Every Sunday Morning, a place where various things get thrown out, shot at, cut open, and dissected. Topics of interest: psychological, and medical anthropology, privatization, globalization, excess, language, humor, hip-hop culture, jazz, brain and mind, memory, urban space development, Los Angeles, the Chicago Bulls, UCLA Bruins, FC Barcelona, and mankind.
I started a new blog about Los Angeles and open spaces in it. The inspiration for the name comes from an organization that organizes public lectures in LA, Zocalo. Their tag line is "to provide a welcoming, inclusive space in a city with too few welcoming spaces." Mish mash that with the existence of Skid Row just a few blocks from a revivalist downtown and Mike Davis' city of Quartz and voila, Los Angeles Public Space at http://losangelespublicspace.blogspot.com.
I've been talking about the walkability of things, free events, and Watts. I talk about everything possible in the public realm but only from a perspective I'm comfortable with. I know some of what's going on, but I won't pretend to be an expert with years of experience. For now, I'm just the man on the sidewalk.
That said, the introduction of the blog, and the ease with which I write on, kinda helped me realize my professional and career interests.
This will be my professional shpiel, and I am now practicing it.
I've decided mentally officially that I want to be a Cognitive Anthropologist with a focus on urban settings. It's my way of bridging my interest in urban planning and psychological anthropology and the possible subfield of "neuroanthropology."
Specifically, I am interested in memory as expressed in the public and social realm. I'm curious about what people remember about events, and how they use that recall to formulate...something I developed from years of Chicago Bulls basketball message board reading.
I have had the luxury of having a well-developed and active message board community. Sure there are fans from other teams, but this is a community of namely Bulls fans, and virtually all of the fighting and conflict stems from within the Bulls fan commmunity.
The conflict stems from certain decisions made by management. There are factions that support management decisions, others that don't. There are factions of fans that support players over others, there are factions that dislike certain players ON THE TEAM.
There may not always be news regarding the team, but there is definitely a community that stays active even when there is no action. It can be seen in the number of Off-topic (OT) threads that are started, specifically during the offseason.
I think these factions represent a community and the individuals/actors within them reflect real world politics and beliefs. Those beliefs are all but embedded in the language they use. Sometimes they reflect hidden racist attitudes, or liberalist viewpoints. Having spent years on these message boards with the same characters, I could sort of anticipate whose going to comment on what, and how they're going to respond to a certain situation.
One thing I've been struck by on these message boards in relation to memory is that fans don't usually remember a lot of facts or details when they argue about the value of players. No one can recall the details to every game ever played, not even self-professed fanatics. Recalling those details turns out not to be important in that most people never seem to reference them again. The reality of the message board is not so much to make published, lasting statements, but for fluid human-like conversation. Most people operate on a type of working memory that does not lead them to progress in their understanding of the different players and team.
Instead, the fans who rely on that working memory and fluid-conversation seem to be stuck and glued to their modes of thought. As the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis postulates, language creates thought. I think those who use working memory more often are likely not to take in and fully register the new language/discourse expressed upon understanding players. Without taking in that language, they aren't likely to make new distinctions or give meaning to new distinctions and nuances. They aren't likely to be detailed, but not taking in the discourse allows them to reproduce their statements and in turn inflate more meaning into their repeated discourse.
I think this kind of interest has implications for understanding the political mind, how people make decisions, and other such fields as marketing, psychology, etc.
On a more personal note, I don't want to do this just because it's my interest, but also because I want to show that Filipinos, minorities, people of color can be influential and do other things, specifically in academia and where the knowledges are created. I want to show that my race and ethnicity, the hip-hop I rock, the language we use is not stupid, we won't be fooled, and we can make things happen.
A man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with scuh furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it...It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless fact elbowing out the useful ones.
Except John Paxson didn't crowd the Bulls with knowledge. He crowded them with overrated and overpaid players.
Kirk Hinrich, an unimpressive point guard, got an average of 9.5 million over 6 years to overdribble, complain on defense, choke in the clutch, and back-up Derrick Rose.
Ben Wallace got 14 million per year to deteriorate and watch other centers and power forwards grab rebounds. Ben Wallace's deterioration begat the 13 million dollar albatross that is Larry Hughes, whose seen better days, particularly those days when there wasn't a website dedicated to him telling him not to shoot so much.
Luol Deng is the latest to benefit from Paxson's fool strategy. He got 12 million per year, to stay injured and to perform his disappearing act when it matters.
Kirk Hinrich, Larry Hughes, Luol Deng. They will make 31 million out of the 54 million under this year's salary cap. With the on/off Nocioni, that's 39 million invested in 4 players: a player who should've been traded, a player we traded for because of a bad signing, a bad signing, and Andres Nocioni.
In contrast, the San Antonio Spurs, a real franchise, invested 41 million dollars in 3 years, but in players who are actually the team's main producers: Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili.
In Paxson's mistake-accumulating frenzy, he crowded out one of the team's main producers since 04-05. None other than the leading scorer over the past 3 years, Ben Gordon.
Despite his status as the clearcut #1 option on the offense, he wasn't going to be paid even Kirk Hinrich money, let alone Luol Deng money.
