Category: Chicago Bulls

Margaret Cho Wasn’t Available, So the Bulls Sign…

On By Frank the TankIn Chicago Bulls, NBA Basketball, SportsLeave a comment

I was invited at the last second to go to last night’s Bulls game against the Nets, so I of course gladly accepted.  The Bulls looked like a playoff team last night in beating New Jersey, the first place team in the Atlantic Division, 95-87.  Playing the Pistons tonight, however, won’t help the Bulls in terms of stringing together a bona-fide winning streak for once.  A few random thoughts:

1) I didn’t realize that the Bulls signed Carrot Top to an NBA contract a couple of days ago.

2) Andres Nocioni is the Bulls’ reincarnation of former Illini player Lucas Johnson.  Nocioni is a tough and scrappy player that you love to have on your team and opponents love to hate.  He had a fantastic game last night with 24 points off the bench.

3) Vince Carter scored the quietest 25 points that I’ve ever seen.  Seriously, our group commented throughout the entire game on how Carter looked sluggish, hurt, sick, and disinterested.  Yet we were all shocked to see at the end how many points he had scored during the night.  Vinsanity has got to be high on the list for the NBA record for most garbage-time points.

4) I wouldn’t have been surprised if Carter, Jason Kidd, or Richard Jefferson went nuts on the Bulls.  However, I wasn’t expecting Nenad Krstic to look like the Serbian Shaq with 29 points.  The dude was on fire – Carrot Top had no chance.

5) What’s up with Ben Gordon’s relationship with Bulls coach Scott Skiles?  While Gordon is a liability on defense, he’s such a ridiculously good offensive player that the Bulls need him out on the floor a majority of the time.  Instead, he only received 24 minutes of playing time and was absent for most of the 4th quarter even when the score was close.  Skiles has done an admirable job with this franchise over the past couple of years, but his handling of the one player on the team that has the skills to become a true NBA star is puzzling.

Coming up – after tackling the Big Ten issues of the locale of its basketball tournament and the adding of a 12th team, I’ll be reviewing some changes I’d like to see to the Big East Tournament and the World Baseball Classic over the next few days.  Stay tuned!

Praising Isiah (as a Bulls Fan)

On By Frank the TankIn Chicago Bulls, NBA Basketball, SportsLeave a comment

It looks like Isiah Thomas is determined to have the greatest collection of overpaid underachieving players in the history of sports – and as a Bulls fan, this is the greatest situation ever. Thomas has now brought Steve Francis on board to the New York Knicks, meaning the wacky GM has added yet another bloated contract to the ridiculously high salary team. The Knicks are paying out $130 million in salaries this season, which is over $30 million more than the next highest team payroll in the NBA in the Dallas Mavericks. The difference is that the Knicks are 23 games under .500 while the Mavericks have the best record in the Western Conference. With the way that the NBA salary cap is structured, the Knicks are stuck with all of these underachievers and cannot take advantage of their superior financial resources to sign anyone from the bumper crop of free agents coming onto the market over the next couple of years

Statistically, it might seem like Isiah made a good deal by sending Penny Hardaway and Trevor Ariza to the Magic in exchange for Francis. However, Francis has a long history of being a selfish player that doesn't get along with his teammates and coaches. It's okay to bring in a talented but underachieving problem child to a team that has strong leaders to smack him into line. In the Knicks' case, though, they already have underachieving, lackadaisical, and overpaid players in Stephon Marbury, Jamal Crawford, Eddy Curry, Quentin Richardson – actually, it's really everyone on the Knicks roster. Larry Brown is a stellar coach, but I can't see even him turning around this nightmare of a ballclub.

