When Luc Longley sat on the Bulls’ bench at the United Center during pregame introductions, the opening bars of ‘Sirius’ marked the final step of his routine, a cue to shift into game mode, according to ESPN. The track, a 1982 instrumental by the Alan Parsons Project originally serving as the prelude to ‘Eye in the Sky,’ became inseparable from the team’s presentation.
Thirty years after the Bulls posted a then-NBA record 72-10 and sparked the second three-peat of the Michael Jordan era, the use of ‘Sirius’ in Chicago’s introductions remains a defining memory of that run, according to ESPN. The music has been described as iconic, enduring and cross-generational by those who lived it.
The song’s association with the Bulls began before Ray Clay took over the public-address microphone. Tommy Edwards introduced ‘Sirius’ at the old Chicago Stadium, debuting it on Oct. 26, 1984, the night of Michael Jordan’s first NBA game, after hearing the piece in a movie theater and imagining it under a player introduction, according to ESPN.
Clay assumed the PA role for the 1990-91 season and further amplified the presentation as the team rose to prominence. With NBC televising NBA games that season and broadcasters urging viewers to arrive early to see the introductions, the pregame sequence became part of the Bulls’ spectacle, according to ESPN. Opponents sometimes stopped to compliment the show.
The move to the United Center for the 1994-95 season and the team’s dominant 1995-96 campaign helped cement the introduction’s place in Bulls lore. For players who heard the music dozens of times each season and for visiting opponents, ‘Sirius’ served as both ritual and signal of the spectacle about to unfold, according to ESPN.
