NBA Playoffs 2011: Can the Chicago Bulls Get Any Respect?

Oh, what a difference a year makes.

With Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls set to take on the Big Three and the Miami Heat Sunday, I have noticed a major shift in the media's feelings on the Miami Heat's chances of not only beating the Bulls, but winning the NBA title.

All the way up to the last month of the season, the media doubted the Big Three's—consisting of LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh—chances of making a deep playoff run in this being their first season together.

Most media members have been hyping the Bulls up for most of the season, and usually talked about them as they projected who could make a serious title run this season.

Since the matchup has been set for the past few days, I have noticed the media almost doing a complete 180 seemingly overnight.

As I scanned through expert opinions on the various sports websites, I noticed fever seems to have infected the media now. I came up with around 20 percent of the experts taking the Bulls in the best-of-seven game series against the Heat.

Sure, the Heat have looked better in the playoffs than they did in the regular season, but this big of a shift is pretty outrageous, in my opinion. Being that this is still the same Bulls team that earned the best record in the league behind the coach of the year Tom Thibodeau and the NBA's MVP Derrick Rose, I'm surprised such a flip-flop has occurred.

The Bulls have only lost one more game in the playoffs, as the Heat did, but that hasn't stopped most media from saying that the Heat look far more impressive, even though they have not been all that easy of series for Miami.

As I see it, the Bulls are the No. 1 seed for a reason, and will show the media members why when they get past the Heat this series.

With the Bulls having a much deeper bench to accommodate Rose, Carlos Boozer, Luol Deng and Joakim Noah, Miami's Big Three will have a tough time against Chicago, especially with the size advantage the Bulls have.

If the Bulls can slow the game down and post up their big men as much as possible, that will greatly increase the Bulls' chance to beat the Heat in this series.

Being one of the first underdog overall No. 1 seeds that I can remember, should be fuel to the Bulls' fire.

Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls will beat the Heat and make it to the 2011 NBA Finals and maybe, just maybe, they'll get the respect that they deserve after an incredible season.