated from my Chicago community in general. I had some people down there in Arizona who I was friends with who knew my background, but I didn't have that sense of community of, these are my people, these are my tribe. And that was something that I lacked for a really long time, and I was looking for it for a really long time.

Bulls Nation has been... It fits like a glove. Trying to think of a way to word it. It's such a natural fit because we all grew up in such similar... You and I sit down and we have all these similarities and all these different things that... It's like our childhoods weren't the same, but we can relate on so many different ways. I think that we all have that in common. I'm sure that it's the same based on every other sports town in America.

Chicago is special. There's something special about this city. There's something special about people from this city. I would not be where I'm today without Bulls Nation. I would not have this following the same... I wouldn't be making content that I make today without this following, and I wouldn't be able to sit here in a conversation with you without Bulls Nation. So it's like I've met so many great friends. I've made so many professional connections. Just in general, met so many great people through the account, through having connections within the organization. I've lived out some things that I never thought I would ever live out, like childhood dreams, like getting to walk on the floor of the United Center, having a conversation with Nate Robinson. I'm just like, How did this happen?

Imagine going to a game, let alone knowing people who work there or being able to go behind the scenes or like, hugging Benny the Bull or something like that. I am so grateful, and I have so much gratitude to the people who have helped me live out those dreams. I think the big thing that I want to do is help other people live out their dreams to be a part of the Bulls community. It doesn't even have to be that big as living a dream. It's just like, come to a Bulls game. Come hang out with us. Come meet some other Bulls fans. Have a beer with us. Have a slice of pizza with us. There are so many cool people that you can meet and make lifelong friends within this community.

Swish Theory, another example. I met all of the people that we, the leadership team of Swish Theory, I met all of them through the Bulls community. You probably know @LarroHoops [Larry Golden]. He's one of the guys on the Swish Theory team. Kris [Amundsen], who does that podcast with him. He's on the Swish Theory team.

So, yeah, man, I think at the end of the day, it's bringing people together, connecting people from all over the world, too. We have our fans in the UK, we have our fans in Australia, we have fans all over the world. And it's just really cool to see everyone. Someone that I used to talk to in a silo, I used to talk to as my friend a couple of years ago, and then someone else that I used to talk to as a friend. Now they're friends, and they're communicating. It's cool. It's really dope. And if there's anything that I can do to contribute to that, I'm going to keep doing it.

You can follow Ross Pinsler on X at @chisportsross and find all Ross’ content at chisportsross.com