The Chicago Bulls will unfortunately be without their biggest good-luck charm for Wednesday’s play-in tournament game.
Bulls star DeMar DeRozan revealed to reporters that his daughter Diar will not be in attendance for Chicago’s 9-10 game against the Atlanta Hawks. DeMar said Diar is currently at camp and will thus be unable to attend.
“Went to camp and she just told me, ‘Just make it to the playoffs.’ So she can get to a game,” said DeMar, per Julia Poe of the Chicago Tribune. “So that’s all the motivation that I need.”
Diar became a viral star during last season’s play-in tournament. Her loud screams from the sideline during free throws seemed to affect the Toronto Raptors in that year’s 9-10 game as the Bulls narrowly won after 18 missed foul shots by Toronto. Diar was not in attendance for the second play-in game last year though, and Chicago went on to lose to the Miami Heat.
This year now feels eerily similar for Chicago as they once again need to win two play-in games in order to earn the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference. The saga with Diar took an ugly turn at one point last season, but Bulls fans would definitely love to have her again (though the team will have to beat Atlanta without her on Wednesday for that to be a possibility).