After a long and drawn out negotiating period, Ben Gordon signed the 1-year qualifying offer for 6.4 million dollars. The consensus is now that he is good as gone after that 1 year. After this one year, he becomes an unrestricted free agent, meaning he could sign anywhere and the Bulls would be left with nothng to show for the 3rd pick in the 2004 draft.
Yes, he comes off the bench, and yes he was leading scorer for a losing team.
However, bench scoring is one of the few things going for us, ever, and he was leading scorer for a 41 win team, and a 49 win team as well.
I've followed this team since the first Bush was still in office. I was the jump-rope monitor for my class. I've since advanced to playground monitor.
I didn't even know who Ben Gordon was out of college. I wouldn't care too much about him if he didn't help the Bulls shoot themselves out of the pile of dung they were in.
I simply recognize a good, winning product when I see it. Ben Gordon is exactly that.
Unfortunately, the Bulls wouldn't know. If anyone has inclinations of using any variation of the phrase, "wouldn't know [insert item of curiosity here, in this case for the Chicago Bulls, WINNING PLAYERS/DIFFERENCE MAKERS] if it was biting them in the ass", the Chicago Bulls are a good modern-day point of reference.
He was a huge reason we even had a resurgence in 04-05. We were supposed to be monumentally bad and supposed to continue in that direction. Luol Deng was the first guy I noticed, I thought he was a star, after a Lakers game, but we still lost. I lost all hope in the season after watching us muff a Clippers game.
Then out of nowhere we won a game in Utah.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/recap?gid=2004112426
It was cute. The rookie was doing something we could've had Jamal Crawford done. Nice!
We then won against the Lakers at home.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/recap?gid=2004120104
I thought that this Ben Gordon guy might be worth something after all, but it would be impossible for this team to do anything else.
He solidified his status as 4th quarter magic in 2 games against the Knicks. By the time he was done, he was a league-wide sensation and the Bulls were suddenly out of the worst 6 year funk in pro team sports history. He had 20 games where he had 10 points or more in the 4th quarter. He was a reason that announcers talked about clutch statistics. 6th man of the year as a rookie.
However, that was probably a curse in disguise for the perception of his game.
Scott Skiles pigeonholed him as being effective only as a 6th man.
For the better part of 3 years, Gordon would have to fight for his playing time, let alone starting time in ways most star scorers would never have to. In 06-07, despite being a league top 20 scorer at 21.4 points per game, he averaged the least minutes (33), and scored at the rate of and more than Amare Stoudamire, a guy who operates in the post.
However, instead of giving this leading scorer, this guy who's helped to re-energize your franchise more room to grow even more, Scott Skiles seemed to punish Gordon. Particularly in 05-06, BG was subject to benchings for in-game defensive lapses and turnovers. Skiles jerked him on and off the bench, starting each season with Gordon as a starter, before relegating him, and subsequently reinstating him.
At work in Skiles' mercurial management of Gordon was the principle of "the more things change, the more they stay the same." As in as they kept trying to change BG's role and his minutes around, the more his status to the team, his reputation stayed the same, the perception of his improvement stayed the same.
The league-wide expectation is that if you are a bench player, your ultimate goal is to become a starter.
However, the line fed to us by the Skiles regime was that Gordon was our very special bench player, not the traditional bench player who stunk, but the one who gave us a boost from the bench. Bench scoring, tops in the league, thanks in no small part to Ben Gordon.
But still even with Skiles' explanation, casual fans and media pundits alike completely missed that point this summer when analyzing Gordon's situation.
They missed that point when they were calling him simply a bench player, who was fair value worth no more than 8-9 million dollars a year. They missed that when they de-valued his contribution as the leading scorer.
Bench players in the NBA tend to get conflated into one category. Not good enough to play unless you are Manu Ginobili and Leandro Barbosa, players on the bench on winning teams. If you're not on a winning team, bench players are players of excess. Ben Gordon is a bench player. Ben Gordon is of excess.
The other argument was against his ability as a #1 option. He was "only" a leading scorer has also been used against him. It's implied that playing offense on a losing team means you're not that good on offense, that you're shooting and chucking because no one else will.
That mode of NBA trend generalization doesn't jibe well with the reality that Gordon's effective FG percentage was well over 50%, meaning he wasn't just randomly shooting and wasn't inefficient.
Despite all the herking and jerking of his playing time, and an everchanging role as defined by an idiotic coach, BG has still been the player whom most fans anticipated to "heat up." "Heat up" as in hit shots. "Hit shots" to actually win the basketball game. No one on this team would have expectation of Hinrich, Luol Deng, or Andres Nocioni to "get hot." There is no Hinrich time, or Luol time. It's Gordon everyone expects to salvage a game.
Gordon heat up in a 19-2 run scoring 16 in the 4th quarter against Indiana.
This was a game in which we were down 19 with 6 minutes to go. If we didn't win this game, we might have not made the playoffs. If we didn't win that game
A few games later, he heat up against the Wizards. He shot 9 for 9 behind the 3-point line. This was the game that sealed our entrance into the playoffs.