As Sam Smith pointed out a couple of weeks ago, the biggest beneficiary of Isiah's ineptitude could possibly be the Bulls. From the Eddy Curry trade, the Bulls get the Knicks' first-round draft pick for this year and then have the right to swap first-round picks with them in 2007. As the Knicks continue to tank, they could very well end up with the #1 pick in the NBA Draft for two seasons in a row – and the Bulls would get them both! That means we could end up with Adam Morrison after this season and then, even more exciting, the next great center in Greg Oden after that. If the Bulls have those two guys on the court with Kirk Hinrich and Luol Deng with Ben Gordon and Tyson Chandler rotating in, we could have a new NBA dynasty in Chicago. Isiah Thomas is finally giving something back to his hometown after being our nemesis with the Pistons!

Land-o-Links: 1/19/2006

On By Frank the TankIn Chicago Bulls, Land-o-Links, NBA Basketball, Random Thoughts, SportsLeave a comment

Wacky stuff today:

1) Bulls/Knicks Recap – One of the most bizarre sporting events I’ve ever seen.  It was Eddy Curry’s first game in Chicago since getting traded by the Bulls, Chris Duhon got into a fight and was ejected, Ben Gordon hit a game-winning jumper at the buzzer in overtime, and, oh yeah, Antonio Davis charged into the stands to protect his wife’s honor (personally, Davis should have been given the right to put the smackdown on that idiot fan without any recourse from the NBA).

2) Blago’s State of the State Address – Governor Rod Blagojevich delivered the shortest State of the State Address in Illinois history, with this being the full text: “Keno.  Done and done.”

3) X’s and O’s U – A public university located in a central Illinois town that begins with “Ch” is tied with USC as being the top producer of NFL coaches… and you know it’s not Illinois.  Congratulations Keith on your alma mater being the new cradle of pro coaching!

4) When Bad People Are Punished, Men Smile (but Women Don’t) – Scientific study showing that men get a kick out of revenge while women feel empathy for pain felt by both good and bad people.

5) The Secret Lives of Rats – I once saw a city rat in Chinatown eat a chihuahua.  If this article is true, that rat wasn’t interested in the dog’s meat.

I’ll be back with NFL predictions tomorrow (just don’t use my picks for gambling purposes if you want to keep your money).  Have a great day!

The Tice is Right

On By Frank the TankIn Big Ten, Chicago Bulls, College Football, NBA Basketball, NFL FootballLeave a comment

The Bears did their part in trying to save Mike Tice’s coaching job in Minnesota this weekend by working Brad Maynard into the QB rotation.  I was hoping that the late season surge and one more win by the Vikings would treat us to another season of Tice in all of his glorious idiocy.  Alas, it was not to be.  The players hadn’t even finished showering after the game by the time Vikings management axed Tice on Sunday.  All of the NFC North outside of Minnesota will dearly miss the hodge podge of putrid defense, ticket scalping, sex cruises, and underachieving teams.  I challenge anyone to find a more horrific yet unintentionally hilarious coach in the history of the NFL.

Meanwhile, I’m feeling really good about the Bears’ chances to advance in the playoffs and it’s hard to fully justify.  We’re being led by a QB who has played in 1 1/2 games this season.  The performance in Green Bay on Christmas Day wasn’t exactly dominating.  Yet when our team is heading into the playoffs with the best defensive unit in the NFL (the stats may say the Bucs finished ahead of the Bears, but that’s the product of the scrubs’ play in week 17), I’ve got to feel pretty good.  We’re going to be subjected to another month of talk about the ridiculous offensive output of the Colts and Seahawks, but once again, people are going to smoke the peace pipe of high scoring teams and forget that defense wins championships.  At this point, I really like the historical symmetry of the Bears and Patriots meeting in the Super Bowl once again 20 years after the great culmination to the 1985 Bears season.  If that happens, people are going to question whether I made a deal with the devil after the Illini made the Final Four and the White Sox won the World Series in a one-year timespan.

