By the time Wilson sat down in front of the media Friday morning at the Advocate Center for his introductory news conference with fellow first-rounder Dailyn Swain<\/a>, the forward from North Carolina was ready to announce his expectations for his first NBA season.<\/p>\n \u201cI expect to have Rookie of the Year, honestly,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cI\u2019m going to work hard. I\u2019m going to do what it takes. I feel like the team is really good for me and how I envision to play. I know I\u2019m a hard worker, so whatever I need to fix and work on throughout the season and before the season, I\u2019m going to work on it so I can be a great player.\u201d<\/p>\n Wilson spent most of the predraft whirlwind on the outside looking in. The mass consensus \u2014 by the media, by experts and ultimately by the draft order itself \u2014 was that the 2026 draft class featured a clear top trio<\/a>. Wilson was the next man up.<\/p>\n He tried not to take it personally. But as a rookie, Wilson doesn\u2019t plan to abide by that hierarchy.<\/p>\n Experience helps buoy Wilson\u2019s confidence in his standing with the top three picks. He scored 24 points in North Carolina\u2019s 13-point victory over Darryn Peterson\u2019s Kansas team in November. And he scored 23 in a three-point win over Cameron Boozer and Duke in February. (Wilson was sidelined for the rematch in March, a five-point loss for the Tar Heels.)<\/p>\n Wilson\u2019s sole loss against the top three came at the hands of AJ Dybantsa and BYU by a 78-76 score \u2014 and Wilson scored a game-high 22 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.<\/p>\n This friendly rivalry will fuel Wilson throughout his rookie season. It also will fuel the league around him as the NBA sets a clear priority to showcase its newest talent.<\/p>\n Wilson and the Bulls will face each of the top three picks in their first three summer league games in Las Vegas: July 10 versus No. 3 pick Boozer and the Memphis Grizzlies (7 p.m., Prime Video), July 13 against No. 2 pick Peterson and the Utah Jazz (8 p.m., ESPN) and July 14 versus No. 1 pick Dybantsa and the Washington Wizards (7 p.m., Prime). The Bulls\u2019 fourth summer league game will be July 16 against the Los Angeles Lakers (5 p.m., Prime).<\/p>\n \u201cI played all of them now,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cYou know what happened when I played them, so it don\u2019t really matter. I don\u2019t really care about the media. I\u2019m a competitor. I\u2019m going to play them in summer league too. So whatever needs to be done to prove that I\u2019m on the same level or that I\u2019m better, we\u2019ll do it.\u201d<\/p>\n Three days into his tenure as a Bull, Wilson\u2019s bold proclamations already have become the norm around the Advocate Center. There\u2019s a magnitude to the rookie\u2019s vision \u2014 for himself, for the future, for the Bulls as a franchise.<\/p>\n Wilson is young, quick to smile and relaxed in front of media. But he\u2019s not soft-spoken. And he doesn\u2019t balk at setting the bar an inch or a mile above his reach.<\/p>\n \u201cI have a lot of fun with it, but I want to be legendary,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cI want to be remembered after I finish playing. That\u2019s what pushes me every day to be a great player.\u201d<\/p>\n When Wilson talks about greatness, he means the upper echelon of NBA history. In Chicago, playing under the six banners won during a dynasty that ended eight years before he was born, that means something different.<\/p>\n Is it a risk to reach for GOAT status while playing in Michael Jordan\u2019s shadow? Wilson believes that\u2019s a myopic way to view his idealism.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t worry about that at all,\u201d he said. \u201cStriving for something is something that we all do. You\u2019re striving to be the greatest ever \u2014 it is a bold thing to say, but that\u2019s what I\u2019m striving for. I\u2019m not striving to be an average or mediocre player. If I was to tell you or anyone that, that wouldn\u2019t be good either.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m striving to be the best player that has ever played the game, and I\u2019ve been doing that for a long time. So I\u2019m just going to keep doing that. If I reach that goal, I do. If I don\u2019t, then at least I know I tried.\u201d<\/p>\n For Wilson, establishing himself as a cornerstone of a team on the way up is a welcome luxury. Even as a rookie who doesn\u2019t turn 20 until next month, he sees himself as a leader and galvanizer who can shape the culture of the Bulls locker room.<\/p>\n But rebuilding also means losing. A lot. Wilson must stomach this reality in order to survive the next year \u2014 or two or three \u2014 as the Bulls undergo the grueling process of reshaping the roster under a new front office<\/a> and new coach<\/a>.<\/p>\n Wilson described a symbiotic relationship between his individual growth and that of his new team. The Bulls will get better if he gets better. He will get better if the Bulls get better. Neither can succeed without the other. He wouldn\u2019t want it any other way.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like the NBA is better when Chicago is good,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cI\u2019m just trying to be as good as I can be. I\u2019m going to develop and I\u2019m going to keep getting better, and whatever happens will happen.<\/p>\n \u201cBut of course I want to be a great team, so I\u2019m trying to get that to happen as quick as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Caleb Wilson took less than three days before he threw down the gauntlet. He needed just enough time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":728355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[58355,62693,50262,7329,56185,7328,355,13329,313147,1755,99],"class_list":["post-728354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-aj-dybantsa","tag-caleb-wilson","tag-cameron-boozer","tag-chicago-bulls","tag-darryn-peterson","tag-michael-jordan","tag-nba","tag-nba-draft","tag-nba-rookie-of-the-year","tag-nba-summer-league","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/728355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Bulls](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/CTC-BULLS-draft021.jpg\")
Bulls forward Caleb Wilson stands next to the Michael Jordan statue after an introductory news conference Friday, June 26, 2026, at the United Center. (Josh Boland\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n