If you are like many Americans – middle-class, middle-aged males not unlike myself – and watched your first NBA games this season on Christmas, then you probably think the Chicago Bulls are just fine. If you have watched at any other time this season, then you know otherwise. On Christmas, the Bulls played perhaps their best game of the season. They went into Loud City without injured emotional leader Joakim Noah and never trailed against the Thunder, leaving with a convincing 105-96
It’s difficult enough to try to integrate an injured star player at any point during an NBA season. It’s even tougher to ease back a star during the season’s stretch run and adjust during the playoffs. This is the challenge the Chicago Bulls face once again in bringing point guard Derrick Rose back into the fold. Four games into a comeback from his most recent knee injury, the Bulls are very pleased with Rose’s progress and optimistic that they are coming together just in
I write this column every year two days before the regular season ends, and I usually get right to the point. But this year I am going to start a little differently. So let me get one item off my chest and out of the way: Michele Roberts is way off base. The new executive director of the NBA Players Association tried to reinvent the wheel this week when it was reported that she is instituting the Players Choice Awards, which will
With the NCAA Tourament upon us, it seems like as good a time as any to remind everyone that there is a canyon between coaching in college and coaching in the NBA. There is more than a generation of evidence which clearly illustrates that any NBA team hiring a head coach directly from college is making a huge mistake. P.J. Carlesimo. Tim Floyd. Leonard Hamilton. Lon Kruger. Mike Montgomery. Jerry Tarkanian. Rick Pitino, who failed twice. Even John Calipari, who is
Remember that time in the summer when Carmelo Anthony had the chance to join a team that was basically tailor-made for him? Hint: it’s not the floundering team he’s with right now. The answer: it was the Chicago Bulls, and they wanted the small forward badly to potentially create one of the most devastating teams in the entire NBA. Unfortunately, they couldn’t pay him the money necessary to bring him in (technically, no one could except you know who), and Anthony ultimately
It’s been a tumultuous week for the Cleveland Cavaliers. After a solid four-game win streak against teams like the New Orleans Pelicans and Atlanta Hawks, the script has been flipped in Northeast Ohio. The Cavs are now on a four-game losing streak. An ugly losing streak. At times, we’ve seen glimpses of the brilliance of coach David Blatt’s offense. Unfortunately, at the same time, we’ve seen a nonexistent defense and a let’s-stand-around-and-watch-someone-dribble offense. [Read more…]
You can’t win ‘em all. It wasn’t my night, but congratulations to those who took home big bucks from DraftKings on Big Wednesday. [Read more…]
For the first time in years, the Chicago Bulls entered the offseason with salary cap flexibility and great expectations in the free agent market. But they finished second in the Carmelo Anthony sweepstakes, whiffed on Kevin Love and settled for veteran Pau Gasol as a consolation prize. However, if this team has the look of the same old Bulls, that may not be all bad. Derrick Rose returns from what amounts to a two-year layoff, and if the former MVP can