There was some truth to what perennial NBA All-Star big man Anthony Davis said a few years back: Chicago really did feel like the real ”mecca of basketball” at the time.

Nowadays? Not so much.

With Davis and Derrick Rose injured and on the bench in street clothes most nights and Jabari Parker without a team, it’s a fashion show more than a mecca these days.

But Bulls guard Ayo Dosunmu is doing his best to change that — one fearless performance at a time.

Just look at whom the rookie from Morgan Park and Illinois has been asked to guard in the last few weeks. On Saturday against the Celtics, he was on Jayson Tatum. Last week against the Mavericks, it was Luka Doncic. And he already has butted heads with the Hawks’ Trae Young.

On Monday against the Grizzlies, get ready for MVP candidate Ja Morant.

Then look at what Dosunmu, 21, has done with the rest of his game. He started the season as a second-round pick with a first-round chip on his shoulder, fought his way into a role as an energy guy off the bench, became a regular fixture in the rotation, then started at point guard Saturday against the Celtics.

All he did in that game was become the first rookie in NBA history to score at least 20 points (he finished with 21), hand out 10 assists and shoot 90% from the field. Dosunmu went 9-for-10 in the loss, including 3-for-3 from three-point range.

Not bad for a guy who went 0-for-5 from the field Friday in a loss to the Warriors.

”I had a tough night, didn’t play to my standards,” Dosunmu said of his performance against the Warriors. ”But I knew we had another chance [Saturday] to get better, so I wanted to establish that mentality. It’s a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately league, and there are so many games that you can’t get too high or too low. That was my challenge.

”And then coach [Billy] Donovan said we weren’t playing hard enough. All the coaches that I played for, since I was 4 years old, play hard was one of the main things you have to do to compete. So I wanted to play as hard as I can. That’s the type of player I am. Whenever my coach asks for something, I know that he means it genuinely. I just do whatever I can to follow through on what his request is. I just want to play as hard as I can.”

Dosunmu did what he could for the Bulls, who were missing their starting backcourt with Zach LaVine and Lonzo Ball each working through knee issues.

”For a young guy like him to play with so much poise and not get rushed into making quick decisions, just playing smart ball, is impressive at that age,” center Nikola Vucevic said. ”Especially only in his third start and playing however many games we’ve played so far. He played well at both ends. He’s been doing that all year long. It’s a huge addition for us.”

And a huge addition for the city. Chicago needs a star to carry that basketball torch. Davis still has a lot of basketball left, and even Rose has moments when he’s healthy. So there’s no rush for Dosunmu.

But that has been the most impressive part about him: He doesn’t follow timeline expectations and usual paths. For Dosunmu, it’s not whether he’ll be a star from Chicago but how quickly.

”You have to grow up fast,” he said. ”I’m trying to compete and play how I know I can play.”

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It took less than five years for Bills general manager Brandon Beane and coach Sean McDermott to turn one of the NFL’s most famously futile franchises into a Super Bowl contender. Any sputtering team will want some of that mojo.

Count the Bears among the jealous. While they can’t have Beane or McDermott, they’re looking for the next best thing. They interviewed assistant general manager Joe Schoen and both coordinators — Brian Daboll on offense, Leslie Frazier on defense — Sunday for vacancies at general manager and head coach.

That trio got a fortuitous head start on the interviews by laying out their collective case in the Bills’ 47-17 stomping of the Patriots in the first round of the playoffs Saturday night.

The Bills buried the Patriots with a 27-0 lead in the second quarter as Daboll’s offense averaged 9.1 yards per play and Frazier’s defense overwhelmed. While McDermott is a defensive-minded head coach, Frazier is in his third decade of coaching and is the Bills’ defensive play caller.

“Let me just make sure I’m clear here: Leslie Frazier runs the defense,” McDermott said Saturday. “I want to give credit where credit is due. This is not Sean McDermott’s defense; this is Leslie’s defense.”

The Bills rolled to victory — their third playoff win in two years — with eight of their 10 first- and second-round picks under Beane and Schoen on the field. One of the two who didn’t play was two-time Pro Bowl cornerback Tre’Davious White, who is injured.

There’s a lot to overcome still, but the Bills are marching toward their first Super Bowl appearance since losing four in a row in the early 1990s.

The Bills bottomed out at the end of that decade and were much more of a mess than the current Bears when Beane and McDermott took over in 2017. From 2000 through ’16, the Bills averaged 6.6 wins, had the sixth-worst record in the NFL and were the only team that didn’t make the playoffs.

Schoen and Frazier have been with them throughout their upswing. Daboll joined in 2018, the same year they drafted quarterback Josh Allen No. 7 overall.

Daboll spent 11 seasons with the Patriots, which always stands out on a r?sum?. Interestingly, his first two years were on the defensive staff before shifting permanently to offense. He has eight seasons of NFL experience as a coordinator and another running the offense for Nick Saban at Alabama.

None of his NFL offenses were very good until he helped the Bills jump to No. 2 in scoring last season and No. 5 this season.

His work with Allen will be particularly interesting to the Bears. He was picked third among quarterbacks that season after a wobbly career at Wyoming and had a rough first two seasons before blossoming into an MVP candidate last season.

The Bears will be looking for him to repeat that success with Justin Fields, who endured various forms of dysfunction his rookie season and produced a mixed bag that was unconvincing: 73.2 passer rating, seven touchdown passes, 10 interceptions, two rushing touchdowns, 12 fumbles.

