If it wasn’t clear already that my Bulls drafted the right guy when they choose hometown kid, Derrick Rose, it is now. Andre Miller is a veteran and he should have seen all the crossovers in the world by now. However, it’s apparent Rose is so special that his crossover gone and crossed his eyes, crossed his ankles and crossed his heart and hope to goodness that somehow the camera missed him falling flat on his behind! Besides Rose’s pure athletic ability, I love how grounded the kid is. And I can call him kid because he is only twenty for pete’s sakes. If I pulled a move like that even against a 7-year-old I would make a comment a lot different than what Derrick Rose had to say about the play…
“I just did a simple move and he fell,” Rose said. “I’ve done that before. It’s just that’s the first time it happened in a game. I just thought it was a regular play. It just naturally happened. I just wanted to score and I put myself in a situation that I could get to the basket.
“That’s how I’ve been playing my whole life. I just try to win. For those plays to happen, it just takes a will. I just wanted those plays to happen.”
The last Bulls’ jersey I bought had Jordan written across the back. But don’t think I’m fair-weathered, ever since Jordan left the Bulls my passion for the team has remained the same. However, there has yet to be a true leader or untouchable in the organization that I could idolize and brag about…until now. Looks like a Bulls jersey is on my Christmas list this year.
Filed under: Bulls | Tags: Ben Gordon, Ben Wallace, Bulls, Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, Kirk Hinrich, Larry Hughes, Thabo Sefolosha, Tyrus Thomas, Vinny Del Negro
http://www.doubletruckmagazine.com/issues/dt_004/mediafiles/l33.jpg
Just yesterday a friend of mine asked what I hoped from my Bulls this season. Needless to say it took about five text messages to answer that question and I still wasn’t satisfied. Therefore, I’d like to answer that question in a series of blogs here. If I was running the show so to speak this is the first area I would like to see addressed.
Get rid of the guards. Last year we were overloaded at power forward which took time away from our young nucleus of talent. After we traded Ben Wallace away, that problem was solved. Guys like Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah were finally getting their minutes needed to develop as prime-time players in this league. The only downside about the trade was we acquired Larry Hughes. By just stating the domain name of a website dedicated to him, you’ll immediately see the issue. This ball-hog was now taking time away from Thabo Sefolosha, our Swiss defensive specialist whose name sounds like you should say, “Bless You!” after you hear it. Then we drafted our point guard of the future in Derrick Rose to an already crowded back-court. It’s clear there is not enough minutes in a basketball game to please Derrick Rose, Kirk Hinrich, Larry Hughes, Ben Gordon and Thabo Sefolosha. It’d be easy if one was much better than the other, but not much separates this group in overall talent.
I’d like to see the Bulls shop Hughes first. The man is getting paid superstar money after having one good season with Washington, so his contract is hard to move and has 2 years left on it. But I’m so adamant about getting rid of this guy that if we can’t find any takers, we simply need to buyout his contract so our new coach, Vinny Del Negro, can dish out minutes to the guards a little easier. Hughes is past his prime and is of no use to a team that is now being built around Derrick Rose.
That leaves Kirk Hinrich and Ben Gordon. I’m putting Sefolosha on the untouchables list due to his age and knack for shutting down players. I’m not being completely honest, his name is too cool to hear another announcer say it. But back to Kirk and Ben. These two looked to be the prime building blocks to our new dynasty, but each decided to peak in their rookie year. We can’t get rid of both because then we would be thin at guard. Kirk has already signed a new contract after his rookie deal expired that was front-loaded, meaning as time goes on, he gets paid less annually. Ben on the other hand is due an extension, however he wants superstar money and the man can’t play defense to save his life, coughs up the ball every time he’s double-teamed, is under-sized for a shooting guard. Kirk at least has decent size and can play some defense. Ben is an amazing player to watch shoot the ball when he gets hot, but only being able to shoot a beautiful rainbow into the basketball doesn’t make you a superstar in my eyes. He’s a great 6th man off the bench to provide a scoring bonanza, but he wants starter money and that would be a financially bad decision for the Bulls to make. With Rose and Sefolosha starting, we are young and inexperienced, but we are rebuilding and I feel those two have the best chance of making us complete. And since Kirk can play point guard and shooting guard, he’ll be able to give either of our young stars a breather when they need it. But what do I know, I’m just the biggest Chicago sports fan in the world.