Other New Year’s Weekend Sports Tidbits:

1) You Can’t Teach (the Bulls) Height – The Bulls’ losing streak hit 7 games last night and it’s apparent that the team’s great depth at the guard and small forward positions cannot compensate for their sheer lack of size in the frontcourt.  John Paxson shouldn’t be blamed for the Eddy Curry fiasco this past summer, but it would have been nice if someone like new Bucks center Jamaal Magloire (who smacked the Bulls for 14 points last night) was in a Bulls uniform as a replacement.  Unless the Bulls get some size by the trade deadline, I don’t think we’re making the playoffs this season.

2) Troy’s Conquest – I predicted in my BCS bowl picks last week that Ohio State would easily cover the spread against Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl, but I thought it would be because of the Buckeye defense.  Instead, OSU QB Troy Smith threw for more big passing plays in a single game than Woody Hayes called for in his entire coaching career while rolling over the overrated Irish.  Kudos to Buckeye coach Jim Tressel for turning a classic grind-it-out Big Ten running team into an explosive offense in the hands of Smith.  With the junior QB likely returning, we might be watching Ohio State go for national championships in both football and basketball next year.  (On a side note, doesn’t Brady Quinn’s sister/A.J. Hawk’s girlfriend bear a spooky resemblance to Steven Tyler?  Lady looks like a dude!)

Coming soon: recaps of the Rose Bowl and the huge Illinois – Michigan State Big Ten opener, plus some long overdue posts on politics and the baseball hot stove league.  Until then, happy back to work day!

Rex in Effect

On By Frank the TankIn Big East, Big Ten, Chicago Bulls, College Basketball, DePaul Blue Demons, Illinois Fighting Illini, NBA Basketball, NFL Football, Sports2 Comments

Well, there’s no longer a quarterback controversy in Chicago.  The Bears mauled the Frozen Dirty Birds 16-3 at Soldier Field last night as Kyle Orton got yanked for Rex Grossman in the second half.  Like a cowboy gunslinging back into town (by cowboy, I mean the Clint Eastwood-type as opposed to the Jake Gyllenhaal-type), Grossman’s return to action showed the potential of the Bears having some semblance of a passing game.  Kudos to Lovie Smith and Ron Turner for calling the long pass play from Grossman to Mushin Muhammad right out of the gate – the bold move to change the QB midstream would not have meant anything if wasn’t backed up with aggressive play-calling.  Of course, Grossman still had to channel the spirit of A.J. Pierzynski after throwing a goal line pick that was fumbled right back by the Falcons on the same play.  The Bears offense did look like it changed attitudes after the QB change, but as excited as I am with these developments, this was only one half of a football game and Grossman still threw a pretty bad interception.  We should hold off drinking the Kool-Aid of how great this offense is going to be for the rest of the season and postseason.  Let’s just call it a positive step for now.

For all of the headlines Rex is receiving in today’s papers (Rick Morrissey, Mike Downey, and Jay Mariotti are all predictably gushing), the Bears defense once again won the game last night in what was probably their best performance of the season to date.  In addition to 2 interceptions, they held Michael Vick to 122 yards passing, 35 yards rushing, and, most amazingly, ZERO “Are you kidding me?!” calls from Mike Patrick.  When the average NFL QB, much less Vick, receives about 5 “Are you kidding me?!” calls from Mike Patrick for routine passing plays on any given Sunday night game and your defense holds the opposing QB to zero, that defense has done its job not only for your team but also the ears of every ESPN viewer in the country.

We should also take a moment to reflect on Kyle Orton since it seems that a lot of Bears fans are just piling on him right now.  This guy was drafted in the 4th round this year with the intent of him being #3 on the Bears depth chart.  After Rex broke his ankle in the preseason and the Bears finally figured out that Chad Hutchinson is a much better surfer than passer, the team, without any other viable alternative, threw Orton in there.