Fields and Allen are both dual-threat quarterbacks, but they’re very different as runners. While Fields has the speed of a wide receiver, Allen runs with the thunder of a tight end.

But it’s Allen’s progress on throwing accuracy that is the envy of the league. Many doubted he’d ever correct it, which was a big reason Baker Mayfield and Sam Darnold went ahead of him in the draft. He completed just 56% of his passes his last two seasons of college and was under 60% his first two pro seasons before finishing fourth in the league at 69.2% last season.

Allen typically raves about Daboll’s influence, and while quarterbacks coach Ken Dorsey also has had an impact, Daboll is seen as the biggest factor in fixing a problem that many draft analysts thought was unfixable.

“Those two have a critical relationship,” McDermott told Yahoo! last year. “They spend probably more time together than any player or coach in our building… Brian has done a real nice job of helping Josh develop on the field and off the field and see the game.”

Daboll will certainly have some thoughts on Fields.

But Frazier has similarly impressive credentials as a defensive guru. And he can flex something that no other candidate can: He’s got an ’85 Bears Super ring. Frazier can open the conversation with, “You’re welcome.” He’s too classy to do that, of course, but he did play cornerback for the Bears from 1981 through ’85 and was a starter on the title team.

Frazier’s Bears connection will surely impress chairman George McCaskey, but his coaching record will carry much more weight. In 16 seasons as an NFL defensive coordinator or head coach, his defense was in the top half of the league seven times. He went 21-32-1 coaching the Vikings from 2010 through ’13, so the Bears will certainly want a full debrief of what went wrong and what he learned.

Most recently, however, Frazier’s defense allowed the fewest points in the league and was third in takeaways this season.

Trying to recreate the Bills’ resurgence is enticing, but it’s never that easy. The majority of teams that have tried to replicate Bill Belichick’s model by hiring his assistants, for example, have failed.

There’s no guarantee that taking Schoen and one of the Bills’ coordinators will translate to a massive turnaround like it did in Buffalo. But the Bears need to rebuild, and these guys seem pretty good at tackling that type of task.

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True to their word, the Blackhawks sent top prospect Lukas Reichel back to the AHL on Sunday.

Interim coach Derek King had described the Hawks’ plan to give Reichel a two-game taste of the NHL, then let him continue his development playing 20-plus minutes every night in Rockford, a “chance to do it right by him.”

As tempting as it must’ve been to keep the 19-year-old center around longer — even just for Monday’s matchup against the Kraken, which precedes a three-day break — patience and long-term vision ultimately prevailed.

It’s obvious now the Hawks plan to slide the official start of his three-year entry-level contract to 2022-23. That means they can’t play him in more than nine NHL games this season. He has seven games remaining, which will likely be sprinkled into the March and April portions of the schedule.

But it’s also obvious he possesses all the necessary skill, intelligence and moxie to succeed in the NHL right now if allowed. After another few months of ripening and another offseason of strengthening, he could instantly become one of the Hawks’ best forwards when he steps in full-time next season.

His zero points aside, he demonstrated that lofty ceiling as convincingly as he possibly could have this week. King, for one, was certainly impressed.

“I really liked his pace of play,” King said after Thursday’s win. “He can skate, and you could see it. He pushes the ‘D’ back, he pushes everybody back, and he frees up a lot of space for other guys. You see him dishing over to [Patrick] Kane, and you look at Kane when he gets the puck and there’s nobody in his face.

“He was doing a lot — still skating, pushing back their ‘D’ and opening up room — but he looked a lot more comfortable [doing so],” King said after Saturday’s win. “And he took that big hit, so you’re always concerned, but he bounced right back up and got back in the play. I was happy for him, and I was happy to see him in these two games.”

Reichel played 15:55 against the Canadiens and 14:51 against the Ducks. He attempted seven shots himself, five of which were on-goal, and blocked one opponent shot. He won five of 14 faceoffs, a common struggle for rookie centers. The Hawks neither scored nor conceded any goals during his ice time.

Analytically, he posted — at even strength — a 40.9% scoring-chance ratio (nine for, 13 against) and 42.6% expected-goals ratio. His numbers were better when on the ice with his assigned linemates, Kane and Brandon Hagel; they had a 53.3% scoring-chance ratio (eight for, seven against) and 52.4% expected-goals ratio during 22:15 together.

Reichel’s impacts were more visible beyond the statistics. He particularly excelled with offensive zone entries, gliding effortlessly through neutral-zone traps or forcing defensemen to concede the blue line without a contest thanks to his steady, elusive and dangerously explosive-when-needed skating stride.

Once in the zone, he did a good job finding open space to send and receive passes. His wrist-shot release looked quick and accurate, too, although he could’ve used it more than he did. With more experience, he’ll learn he has the skill to hold the puck on his stick longer — he observed already that “sometimes you think you have not so much time, but you have time.”

That comfort level should solidify quickly, too, because he’s such a poised, self-assured person. He said Thursday he “had my confidence the whole game.” Asked later if he was surprised he wasn’t nervous, his answer — “no, that’s just my personality” — was accompanied by a smile the size of Germany.

“I don’t want to put the puck in and go for a change; I want to make plays,” he added. “I know I can, and I just want to show [that].”

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