The Chicago Bulls drafted 18-year-old German forward Noa Essengue with the #12 overall pick in last month’s NBA Draft, and both the expectations and the need for his future are heavy. Unfortunately, history will record one of the first acts in his NBA career as being an embarrassing one.
In the Bulls’ third game of the 2025 NBA Vegas Summer League against the Indiana Pacers, Essengue was the victim of a poster dunk by Pacers sophomore Johnny Furphy. Rightly contesting the dunk attempt, Essengue was too late to block the shot, but was not too late to be caught at the rim by Furphy, who finished with power and style.
The dunk by Furphy was impressive. The attempt by Essengue was dignified. But the resulting poster…not so much.
Essengue’s Unfortunate Expression
In the process of being dunked on, Essengue made an awkward face. A face so awkward, in fact, as to leave ESPN’s consummate professional newscasters unable to hold it together.
When Furphy’s dunk appeared on that night’s Sportscenter, anchors Nicole Briscoe and Ryan Smith broke down. Unable to contain themselves, the next segment was a write-off. Smith went as far as to call the resultant photo of the Bulls rookie “the worst poster I’ve ever seen in my life”.
Given that Essengue’s expression existed somewhere between Edvard Munch’s The Scream, and the possessed protagonist of a B-movie horror film caught in the process of standing on some Lego, Smith had a point.
Throwback To Bulls Legend Of The Past
Seventeen years ago, the Bulls were on the other side of the coin.
In a regular season victory over the Washington Wizards, their Argentinian forward Andres Nocioni flushed a powerful finish over Washington’s Ukrainian big man Oleksiy Pecherov, whose contest – if it can even be called that – was a lot less dignified than Essengue’s. Pecherov’s face – and supposed likeness to Family Guy character Stewie Griffin – led Bulls color analyst Stacey King to riff on how foolish he looked for the next several minutes of the broadcast.
Everybody, except Tim Duncan, gets posterized in the NBA eventually. Everybody from Oleksiy Pecherov to Ed Milliband takes a bad photo at some point. But not everybody makes a post-dunk face so gormless as to leave the Sportscenter team unable to compose themselves for the next segment.
Seventeen years later, we are – or at least, I am – still making references to Pecherov’s lowlight moment. Unfortunately for Noa Essengue and the Bulls, this is the era of self-made viral content. He already got caught out by Furphy. Now, he is about to catch some memes.
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