Perhaps this 6th man heating up and leading the team in scoring is not such a trivial attribute after all. It might actually be useful, particularly if we were interested at all in winning any championships.
It's kinda disgusting how often I check that board for rumors during the summer time, even when things weren't so exciting. The Summer of 2000 was really what began all this, this summer-time obsession with offseason NBA basketball --- the year we drafted Fizer, Crawford, Bagaric, Voskuhl, Guyton, and El-Amin in one draft and also the summer where we were expecting to get T-Mac, but ended with Brad Miller, who wasn't bad, and Ron Mercer, who wasn't that good.
So, I've come a long way in this, or it's just been a long time where I haven't really obssessed with the Bulls during summer-time.
This one here's bound to be as exciting a summer as any. One big reason for this exciting summer happened on May 21, 2008 and officially concluded on June 26, 2008, 6:40 EST.
In two words, Derrick Rose. In the context of watching the playoffs, he was a point guard in the mold of CP3 and D-Williams.
In the context of draft history, he was the Stevie Franchise pick to our Elton Brand.
He could also have been the Jason Kidd to Michael Beasley's Glenn Robinson.
In the context of our draft history and guard selections, he is going to be what J-Will was supposed to be.
I'm not sure that I liked the 2nd or 4th comparisons, especially given that Franchise's wheels have reduced him to another Penny, and J-Will's bicycle reduced him to a Bobby Hurley. I guess it's not helpful right now that one of the big topics on the board is the fact that he has tendinitis in his knees before his first summer league game. The uncertainty of a rookie player is so...unnerving...This is why my first instinct was to trade him for a known quantity like Carmelo Anthony.
I really can't tell what kind of player he's going to be because I haven't really sat down and watched him. I've only seen what I've seen mostly through highlight reels. I can only hope that he's jumping on the D-Will, CP3, soon-to-be-great point guard generation. That he's the guy that will live in the paint. That he's the guy who will live in the paint and kick it out.
To this point, all we've seen so far from him in his association with the Bulls are interactions with the media. From his draft interviews, Cubs-White Sox baseball games, the intro press conference, his interviews, he's not a media-savvy guy. 19-years old in a generation of text-messaging and abbreviated speech, mostly giving 3-sentence answers.
But even if there doesn't appear to be much, there's still something unique about him. After his intro press conference, when players usually just bounce, especially those who don't talk very much, he actally asked John Paxson if he could thank everyone for making things possible. It wasn't a cursory courtesy, some kind of procedural thing. He asked John Paxson for permission as if he was slightly embarrassed. Slightly embarrassed because it isn't something normally done, he knows it, but he still felt that he had to do it. The man lives unselfishness.
Not bad for a man whose supposed to be the white matter for this team, the connective tissue between the different functions in the brain.
That #23 in Memphis really fit him. It's a shame that he couldn't wear that number here all because some guy who apparently was very popular in Chicago wore that number already.
The #1 will do fine for him. Didn't think it would because I thought he would wear the #25, but hey it works. Officially puts to rest what I thought always fit Craw-diddy really well.
It would've been kind convenient if he took the #5 (with apologies to Andres Nocioni), so that those who bought the Jalen Rose jerseys wouldn't have to worry about buying a new one.
Anyhow, outside of Derrick Rose, Bulls have done a lot so far:
-Hired Vinny Del Negro (VDN) or Vinny Del Whito as Joe Go put it one time when VDN was still in the "L" playing for the Spurs. The jokers at the RealGM board have had plenty time to make references to Joe Pesci, his Italianness, and the fact that he kept mentioning in his introductory press conference, that "[coaching the team/learning on the job/establishing communication with the players/shaving his ass-hairs] would be a process."
Yes, yes, we understand it is all a process. The question is if he can progress in this process back to being considered playoff contenders, which is where this team was before 2007-2008. The way that he drilled into our heads that "[x] would be a process" didn't really inspire much confidence that he could get past that stage and get us into a "processed", finished product stage. Really seemed like the Bulls organization was just trying to lower everyone's expectations.
VDN has no coaching experience at all at any level, but was assistant GM for the Suns and so he was a bit familiar with Mike D'Antoni's system. As folks might recall, but later forget, Mike D'Antoni appeared to be John Paxson's first choice to replace one, Jim Boy-love. So Paxson hired what appears to be someone who could rip off D'Antoni's high-pace, 7-secnd offense, only for much cheaper than D'Antoni's 6 million dollar asking price.
Despite his inexperience, the cheapness of the organization, and this process talk, he still seemed to handle things quite well on the podium. Hopefully that translates to handling things well when were down 2 with less than 2 minutes left and he needs to find the right combo of players to put in, or draw up the right plays, or fire up the troops.
-Counter-balancing VDN's vast inexperience and broad management knowledge are the incoming Assistant coach trio of Del "fucking" Harris, Bernie Bickerstaff, and Bob Ociepka, whom I assume will focus on the more technical aspects of this team.
Most excited about Del Harris, who was actually a coaching candidate, and Bernie Bicks.
D.Harris was a coach of that Lakers squad with Eddie Jones, Cedric Ceballos, and Nick Van Exel so he knows a bit about getting the best out of an athletic young team without that outstanding, obvious #1 option.
