In Yoruba, the language native to Nigeria, his name is defined as ‘‘joy.’’
And from the early returns — the looks he has provided us with upon his return from missing the final two months of last season because of his first-ever surgery-required fractured left shoulder — the joy of hoopin’ has returned to Ayo Dosunmu in a way many haven’t seen at this level since he came on the scene at Westinghouse.
If nothing else, it has become evident for the Bulls — equal to the continued promise of Matas Buzelis and the confirmation of Josh Giddey — that the joy with which Dosunmu has played so far can be their panacea. Only if they find a way to let him continue to find it.
This is one of those unsung stories. The small victories and hard hardships of rehab that result in anew. The dark moments of silence, the aloneness and mental suffering, everything that took him away from the game. The emotions. Anything to not be this generation’s Frank Williams story. The local kid who has a great Illini history and ends up playing for the hometown team in the NBA but unfortunately fails to live up to the promise. The choice to be greater.
Just the energy and urgency alone that Ayo seems to have returned with set an unexpected tone. Coming into this season — and from what we haven’t seen from this organization in the past — Dosunmu could very much be more than just a breath of fresh air for the Bulls, if played correctly and with purpose. Along with Buzelis, he could be the resuscitator the team needs to be removed from the life support they’ve been on since Lonzo Ball’s January 2022 injury, when it all began to fall apart.
Leading in minutes played (while coming off of the bench in three of the four preseason games he played), second in scoring and shooting above 60% from the field is the new, beautiful problem he has forced the Bulls to deal with. Leaving contract talk and free agency out of it, Ayo’s play is his public advocation for self. In the Michael Jordan/Kobe Bryant vanity-of-thought: Play so well that coach Billy Donovan has no choice but to keep him in the game.
It’s the best and worst thing Ayo could have done during the preseason. Be just what the Bulls need yet just what they don’t. The complement and challenge to Coby White, once he returns, while possibly being the leader the team desperately is in need of. The Alex Caruso memory eraser. An anchor, along with Isaac Okoro, to stabilize the Bulls’ still-suspect defense. The player who can win them Game 83 against Miami that we know they’ll eventually play again this season.
All contingent on Donovan giving him a chance — a real one. A role, increased and meaningful minutes, increased usage rate, an expectation that he needs to hold Ayo responsible to every game that is directly related to the team’s success or its failure. For the first time in his four-plus years in their uniform, the Bulls need to give Ayo a purpose. And he needs to (continue to) play with one.
For Ayo, for those of us who saw this coming and have been waiting for it, it goes back to his All-City days as a freshman, dropping 40 against Crane, winning the White-West title before winning two state 3A chips at Morgan Park. Joe Henricksen was smart enough to mention Ayo as an ‘‘honorable mention’’ in the same breath as Maurice Cheeks and Tim Hardaway, Jamie Brandon and Nick Anderson, Efrem Winters, Juwan Howard and Terry Cummings when Mount Rushmore-ing the ‘‘best of the best from the Public League’s South Side.’’
Not saying that it’s about time Ayo has finally arrived, but it would be a lie to say that there have not been many waiting for this moment for Ayo to begin.
He’s out-valued many holding way higher value than he came into the game with. There are others. But there’s still the lingering, floating fiction that much of Ayo’s value resides in the fact that he’s from here and playing for his home organization. That he is just a ‘‘Chicago’’ thing, nothing more. Which he now has a season to prove as outright fiction.
He had a wake-up call of sorts in the next-to-last preseason game Tuesday against the Nuggets. Inserted into the starting lineup, Dosunmu had his matchup against one of the league’s best, Jamal Murray, who was in ‘‘Jamal Murray’’ mode. While it was only a single preseason game, it put everything into perspective of what this season could be like for Ayo when it comes to what is expected. Strictly because of what he came out of the gates with from the second he stepped back on the court showing us what he’s capable of and what he came out of the gates with showing the league what this new him is in pursuit of.
The potential of him. The promise of him. All on him. It’s as if Ayo did more than rehab during rehab. It seems he inwardly decided to live up to his name and, from this point forward, remember the importance of playing the game with — you already know — joy.