No team from the city of Chicago has played in a playoff game since the Cubs and Marlins battled it out in Game 7 of the 2003 National League Championship Series.

This might not seem like that long of a drought, but for devoted followers of Chicago sports, it feels like an eternity.

I mean, come on, the last time the Bears were in the playoffs Ron Turner was still a respected football coach.

Since QB Rex Grossman’s season-ending injury a month ago, the only ray of hope for Chicago fans has been the start of a new season.

Unfortunately, that new season is the NBA, and the hopes of the city lie on a team that hasn’t made the playoffs since His Airness retired for the second time.

The most recent Bulls teams have contained some good young talent, yet they have come up short on post-season aspirations.

The list of players that the Bulls have lost in the last five years is a definite playoff team – Elton Brand, Ron Artest, Brad Miller, Jamal Crawford and Jalen Rose – just to name a few. All the team has to show for losing Artest, Miller and Rose is aging power forward Antonio Davis.

OK, so the organization has been unlucky, and you can’t blame the current administration for Jerry Krause’s blunders (I will never understand the Elton Brand-Tyson Chandler deal).

This offseason the Bulls made some funny, not necessarily good, acquisitions on the trading block – namely 34-year-old Eric “The Polish Rifle” Piatkowski. It feels great to go into the season knowing that the journeyman Piatkowski will be counted on to hit the outside shot.

For some reason, General Manager John Paxon has decided that Eddy Curry is going to be a key cog, if not the main piece, in the mission to bring the Bulls back to the Promised Land.

Curry is the guy who is still extremely young, always comes into training camp out of shape and can’t get a rebound to save his life.

Thus far in his career, has Curry played with a determination to win? Is he a guy who cares about his team and wants to turn around the franchise?

The answer to both of those questions is a resounding NO.

The painful thing about Curry is that I think he has the tools to be a dominant player in the league, if he only cared more and hustled more.

If Curry played with the same intensity as point guard Kirk Hinrich, I would say the Bulls would have a fighting chance for the playoffs this year.

Hinrich had a solid rookie season, yet he will never be offensive option one or two on a contending team.

He will have a solid career, but hopefully it will be in the John Paxon/BJ Armstrong mold – playing hard for 40-plus minutes, hitting open jumpers, playing solid D and distributing the ball for a

championship- caliber squad.

Hinrich and rookie Ben Gordon will make a young but talented backcourt. The other lottery pick, former Duke star Luol Deng, has shown flashes so far in the preseason.

If Italian import Andres Nocioni scores 30 points a game, this team could make the playoffs.

It’s going to be a long winter…

Jacob Bressler is a senior in communications. He can be reached at [email protected].