Bicks always seems like a guy who can make something out of nothing. Seemed like he turned the artists formerly known as the "Bullets" around not too long ago.
Two guys who sat on NBA benches who've come to Chicago to become coaching assistants. Alright, it works for me if it does for them!
-Chris Duhon, back-up point guard for the past 3 years, signed with the Knicks.
I'll sort of miss him. I always thought he was the best point guard on the team, simply because he circulated the ball, unlike the man he was playing in front of him. Too bad, he never had anything resembling a jump-shot.
But at mid-summer, there's still lots of other stuff to settle:
As it stands, the roster is cluttered. Too many guys need minutes, especially at the 2, 3, and 4.
-The big thing is deciding if they're keeping both BG and Deng. Lots of people think that if BG signs only the qualifying offer instead of a 9-10 dollar extension, then we might as well trade him now. However, the latest interviews seem positive at least from BG's side. I'm hoping we could sign him to the same contract offered him last year.
-If we decide to keep BG, we must absolutely trade Kirk Hinrich, the 9.5 million dollar man who averaged 11.5 ppg in 32 mpg. He's a serviceable shooting guard at best, especially considering that he didn't average 12 ppg. The fact that he's making 9.5 million, an amount earned by Manu Ginobili, Josh Howard, Jason Terry, to be a backup who won't even get the majority of minutes at his natural position will not be doing us any favors.
However, even if we get rid of Hinrich, there's still the clutter at shooting guard, small forward, and power forward.
-At the shooting guard spot, Larry Hughes' contract probably won't be bought out and it wouldn't be fruitful for us anyway because he'd still count against the cap. Even though no one really wants him here, he'd likely still log at least 20 mpg, taking away time from Thabo, who might be a better fitting piece going forward.
Thabo's in his 3rd year already, he showed signs of being a serviceable player, but the problem is that we cluttered up the backcourt by trading for Larry.
-At the small forward spot, Deng and Nocioni have always been tugging for playing time since they came together in 2004. Nothing much has changed except that Nocioni's minutes as a power forward on the floor are probably going to be cut down. Not that he should play power forward, but the man needs minutes to be effective.
I actually like Nocioni more than Deng because Nocioni can shoot the 3 and isn't afraid to make moves. Deng is what he is, which is pretty good, but I'm not sure that his production is worth 11-12 million dollars.
-Speaking of power forwards, Tyrus Thomas needs minutes to be effective. Never been a big fan especially considering we drafted Lamarcus, and I do like Gooden and think he needs to be playing 28-30 mpg, but it'd be a waste to have Tyrus average less than 20 minutes a game for the 3rd year in a row.
In my semi-real ideal basketball world, we'd consolidate Tyrus Thomas, Luol Deng, and Kirk Hinrich into a young inside scoring power forward like Al Jefferson and put out this playoff-tuff lineup
-Gordon putting up 22 ppg -Jefferson putting up 19 ppg/11 rpg -Rose doing 13/7
On offense It would be ...Rose splitting the floors and getting inside or ...kicking to BG or Nocioni on the outside or ...Jefferson down low.
On defense it would be ...Noah fronting the middle, looking to play that help-side defense ...Sefolosha playing a harrassing Scottie Pippenish-role on the perimeter
I think that lineup would be mandated to win 45 at least.
Ahhh...it won't happen, but who knows. I don't know what to think about John Paxson anymore. Summer's young, so is this team.
by B.J. on 6/22/2008 05:34:00 AM
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"Dreams be the ashes burn thrashing in the wind flying from the burning bush flung from her fingers and it hung in the air in this moment of truth then it crashed into flames like the end of our youth." - Geo/Pro Brown, Blue Scholars
Michael Jeffrey Jordan.
The man when I was a kid.
Still the man for lots of other kids and men, but now he's just far and away the best player on the team that I like(d).
MJ was the equivalent of a greek god to me. The positive light to the endless tunnels of grade school. I imagined that he lived in a fantasy land where he could just almost magically make any and all things happen.
Then high school started, white kids and even some of the Filipino kids were brutal, MJ retired and un-retired, and I didn't have this hero to hang myself onto.
"...Crash into flames like the end of our youth."
Like a bad drug, 10 years after the second retirement, I find myself still addicted to the Chicago Bulls.
Along the way, I've been coming across the negative MJ files, mostly from sportswriters and fans who were adult when MJ was doing his thing. They knew what an ass MJ was, but I had no idea.
I knew he had gambling problems back then, but that wasn't hurting anyone but himself. He was a rich guy anyway.
His affairs with other women were the first thing to bring this humanness in MJ. As a player for the Wiz, he had already been slipping, but he still was a basketball legend.
The man is still overwhelmingly a positive force, but he's just proof that even positive forces have gigantic holes in their game. What am I talking about? What holes could MJ possibly have in his game?
The part about making players better. I can't believe how ultimately selfish and hubristic he ultimately was behind closed doors...or curtains. Sure, it got him 6 championships and 6 MVPs, and the title of "greatest player in the world", but it seems to breathe a lot of life into the American meme that you have to be an asshole to get results.
