Angel Reese is gone, the Bulls are starting over and another Cubs pitcher is hurt? Been one heck of a day

Chicago Bulls

Just another manic Monday?

Uh, no.



Holy sports meltdown, Chicago.

Sky superstar Angel Reese: shipped out of town. Bulls execs Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley: fired into the sun. Cubs Opening Day starter Matthew Boyd: sent to the injured list, where he can hang out and compare arm woes with pals Cade Horton and Justin Steele.

What’s next? Will Caleb Williams announce he’s quitting football to join the circus?

It’s no June 17, 1994, that famous, surreal day when the World Cup opening ceremony took place at Soldier Field while the Rockets and Knicks played in the NBA Finals and — oh, yeah — O.J. Simpson crouched in the back of a white Ford Bronco on a ride across Orange County and Los Angeles with pretty close to the whole world watching.

Still, it was quite a Monday on our scene.

The Bulls firing executive vice president of basketball operations Karnisovas and his right-hand man, general manager Eversley, would have dominated the news on a typical day. To many, this was long overdue and a wonderful development. And by ‘‘many,’’ I mean everyone not named Karnisovas or Eversley.

They didn’t quite make it through six seasons, yet their tenure might as well have lasted eons — call it the Arturozoic Era — for all the stultifying boredom they put Bulls fans through. The Bulls lost more games than they won on the duo’s watch, of course. They went to the playoffs only once and were dismissed in the first round. They were a hard watch this season even before the trade deadline, but then the roster was blown up, leaving the Bulls a shell of a team with a future no serious person would bet on, given the ineptitude from the top.

The big trades along the way were mostly clunkers, the drafts were disasters and — the last straw, it seems — the Jaden Ivey fiasco was unforgivable. So off Karnisovas and Eversley go, perhaps for a tee time with John Paxson and Gar Forman.

‘‘We are committed to taking the necessary steps to move the Bulls forward in a way that makes our fans proud,’’ team president Michael Reinsdorf assured in a statement.

A lot of those fans will have to be awakened first.

The Sky trading Reese to the Dream is more of a bombshell, although there were signs she wanted out, none more memorable than her honest but harsh criticism of the team and the organization last season. No matter if all parties publicly agreed it was handled and done with, that was a cat that couldn’t be put back in the bag. Reese wanted out, just like Marina Mabrey wanted out and Kahleah Copper wanted out. And others before them who’ve played for the ever-behind-the-times Sky.

Could the Sky have won big with Reese as their centerpiece? I’m not sure she’s that level of a star as a player. Are you? The world seems to love to argue about Reese. What’s clear is that the Sky had a giant in their midst — an All-Star with elite-level fame and celebrity — and couldn’t figure out how to make that a great thing.

The day Reese showed up after being drafted in 2024, she went to a strip mall in Deerfield to be introduced to the media. In a public recreation center. On a gym floor, the only space to do it.

Welcome to your new home, Angel. Isn’t it grand?

It’s no wonder Reese scoffed at that place, the Sky’s pretend ‘‘practice facility.’’ She might not be easy to please, but the Sky did her no favors until letting her go.

As for Boyd, the left-hander’s aching left biceps might not be a five-alarm fire. But with Horton — an ace in the making — potentially facing a significant roadblock in his career, the Boyd news is a sneaky kidney shot no one needed. A much-anticipated Cubs season has been no fun at all from the start. By the looks of things, it might not end so well, either.

Consider yourselves warned.

Sorry, but it has been a day.

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