As Ayo Dosunmu descended from the rim in the final minutes of a February win over the Minnesota Timberwolves, Chicago Bulls fans at the United Center caught a glimpse of the rookie doing something rare: flexing.
It was quick. A pause, a roar at the crowd and a single, confident head nod.
Dosunmu doesn’t celebrate. It’s not for a lack of desire — coach Billy Donovan describes Dosunmu as one of the hungriest rookies he has encountered.
But it’s not really Dosunmu’s style to flex or shout or point toward the stands. Not in the midst of 50-point performances at Morgan Park, not while he was leading Illinois to a Big Ten Tournament title, not in his rookie season as a newfound starter for his hometown Bulls, and not with the honor of taking part in the NBA Rising Stars event Friday night in Cleveland.
Even when he threw down the game-winning dunk against the Indiana Pacers on Feb. 4, Dosunmu had no time to celebrate. His eyes were already locked downcourt as he tumbled off-balance onto the hardwood, scrambling back to his feet to track his defensive assignment.
“My mentality is never get too high, never get too low,” Dosunmu said after the game. “When I experience that sense of disappointment in that moment, I teach my mind that mentality. I’m always even keel.”
Take the dunk against the Pacers. That might feel like cause for celebration, but the night before Dosunmu turned the ball over twice in the final minutes of a loss to the Toronto Raptors. Those mistakes would be enough to rattle any rookie. Instead, Dosunmu wiped the slate clean.
So it doesn’t matter if Dosunmu is shooting 52.3% in his first season or that his four 10-assist games are the most for a Bulls rookie since Derrick Rose in 2008-09. Dosunmu won’t celebrate and he won’t beat himself up — his goal is a long-exhausted sports platitude of taking things one game at a time.
It might be a cliché, but Donovan said that mindset lit the spark for Dosunmu’s explosive entry into the league.
“He’s not necessarily intimidated by the moment,” Donovan said last month. “Once he has the belief that there are things that he can get done on the court, it’s hard to stop that.”
Midway through the season, Dosunmu seemed set for a standard rookie growth year — decent minutes off the bench, a few assists and baskets each game, a flashy dunk or hustle play here or there.
That changed in an instant when Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso suffered long-term injuries in a two-week span in January, stripping the Bulls of their top-two point guards for close to two months and shoving Dosunmu into the spotlight.
Parts of running the point are familiar to Dosunmu. Although he didn’t bring the ball up at Illinois, the team’s offense still ran through a pick-and-roll focused on Dosunmu for his three college seasons.
Dosunmu’s size also offers a significant advantage. His 6-foot-8 wingspan wraps around most opposing point guards, allowing Dosunmu to take up room on both ends of the court.
But the learning curve is steep nonetheless. Dosunmu’s greatest challenge is learning how to see the full court — especially the space over his shoulders, where he still misses passes that Donovan believes Dosunmu will make in a few weeks or months.
“He’s such a conscientious player that he just wants to get the ball where it’s supposed to go,” Donovan said.
It would be harder, Donovan said, if Dosunmu weren’t so hungry to learn. His coaches describe him as a “sponge.” When Dosunmu was named to the Rising Stars roster, he said his most urgent goal for the weekend was to “dissect a lot of brains” to come back to Chicago as a better player.
Dosunmu scored five points on 2-for-4 shooting (1-for-2 on 3-pointers) Friday night for Team Payton, which lost to Team Barry 50-48 in the Rising Star semifinals in Cleveland. He added two assists, one rebound and a steal.
Donovan described Dosunmu most often with a single word: eager. Questions are endless in hours of film sessions with the rookie, Donovan said, allowing him to dig deeper into Dosunmu’s game with each week of the season.
“He just wants it. He wants it all the time,” Donovan said. “He wants the information, he wants to see, he wants to watch, he wants to know why.”
Something about Dosunmu makes those around him — coaches, teammates, even opposing players — want to help him reach greatness.
Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal coached up Dosunmu midgame in January — first giving him advice on how to step through without traveling, then playfully shouting down Dosunmu when he pulled that move on the veteran guard the next play.
Caruso has become a defensive coach for Dosunmu on the sidelines. During a second-half timeout last week against the Timberwolves, Caruso pulled him aside with a quick caution: “You got lucky there.”
Dosunmu immediately stepped closer to Caruso, cocking his head to one side as the older guard broke down a defensive error that nearly cost Dosunmu a foul. After the game, Dosunmu could already explain the lesson verbatim.
“I can’t have my arm there at that time,” Dosunmu said. “A great offensive player in the playoffs, when they see that, that’s a quick file, they’ll just swipe through. Chris Paul does it a lot, James Harden, those guys. So (Caruso) was telling me to keep my hands down and get in my stance and get there early. Don’t react but be ready to play right away.”
No one has molded Dosunmu more than teammate DeMar DeRozan.
DeRozan is soft-spoken but commanding, obsessive about details and a star who still somehow slides under the radar. He was quick to bring Dosunmu under his wing, driving several hours on a rare off night to sit next to Dosunmu for his jersey retirement ceremony in Champaign.
After a brutal road loss to the Orlando Magic, Dosunmu spent the three-hour plane ride home listening to DeRozan as he gave advice in a hushed tone to avoid waking their sleeping teammates.
“That’s my big brother,” Dosunmu said last week. “He embraces that.”
As much as DeRozan is firmly the mentor, however, their relationship is equal on the court.
Within his first three months as a pro, Dosunmu assumed the role of the get-back guy for the Bulls, intervening whenever tempers flare and convincing the veteran to back down from a potential technical foul.
“That’s why I calm down so quickly,” DeRozan laughed after a Jan. 11 game against the Detroit Pistons. “He comes with an aggression. He whispers little things to me and I walk away and I calm down. If I get mad, he’ll tell me and I’m gonna stop.”
It’s unusual to see a 21-year-old rookie be the cool one, convincing a player with a decade more experience to walk away from an altercation. Dosunmu is the same on the sidelines, gathering teammates into huddles and even jump-starting locker room pep talks.
But Donovan said Dosunmu approaches those moments with an earnestness — even an innocence — that strips him of any possible annoyance.
“There’s this line he walks,” Donovan said in January. “Somebody could look at that and say, ‘Who does he think he is talking to some veteran like that?’ But he’s got a really good way about himself. It’s not like he’s telling guys what to do as much as encouraging them.”
Dosunmu isn’t surprised that he’s competing at All-Star Weekend, commanding the Bulls offense as a rookie and slowly becoming known throughout the league.
It’s happening a little faster than expected, maybe. But Dosunmu’s confidence always has been supreme — not cocky, just assured in the promise of what he has built for himself.
Dosunmu will soak in every moment, but he also cites Kobe Bryant’s outlook — “Don’t celebrate until the job’s done” — whenever things get a little too crazy.
“It feels good to be recognized but also I understand that there’s more work to do,” Dosunmu said Friday morning ahead of the Rising Star game. “This is just a stop and a stepping stone. I’m excited, I’m humbled to be here and I’m thankful.
“But I also understand there’s more work to be done. I still have that chip on my shoulder.”