NBA FINALS : LAKERS vs. CHICAGO BULLS : First Time Is the Best : Chicago Boisterously Unites Behind Its Bulls in Initial Trip to NBA Finals

It’s a good thing the bars close here at 4 a.m. Otherwise, Bull fans might not get any rest during this frenetic time in their lives--their maiden voyage into the unknown of the NBA finals.

Besides, Bull fans need to give their ears a break. They were somewhat successful Friday night at reproducing the sound level of Chicago Stadium in bars, on city sidewalks, in taxi cabs and virtually anywhere a television set was tuned to Game 3 between the Lakers and the Bulls. And that was virtually everywhere.

Ned O’Doherty would assuredly still be down at Mothers Sports Bar and Grill, extolling the merits of his town, Chicago is.

And Christine Domingo would probably still be pouring drinks over at Kronies, home of the upside-down margarita, which no one was drinking. They don’t need to.

The Bulls have already turned this town upside down.

There is a rumor that the Dodgers are in town this weekend to play the Cubs, but nobody seems to know for sure. The perennial rivalry between Cub and White Sox fans lies dormant. For now, the city is united behind their Bulls.

“Usually when the Dodgers are in town it’s a big deal,” O’Doherty says.

“But now you don’t even know there is a baseball season going on.”

There are signs all over the city rooting the team on. The mean eyes of red bull-heads stare from windows in high-rise office buildings. “GO BULLS” screams from marquees.

The local newspapers have articles and pictures of the team in practically every section except the classifieds, where ticket brokers get the bylines. The Chicago Tribune sub-captioned a series on the team, “Our Kind of Bulls.”

Friday, seven of every 10 television sets in the city were tuned to Game 3.

“I’ve been to virtually every NBA stadium in the country, but I have never seen anything like the fans I saw at Chicago Stadium Wednesday night,” said Rick Jaffe of The National. “They are so loud, it is deafening. And they cheer the entire time.”

Chicago’s winter sports are clearly more successful than their summer sports, but fan support remains strong regardless.

The Blackhawks, who have played at Chicago Stadium since 1929, have appeared in the playoffs 45 times. They have won the Stanley Cup three times and lost six times.

The Bears are a perennial contender, having won six NFL championships before the advent of the Super Bowl and one since, in 1986.

The White Sox, however, last advanced as far as the American League Championship Series in 1983, when they lost to Baltimore. The Cubs lost the pennant to San Francisco in 1989 and to San Diego in 1984, but it was first time in 46 years they had advanced that far.

The Bulls, in their 25th season, are the new team in the city. They were in the playoffs eight of their first nine years before winning their first division title in the 1974-75 season.

They were in the playoffs a couple of more times before Jordan joined the team in 1984. Since, they have been in the playoffs seven consecutive seasons, advancing to the conference finals for the first time in 1989. They lost to the Pistons that season and again in the East finals next season before finally sweeping the Pistons this year.

“It hasn’t always been like this with the fans for the Bulls, but I’ve always been a fan,” said John Luckett, a cook at P.J. Clarkes. “People used to talk against them, and I always said to give them time. But we are Chicago fans, and this is our team. So we supportthem.”

O’Doherty has a different theory: “Sure, the Bulls had bouts of success in the past. But it’s only since Michael that the fans have been like this. Everybody loves Michael.”

A few years back, some friends of O’Doherty were playing basketball on a junior high court in the Chicago suburb of Glenview. Jordan came driving by the school, stopped his car and got out and played with them for a while. O’Doherty’s friends telephoned him in disbelief.

“That’s why we are crazy about the Bulls--it’s a workingman’s type of team, your basic guys,” O’Doherty said.

“Even Michael is basic. Normal Joes can associate with it, and that’s why it appeals to fans all over the country. More than the Lakers, who are too fancy, with all that glamorous California stuff. Here, it’s a workingman’s town.

“You can see it on TV. When they show Bulls fans at the game, they always show big fat guys drinking big beers, some guy who lives on the South Side and works at some metal warming plant. But when they show Lakers fans, who do they show? Jack Nicholson drinking a Perrier.”

O’Doherty, 30, works for Combe, a manufacturing company.

Bull fans may be a bit outspoken and perhaps a trifle obsessed with the behavior--or non-behavior--of Laker fans. The Chicago media is continually making references to the “beautiful people” that attend Laker games, or the “unusually noisy Laker crowd.” Saturday’s Chicago Tribune had a sarcastic note on how a Los Angeles sportscast Thursday finally “got around to the Bulls-Lakers series” after leading off with French Open results.

At least one Chicago writer expressed her annoyance with Mayor Tom Bradley, who could “muster only a case of fruit” in his “lopsided” bet with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, who promised a buffet of Chicago foodstuffs if the Lakers win. The fruit Bradley promised is a crate of oranges.

Bull fans are even worried that Perrier is being sold at Chicago Stadium. The headline of that Tribune column was, “Hey, Dude, Is This Getting Like L.A.?”

“You can tell the ones from California,” a Chicago fan told the Chicago Tribune at Wednesday’s game here. “See that guy with the beret and sunglasses? Is he from Chicago? No way.”

A beret?

O’Doherty thinks he has the answer again.

“OK, so we are jealous,” O’Doherty said.

“But if television would show a Laker fan who works in a paper factory or something instead of the celebrities, it wouldn’t be so bad.”

Maybe it won’t be so bad, either, if his Bulls win.