Chuck Swirsky’s social media tradition

CHICAGO – Perhaps he knew that his newest pregame tradition was getting big when one of the best players in the National Basketball Association started talking about it.

After finishing an interview with Stephen Curry during the 2021-2022 season, the two-time MVP had a message for Bulls radio play-by-play announcer Chuck Swirsky.

“We got done with our pregame chat and he said ‘Oh, by the way, Chuck, you’re not going to dance tonight,’” said Swirsky, as Curry was referring to a social media tradition he’s created over the last three seasons.

On most nights when the Bulls pick up a victory, the announcer will celebrate by posting a “victory dance” on his Instagram and Twitter accounts. It’s often a quick video where he either twirls around or throws up his arms in celebration of a victory.

This expression of joy began during a difficult time for everyone in the NBA – the 2020-2021 season – where few teams had fans while the majority of broadcasts were remote. The setup for those games was created for Swirsky and color commentator Bill Wennington by broadcast engineer Rich Wyatt, and it’s with him that the tradition began.

“After a ballgame where the Bulls won, as you know it was a tough year (2020-2021), so after a Bulls’ game late in the year, I decided to just let it all hang and I’m doing the dance,” said Swirsky. “Unbeknownst to me, Rich taped, and so I looked it and he goes ‘Let’s celebrate, we’re gonna put it online.’

“Well, it took off.”

That was the first but not the last for Swirsky, who has put the dances on social media after the Bulls’ wins that year, in the 2021-2022 playoff campaign, and a few times early in the 2022-2023 season.

Swirsky said that he’s heard from Bulls and opposing players along with executives around the league along with the many fans who comment on social media.

Larry Hawley has more on this story from WGN News Now in the video above.