At the beginning of the year, most sane Bears fans thought we would be lucky to do a repeat of the 5-11 record from the 2004 season with a rookie QB at the helm.  Instead, we’re now looking at the Bears possibly clinching the NFC North division title on Christmas Day against, of all teams, the Packers on the Frozen Tundra (I can’t tell you how beautiful that sounds).  While Orton may never be a player that an NFL team could build an offense around, he largely has played mistake-free football for 13 weeks, which can’t be said of guys like Brett Favre.  Let’s all thank him for making a huge contribution for what’s been an incredible season so far.

Other Weekend Sports Tidbits:

1) The Vikings Not Currently Incarcerated Finally Lose – The Steelers continued their romp through the NFC North by pasting the Vikings in the Hump Dome.  This thankfully gives the Bears a 2-game cushion in the division with 2 games to go.  At the same time, the Vikings’ inexplicable 6-game winning streak before yesterday practically guarantees us to see another year of the coaching train wreck formerly known as Mike Tice.  Man, this season has gone so well for the Bears on so many levels.

2) Don’t Be Fooled Again: Pats Will Win the AFC – After witnessing the Patriots’ deconstruction of the Bucs on Saturday, I became convinced that New England is heading to the Super Bowl yet again (and this was before the Colts’ quest for perfection was stomped out by San Diego).  I don’t care how the Colts spanked the Pats in Foxboro a few Monday nights ago or if the AFC Championship will be played on the carpet of the RCA/Hoosier/firemikedavis.com Dome – Bill Belicheck has adjusted his defense to compensate for that unit’s rash of injuries and the offense is humming along.  I’m calling it right now – the Patriots will beat the Colts in the playoffs.

3) Illini Sloppily Roll Over the City of Coppin (State) – From all accounts I’ve seen of this game, the 19-point margin of victory by the Illini last night over Coppin State was illusory.  16 turnovers and trouble against yet another zone defense doesn’t sound very pleasing.  Maybe our guys were, uh, a little groggy from studying for finals all week.  Still, for all of the game-to-game inconsistencies in terms of quality of play, the Illini continue to be extremely consistent in grabbing victories by pushing their record to 11-0 and have vaulted to #6 in the latest AP and Coaches’ Polls.

4) Ol’ Dirty Wants DePaul’s Money – Jeez, any complaints about the inconsistency of the Illini are quashed by the bipolar performances of DePaul.  Literally moments after a triumphant upset of #16 Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, the Blue Demons suffered the worst defeat in their program’s entire history on Saturday in a road game against Colonial Athletic Association power Ol’ Dirty University.  ODU more than doubled up on DePaul in a ridiculous 87-43 game.  I really have no clue on what to expect from the Demons when they get initiated into the Big East in a couple of weeks.

5) Detroit Roadblock Part II and a Coach Dale Whuppin’ – It’s starting to feel like the world prior to 1991 again, when a young Bulls team kept making strides until getting slapped back to Earth by the Detroit Pistons.  The only difference is that the old Bad Boy Pistons teams were dirty and evil thugs (I have never hated nor will I ever hate an athlete more than Bill Laimbeer.  Larry Bird once said “God was disguised as Michael Jordan” when His Airness was on the basketball court.  By that same token, Satan’s Spawn was disguised as Bill Laimbeer) while the current Pistons play brilliant lock-down defense while passing the ball on offense as well as any team in the NBA.  So, it wasn’t a shock that the Bulls were pulverised by the Detroit by 28 points on Friday evening.  Fortunately, Scott Skiles went Norman Dale on the team by running them through a full 2-hour practice right before their Saturday evening game against the Celtics.  Coach Skiles might need to do this more often – the Bulls went out and trounced Boston by 32 points while hitting 14 out of 17 from the 3-point arc.

Anyway, any weekend with victories by the Bears, Illini, and Bulls is a great sports weekend.  I’ll have much more on the Illini following Wednesday night’s Braggin’ Rights Game against Mizzou.  Plus, I’ll reveal the celebrity that Mizzou coach Quin Snyder spookily reminds me of.