Maybe you are bound to a few asshole things in a highly time-pressured environment, but I can't believe that assholism correlates to success.
"You ever hear of a guy, six-eleven maybe and two hundred sixty pounds, a guy big and fat like that and he can't get but two rebounds, if that many, running all over the damn court and he gets two rebounds? Big guy like that and he gets one rebound. Can't even stick his **** into people and get more than that...Big, fat, fat guy. One rebound in three games. Power forward. Maybe they should call it powerless forward." - Michael ripping Stacey King a new one
"It's a hell of a lot easier to make Earl Monroe look good than it is Brad Sellers."
"You're an idiot. You've screwed up every play we ever ran. You're too stupid to even remember the plays. We ought to get rid of you." - Michael to Horace Grant
"If you [pass the ball to Bill Cartwright], you'll never get the ball from me."
by B.J. on 5/17/2008 01:44:00 PM
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10 years ago, I was graduating 8th grade and preparing to go to the finest high school in all of LA. I did my reports way before everyone else, including an autobiography final project. I felt ahead of the class, on top of the world.
Part of that heightedness feeling was the fact that I stored part of my happiness in Chicago Bulls championship victories. I didn't have any TV series to help me make sense of anything, that is make metaphors to real life, all I needed was the Chicago Bulls winning the title and everything would be right with the world.
The good ole days of good guys and bad guys. Conquering heroes, mad bald-head villains. Costas gave the perfect commentary too giving the game this mythic quality. It was like something I couldn't touch, but felt in everyone bone and neuron on my body.
MJ retiring as soon as I got to high school was like taking away the idea of Santa Claus away from a kid.
Nowadays, 10 years fast-forwards, it's just the Bulls. A cast of regular people who just happen to specialize in basketball. They are just as old as I am, they're my homies, and they can win sometimes, but sometimes not. Especially not a lot this past season. There's no bad guys to rail against, just a bunch of other rich young guys.
If you thought the starting point of that circle was the 98-99 season.
This was as big a nightmare a season as any other year since. Same players, same coach, swept the world champions the year before, gave the Pistons a battle, had Kobe wanting to come on over, Luol Deng was adding a post game, we finally had actual big guys!
Then the season started.
33-49 after a 49-33 finish last year. Never have I experienced such a disconnect from expectation and achievement, but I guess its best not to dwell. So I'll move forward with whatever happens next year, and it begins with this simple but crucial piece of advice:
Make Ben Gordon and NOT Luol Deng, Kirk Hinrich, or whomever you may draft, THE primary guy, the Captain on offense. He's NOT just a bench player. He's the guy you go to in the clutch. He's the leading goddamn scorer on this goddamn team, from the goddamn fucking bench.
Our success has strongly correlated with his success whether it's been rebouning from an 0-9 start, striving to make the playoffs, this guy's been the driving force. Conversely When BG's not successful on offense, the team is not likely to be successful. It follows that our most successful time this season or in any season prior was when a change was made to spark Gordon. However this year, it didn't last long because his minutes were reduced from the bench role, and our defense decided to take the rest of the year off.
4th quarter is where games are won, and it's obvious this guy is one of the best at it. Even in an off-year like this, he's still one of the tops in clutch stats. Freekin' elite ass skill if you ask me.
Funny, no one seems to be writing off D-Wade's abilities because of his team's horrid year.
BG's skills are not acknowleged because the team was so in love with seeming "completeness" of Luol Deng and Kirk Hinrich. Deng and Hinrich have the right height for their position. They do their jobs just right.
What fans and most analysts failed to notice is that they do NOTHING special. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING special that couln't be replaced. They don't make any momentum for this team nor do they set any pace for anyone to follow. Their captaincy this year has been a monumentally abysmal failure.
I could argue that them being out of the lineup wouldn't have been bad.
Meanwile, getting Gordon to go, is like getting the engine to your car started. Perhaps it needs more than a spark, like a jump start. If you don't get that started, you're left to pushing a really heavy cart with wheels on it called the 2007-2008 Chicago Bulls season.
So please do everything to make BG a success if he happens to stay here.
In the American team sports that I follow both on TV and online be it the NBA, NCAA football, or the NFL, I see black, white, pacific Island, Spanish-speaking peoples emerging all the time. It's nice because I definitely didn't see much of that growing up, if at all.
Not seeing my culture, my people represented was the kind of thing that made me question why the hell I had to be Filipino. Why did I have to be a culture that no one's heard or talked about? Nowhere to be seen on ESPN. How the heck would I ever become famous or even get on a newspaper (where I wasn't being described as a murder suspect or an FBI wish list) with a name like I had? Delas Armas anyone? Could they even fit that in the back of a jersey? We used to joke that the last name Delespiritusanto on the back of a jersey would have to come full circle.
However, At least nowadays in sports, I'm seeing little trinklets of multiculturalism. More folks from different races and ethnicities in sports representing.
While that counts as a few steps forward, I ask myself what power do these people of yellow, black, brown-skinned identities hold?
