The 2008–09 Chicago Bulls season is the 43rd season of the franchise in the National Basketball Association (NBA). In the playoffs, the Bulls lost to the defending NBA champions, the Boston Celtics, in seven games in the First Round. The defending champion Celtics were also taken to a seven game series the prior season in the first round against the Atlanta Hawks. They finished with a 41–41 record for the second time in their past four seasons.

Key dates

Offseason

The Bulls re-signed Luol Deng to a 6-year $71 million contract on July 30, 2008. Ben Gordon signed a 1-year contract on October 2, 2008.

NBA draft

Roster

Regular season

The Bulls were having a meager year floating under .500 and on February 18, 2009 they made their first of several trades sending Andrés Nocioni, Drew Gooden, Cedric Simmons, Michael Ruffin to the Sacramento Kings for Brad Miller and John Salmons. Then on February 19, 2009, the NBA trade deadline, the Bulls traded Larry Hughes to the New York Knicks for Tim Thomas, Jerome James, and Anthony Roberson. Later that day the Bulls made the third trade in a span of less than 24 hours sending swingman Thabo Sefolosha to the Oklahoma City Thunder for a 2009 first round pick. The trades brought a late-season push for the Bulls, which finally clinched a playoff berth on April 10, 2009, their fourth in the last five years. Then on April 13, 2009 they clinched the 7th place in the east by beating the Detroit Pistons and remained .5 game ahead of Philadelphia 76ers for the 6th spot with one game remaining. The Bulls though lost their last game to Toronto and the 76ers beat Cleveland, who did not play most of its best players. The Bulls finished 7th even though they tied Philadelphia at 41-41. The Bulls got matched up with a Garnett-less Boston in the first round of the playoffs.

Season standings

Record vs. opponents

Game log

21,762 18,624 21,785 15,606 20,562 21,967 21,965 21,738 21,751 21,759 18,997 20,599 19,596 16,202 19,911 17,837 13,561 20,485 13,684 21,741 19,519 17,132 21,751 11,225 20,102 18,624 22,046 22,076 19,600 18,031 18,786 21,861 20,562 20,516 18,060 20,125 20,469 18,996 18,494 21,297 22,100 18,807 20,389 20,886 16,009 15,637 13,356 18,422 16,653 16,270 20,349 21,896 21,801 15,309 21,790 17,083 21,902 14,075 18,114 22,394 14,216 20,108 21,186 19,600 17,461 17,563 22,135 22,107 19,136 23,011 15,421 20,502 21,908 20,756 18,949 15,687 21,424 20,764 20,791 20,265 22,076 20,677

Playoffs

The Bulls-Celtics series became the first playoff series in NBA history to have 4 games go into overtime. 18,624 18,624 23,072 23,067 18,624 23,430 18,624 Legend:

Player statistics

Season

• Statistics with the Chicago Bulls

Playoffs

Awards and records

Awards

Records

Transactions

Draft picks

The Bulls beat the odds and won the NBA Draft Lottery on May 20, 2008. The Bulls vaulted from the ninth spot to win the NBA Draft Lottery in Secaucus, NJ, and obtain the first pick in the June 26 NBA Draft. Chicago had a 1.7 percent chance of winning and were represented by Executive Vice President, Business Operations Steve Schanwald. The Heat had the best odds of securing the top selection and will pick second followed by the Timberwolves and Sonics.

Trades

Free agents

Additions

Subtractions