The Bulls/Celtics playoff series was one of the most exciting in recent memory. Almost every game came down to the wire and had fans all across the country glued to their seats. The players poured everything they had into those seven contests in April. Many fans believe the series was one of the best ever, possibly the best first-round series in history.

For the Chicago players, though, the 4-3 series loss to Boston still stings in many ways.

I asked Lindsey Hunter on Thursday night if that series was the best he had ever played in and, after pondering the question for a few seconds, he finally gave an answer that would have seemed unthinkable just a few months ago.

"No," the 17-year veteran said with a bit of a laugh. "It was a great series, but I don't know if it was the best I've ever been in."

From a few lockers over, Joakim Noah heard the answer and added an observation of his own.

"He's won series before," the third-year center said.

No matter how great the games were, the Bulls will always remember that they came up just a little short at the end. Still, that doesn't mean that they have completely forgotten about those two weeks in April. Here, in their own words, is a look back through the players' memories …

Vinny Del Negro

A specific memory? "The overall experience, for the team, and for myself. Boston is a very experienced team, defending world champs and all that when we played them, so the overall experience -- you take away that. The way we competed, I thought we played hard. And they were all very close games that could have went either way sometimes, but unfortunately we made a couple more mistakes than they did."

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Joakim Noah's steal and breakaway dunk on Boston's Paul Pierce in Game 6 is Kirk Hinrich's favorite memory of the Bulls-Celtics playoff series.

Kirk Hinrich

What do you remember most? "All the overtimes. Joakim stealing the ball, going the full length of the court [in Game 6]. The most memorable play was probably Joakim stealing the ball and going the full length of the court."

Were a lot of people calling you after those games? "Yeah. Pretty much the response everywhere we went was like, 'Wow! What a series.' It seemed like after you had a couple great games, it couldn't get much better, but then it seemed like game after game just kept intensifying -- the series was such a battle. Looking back on it you're like, 'Wow! That's about as good as it gets.' "

Best series you've ever been a part of? "Yeah, probably. As far as intensity and every possession counts, yeah, absolutely."

Derrick Rose

Do you have one specific memory from that series? "That whole experience was great for me. I hope I don't get spoiled by it."

How much did you learn from that series? "I really don't know until this year. I told you I feel way more comfortable on the court. Hopefully this year, I know like pick and roll, defense/offense stuff. Just learning where everybody is on the court, who's supposed to be open on certain plays, just learn that and be more comfortable with that --- and turnovers -- I'm working on having less turnovers this year."

Did your Game 1 performance boost your confidence? "Yeah, I was just confident. I was just confident throughout the whole series. I just wanted to win. My whole goal was just winning."

Obviously, that was your first playoff series. But were those games back-to-back-to-back the best you've ever played in? "You could say they were. In AAU tournaments, you only played [teams] once. We never played series, we just played games as a team [and then] it's over with. For that to be my [first] series, I felt like it was great.

Joakim Noah

What do you remember most? "Losing. Losing Game 7. That's what I remember most out of the series. We really had a chance to win, move on and play Orlando, and I think that would have been great. That's what I remember the most out of it."

Did you gain anything out of that series? "Yeah. I feel like when you play in situations like that, pressure situations -- we're a young team. A lot of us had never experienced the playoffs before, you get to experience that feeling because it's definitely a whole different level of playing, comparing it to regular-season [games]. The competitiveness of it, the toughness, just really focusing in for 48 minutes, and I feel like you definitely learn from it. "

John Salmons

What do you remember most? "Just the intensity of it. Every game, besides the one game [Game 3], every game pretty much came down to the wire. Every possession counted. You couldn't take a possession off. It was a learning experience in a lot of different ways. I think we learned about each other as a team. We learned about ourselves as individuals. It was a good learning experience for all of us."

Brad Miller

Do you have a specific memory? [Laughs] "A lot of memories out of that one. A lot of wounds. It took a while to heal, too."

Best series you've ever played in? "Yeah, it was definitely the most intense. Elimination games like that, win or go home. The intensity throughout that whole series -- it was fun to play in, that's for sure."

Lindsey Hunter

Is there a single memory that sticks out to you from that series? "I think the biggest memory was, you always remember when it's over. And you're not advancing. I think those are the things that have that lasting impression of how hard it is to get up to that point. And how hard it is to even advance in this league. So hopefully we can focus on that and remember and try to put ourselves in a better position to not even have to face a team as tough as that [in the first round]. "

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