When observing fans of all sports, I noticed one thing: people really really love the idea of the white guy as the head honcho, top dog, the leader. People will fight hard to have the white guy be the guy on top.
It's why a white guy like Kirk Hinrich, the Chicago Bulls' point guard automatically gets compared to players like Steve Nash, the NBA MVP and hall-of-famer John Stockton, despite not having any of their abilities AT ALL. Those guys were actually known for passing the ball, and making good decisions with the ball. Hinrich is known for dribbling around the basketball court, and panicking in the clutch. The man is nowhere near their class and basically has earned his prestige because he shares their pigmentation in a league where the pigmentation is generally much darker.
The guy is not even that good on this team. He's had his starting spot on the team saved for him ever since he's been a rookie --- he's the only guy in the Bulls backcourt who hasn't had to fight for playing time despite his lack of actual impact. Since he's not really that talented, people make stupid unquantifiable, highly subjective statements: "he's a 2-way player, he plays really great defense." Even more outrageous is that this guy has had one of the worst fall-offs, yet he's never involved in trade rumors or criticized nearly as much as his more impactful, higher-scoring, clutch counterpart Ben Gordon.
Ben Gordon is currently the team's leading scorer, despite being relegated to the bench, receiving a lowball contract offer, and being ignored on offense by Hinrich. However, when compared to Hinrich, it's his negative traits that are emphasized: he's undersized and one-dimensional.
The naturalness of a white leader is probably why people at Bruinsnation couldn't stomach the idea of a Norm Chow-Dewayne Walker-led team.
I think their distaste for those two as coaching candidates was not necessarily rooted in their race, but it seems that the fans at that site had a tendency to assume the worst with anyone outside of their fellow white folks.
Norm Chow, Chinaman, apparently had no personality to get the job done. They cited his lack of experience, wondering why a 61-year old Asian guy in a white and black league hadn't had a head coaching job despite having coached some of the most elite quarterbacks in college football history and having won a national championship. B
Because he was so old and still had no coaching experience despite those record book and national championship credentials, there HAD to be something wrong with him. There just had to be.
Dewayne Walker was a self-promoting Dorrell-holdover.
Together these two earned the derisive name "Choker."
No other coaching candidates (most of whom were even LESS qualified than these two) received such names. There was "Slick Rick", but that disappared once it was clear that Walker and Chow were being considered as coaching candidates.
Nothing personal against the new white guy at UCLA, Rick Neuheisel, I admit I like what Rick's been able to do so far as far as the working-togetherness of his hired guns and recruiting, but the same people who were pulling strongly for him initially balked at the idea of him becoming coach.
These people thought we had run a lackluster coaching search campaign.
It seems like they only really rallied around Rick Neuheisel NOT because he was a effusively qualified and overly strong candidate (he definitely brings that baggage of cheating with him) but only because he was NOT Norm Chow or Dewayne Walker. He was not the timid, stoic, cold white guy and he wasn't the self-promoting black dude who since he was black obviously was still attached to everything from the fired black coach.
In a twist of irony, when it was announced that Norm Chow and Dewayne Walker would be retained on staff, these same dumbass fans calling Chow and Walker, Choker were going apeshit over their hirings. They were most happy when it happened because in their own words,"it was Rick Neuheisel's choice" as if white people's choices are the only good decisions made. It was Rick Neuheisel's choice so it had to be good. Wonder what it would be like had it been the inverse in any way, with Neuheisel as a coordinator or something.
Funny how in this case like the case with Kirk Hinrich/Ben Gordon, they like to put people of color in specialized one-dimensional roles, but not leadership ones.
Leadership, colored people, never that. One dimensional scoring guard, offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, as opposed to 2-dimensional player and head coach.
For years, people have talked about this issue, but it's probably been a "minor" issue or something just not talked about.
The paucity of black owners, black coaches, black quarterbacks in sports where the number of players who are black are high is not really a social justice issue, but I think it reflects some lessons about the way our society in the US of A works.
In general, it's become "natural" for white people to be "our" leaders. They need to be the decisionmakers because they're the ones with the experience, the education, etc.
What bothers me is that we don't ask why isn't that they're the ones with "experience" or why their decisions are better?
Without a white guy as leader, it's unnatural and odd otherwise, or so my dad implies when discussing how weird it is to have a president by the name of Obama.
by B.J. on 12/07/2007 11:37:00 AM
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"As for what he does off the court...that's really non of our concern. We're basketball fans. Not angels that record man's deeds for God... "
-bullzman23, realgm.com Poster on trading for Jason Kidd in response to a poster who does not want Jason Kidd playing on the Chicago Bulls because off-the-court issues.
by B.J. on 11/17/2007 04:50:00 PM
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Praise after a loss is pity. Praise after a win is respect. - Some guy commenting on Kirk Hinrich getting praise from Steve Nash after the Bulls blow another game due to Kirk's stupidity
Well, this season marks 10 years ago that I last experienced the surreal feeling of being a true fan of a team winning an NBA championship.
10 years ago I was debating on what school I wanted to go to. I was wondering if a girl would ever like me for me. I was living at home very comfortably.
I guess you could say things are about the same. The differences are in the details.