Filed under: Bulls | Tags: broadcast, Bulls, Derrick Rose, Johnny Kerr, Michael Jordan, Suns, Vinny Del Negro
I wanted to do a little tribute this time around for the Bulls. Like I said before I had the chance to watch some preseason basketball the other day and witness our star rookie, Derrick Rose, in action. I also got to see our new head coach and former NBA player, Vinny Del Negro, call out plays for the first time. Those were changes I expected to witness when I watched this game. What I had forgotten about was that the Bulls changed their broadcasting lineup for this season.
Since 1974, Johnny “Red” Kerr had broadcast for the Bulls. And due to the rigors of traveling with the Bulls for their 82-game schedule, the 72 year old decided to only work pre-game and half-time shows for the home games. Therefore, as I watched the game it was like I was listening to another language without Red calling the games. Kerr was the very first coach of the Chicago Bulls as well as the Phoenix Suns shortly after. I have so much respect for the man.
He broadcasted each game with true passion for the Bulls. He didn’t try and flaunt a sexy deep voice, he simply rocked his Chicago accent, had the Bulls’ backs through thick and thin and told the greatest stories to keep me interested during the horrible years after Jordan retired. I already miss hearing him call the games, but happy I’ll get to see him in some capacity. This blogs for you Red.
Filed under: Bulls | Tags: Ben Wallace, Bulls, championship, Derrick Rose, Larry Hughes, Michael Beasley, Michael Jordan, NBA Draft, playoffs
- http://www.nba.com/media/act_derrick_rose.jpg
Last season, many experts picked the Bulls to represent the East in the championship. For whatever reason, not only did they not make the championship, they didn’t even make the playoffs. Their coach got fired, our big free-agent bust, Ben Wallace, got traded for somebody else’s scraps and at 33-49, the Bulls didn’t seem to have enough ping-pong balls for the lottery to acquire an all-star in the draft. There were only 2 prizes to be had in the draft, Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley, and the Bulls only had a 1.9% chance of winning the draft lottery. Imagine if that happened!?
Filed under: Cubs | Tags: 100 years, Bears, Bulls, Cubs, curse, Diamondbacks, Dodgers, Eddie Vedder, Ernie Banks, Mets, White Sox, World Series
since this is the first blog, i wanna take a second to explain what this blog will be all about. i was born and raised in chicago and am a die-hard chicago sports fan. well everyone in chicago except the white sox. reason being…i’m from the north side. if from you’re from the north, you’re a cubs a fan. if you’re from the south, you’re a sox fan. and if you like both, you’re really not a sports fan because that’s a sin. so each time i blog i’m gonna discuss some aspect of chicago sports and my biased feelings. for now till the end of october when i believe the cubs will win the world series, i’m gonna focus on my beloved cubbies. but look for a lot of mentions of da bears and da bulls after that time period. oh “da” is “the” in chicago talk just like everyone’s dad’s name is bob in chicago.
so anyways, my cubbies only have a few games left in the season and are guarenteed to finish the best team in the national league. the lovable losers actually are the best not only in my heart but in the standings for once. it’s been 100 years since they lost won the world series, and like a true cubs fan… i believe this is the year. i still don’t know who the cubs are scheduled to face yet but it will be either the mets or the dodgers. we have history with the mets so it would be nice to play them and get revenge on them for the cursed season of 1969 but i really don’t care who we play. i know we’re better than both of them. but i’m only gonna take this one series at a time. last year we got swept in the first round by the freakin dbacks, so i’m just gonna try my best to stay level-headed. for now i’ll leave you with a new popular song sung by pearl jam’s eddier vedder. former cub great ernie banks urged him to write a song for the cubs since vedder is a huge fan. i just heard it the other day and it’s stuck in my head. so here’s the youtube video for eddie vedder “all the way.”