I'm debating Cal Poly Pomona, Michigan, UCLA, USC, and Harvard. I'm wondering when my next booty call is coming. I'm living in an apartment in Silver Lake where the gentrifiers love to caroose.
10 years ago, the balance of power was with the Democrats swinging towards Republicans.
Today, it is with the Republicans swinging towards the Democrats.
10 years ago, Britney Spears drew controversy by posing half-naked for a magazine.
Today, Britney Spears draws controversy by existing.
10 years ago, Apple was the fruit company that Forrest Gump talked about in the movie.
Today, Apple is the fruity company that Forrest Gump talked about in the movie.
10 years ago, the Bears sucked.
Today, well, the Bears still suck.
10 years ago, the Cubs were on the verge of a great season.
Today, the Cubs were also on the verge of a great season.
10 years ago, the balance of the power in the NBA was in the Eastern Conference.
Today, the balance of power in the NBA is in the Western Conference.
10 years ago, the Bulls were a team that everyone got sick of.
Today, they are a team everyone likes to pick as dark horse contenders.
10 years ago, we had an intricate offense that can play pretty tough defense.
Today we have a smothering defense that can play pretty good offense.
Another difference between the Bulls of old and now is that we were an old team on the breakdown.
-Our offensive firepower came by way of a 34-year old shooting guard, and a 32-year old small forward. -Had a tall defensive point guard -We had an old ecccentric but effective power forward -Had a tall bearded soft foreign guy to shoot the lights out off the bench -We had a big white stiff drafted in the first round who could do a few things.
Now, apparently were a young team on the rise.
-Our offensive firepower comes by way of a 24-year old shooting guard, and a 22-year old small forward. -Have a tall defensive point guard -We have one young definite eccentric, hopefully effective power forward (or potentially 3) -Have a tweener bearded bruising foreign guy to shoot the lights out off the bench -We have a big white stiff drafted in the 2nd round who could do a few things.
10 years ago, we had the best player on the planet playing for us. His name was Jordan, born in 1963, an NCAA championship winner and clutch player.
Today, we could have the best player on the planet playing for us...cough Kobe cough. However, today today, in the meanwhile we do have Gordon, born in 1983, an NCAA championship winner and clutch player.
We were a team that was centered on 2 great players and heroic performances.
Now were a team that has many good players (at least that's what they like to say) and heroic performances.
This will be the thought that will percolate the season. In 1998, the questions surrounded whether or not we were motivated enough to win. It was a question of will. Now, it's a question of how. How are we going to win without a superstar? And if we don't win and somehow lose out on the Kobe sweepstakes, the questions will linger, would we have won with Kobe?
Last season ended on a loss in the 2nd round to the Detroit Putos. I think if we go through them, we could go through to the finals.
-I think what would have beat them was having Ben Gordon handling the ball and starting the offense. Yeah, blah blah, he's turnover prone, but usually the net effect is that the offense becomes noticeably more fluid and we win the game. It's hard to say the same about Kirk Hinrich. When he has 10 assists a game, though he may not have turnovers, we have a losing record. Don't forget that Ben Gordon played point guard in college while Kirk Hinrich played shooting guard. I never understood why Kirk Hinrich played point guard for us other than the fact that Skiles and co. subliminally just want a white player to be the visible leader of the team. (Makes money, and looks nicer for team morale especially in the apparent "thug culture" of the NBA)
I remember those days when I looked forward to seeing Ron Harper instead of MJ score. I want to feel the same way about Kirk.Ben can't get to the free throw line if he's being set up to take jump shots.
-We have actual tall guys now in Gray, Noah, and Smith. So hopefully we won't get outmuscled in the post again. There's even a possibility of post scoring!
I may have gotten a few facts off and I might've looked slightly stupid with Rashard Lewis being 28 and Ray Allen being 29 or whatever, but nowadays that's considered pretty ancient in the NBA.
XchopYsueyZ (5:56:58 PM): HAHAHAHAHA!!! XchopYsueyZ (5:56:58 PM): SUCKER!!!! DArkB L u esmOKE (5:57:22 PM): What are you so happy about ? XchopYsueyZ (5:57:31 PM): bulls lost! DArkB L u esmOKE (5:57:34 PM): Why do you like to rub it in ? XchopYsueyZ (5:57:42 PM): b/c it's funny!!!! DArkB L u esmOKE (5:57:45 PM): Just for that I'm going to cheer for the Sonics to lose ! XchopYsueyZ (5:57:55 PM): atleast the sonics are still in it!!!! DArkB L u esmOKE (5:58:02 PM): They're done DArkB L u esmOKE (5:58:14 PM): They're about as strong as a straw house XchopYsueyZ (5:58:16 PM): well the bulls would have been done next round too DArkB L u esmOKE (5:58:26 PM): Yeah DArkB L u esmOKE (5:58:33 PM): I blame Scott Skiles DArkB L u esmOKE (5:58:39 PM): What a dumb way to lose XchopYsueyZ (5:58:51 PM): wizards: what a great way to win! DArkB L u esmOKE (5:59:32 PM): Ehhh. . .I wouldn't be so proud to be losing any game to an undermanned team DArkB L u esmOKE (5:59:45 PM): No Eddy, No Luol DArkB L u esmOKE (5:59:58 PM): That was about 30% of the offense XchopYsueyZ (6:00:05 PM): but i would be proud to win the first playoff series for a team in 23 years XchopYsueyZ (6:00:14 PM): doesn't matter who its up against DArkB L u esmOKE (6:00:39 PM): Yeah, it is up against the 1998 champion Chicago Bulls DArkB L u esmOKE (6:00:51 PM): A young team now DArkB L u esmOKE (6:00:57 PM): Who's average age is 23 DArkB L u esmOKE (6:01:01 PM): It's OK DArkB L u esmOKE (6:01:23 PM): Hah ! DArkB L u esmOKE (6:01:56 PM): Unlike the in-their-prime Rashard Lewis and Ray Allen DArkB L u esmOKE (6:02:04 PM): This is sadly as good as it gets for them DArkB L u esmOKE (6:02:41 PM): I think you dropped something DArkB L u esmOKE (6:02:48 PM): Oh why yes you did DArkB L u esmOKE (6:02:53 PM): Your pride DArkB L u esmOKE (6:02:56 PM): :dusts it off: DArkB L u esmOKE (6:03:00 PM): Hopefully it's not broken DArkB L u esmOKE (6:03:05 PM): :-) XchopYsueyZ (6:03:28 PM): you idiot XchopYsueyZ (6:03:33 PM): rashard lewis is young DArkB L u esmOKE (6:03:44 PM): LOL, the dude's 26 XchopYsueyZ (6:03:47 PM): ray allen is the oldest person on the team XchopYsueyZ (6:03:52 PM): and he's 29 XchopYsueyZ (6:04:02 PM): i would say thats a pretty damn young team XchopYsueyZ (6:04:13 PM): ugh XchopYsueyZ (6:04:20 PM): i have finals to study for! DArkB L u esmOKE (6:04:24 PM): LOL DArkB L u esmOKE (6:05:17 PM): I find it funny that you tried to come in here attacking and walk away (cyber-ly) angry saying that you need to study for finals DArkB L u esmOKE (6:05:27 PM): :-D DArkB L u esmOKE (6:05:37 PM): You're too funny Sue XchopYsueyZ (6:05:41 PM): the bottom line is: XchopYsueyZ (6:05:45 PM): my team is still in it XchopYsueyZ (6:05:59 PM): and everyone is talking about phoenix, san antonio, miami, and detroit XchopYsueyZ (6:06:09 PM): BUT the sonics are the wild card in this whole thing XchopYsueyZ (6:06:11 PM): you'll see! DArkB L u esmOKE (6:06:16 PM): Mhmmm DArkB L u esmOKE (6:06:22 PM): We will won't we XchopYsueyZ (6:06:33 PM): ok back to studying! XchopYsueyZ (6:06:39 PM): guess who's DONE with junior year in 2 days!! DArkB L u esmOKE (6:06:39 PM): Bwahahahahhahaha XchopYsueyZ (6:06:46 PM): ME ME ME ME!!!! DArkB L u esmOKE (6:07:03 PM): I was done with junior standing a quarter ago DArkB L u esmOKE (6:07:11 PM): LOL, congrats DArkB L u esmOKE (6:07:17 PM): Woohoo XchopYsueyZ (6:07:17 PM): so was i... a semester ago DArkB L u esmOKE (6:07:45 PM): Hah, so ? XchopYsueyZ is away at 6:07:46 PM. [Away message reads: I hate Bulls fans]
Sue, you just can't win. Sorry.
She couldn't rain on my parade.
It was a real fruitful season for the Bulls. 47 wins, 35 losses for the Chicago Bulls this year after a 23 win, 59 loss year the year before. First playoff appearance in 6 years on a team full of young guys. So there's definitely something to look forward to at least for me.
But then some people are saying that one of the things I personally look forward to when I watch the Bulls, should be shopped out of town.
Ben Gordon was 6th man of the year, and should have won rookie of the year, but the NBA wanted to be politically (and perhaps more financially) correct and chose some power forward on the Bobcats, a team with about 17 wins out of 82 games. Despite that last game in which Skiles put him in the starting lineup (when throughout the regular season, Skiles had doggedly stuck to the principle of not starting him even when the team was undermanned), he's still the closest thing we have to a superstar because of his clutch ability in the 4th quarter.
And despite all the celebration of defense, teamwork, and hard work, without Ben Gordon functioning well due to who knows what, this team was just another crappy NBA team. This doesn't really show how bad Ben sucks, as much as it showed how dependent this team was on Ben to perform. The Wizards knew they had to stop Ben. . .and it was easy for them since Ben didn't have other help to look to.
Hopefully Paxson and Skiles realize that Ben is really cerebral to the team's success, keep him, and then surround him with other talent.
by B.J. on 1/23/2005 02:10:00 PM
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19-19. I am officially stunned. The Bulls are at .500 for the first time since #23 played for them when I was on the verge of graduating grade school after starting this season 0-9.
I know I predicted this season wrong, but so did everyone else. No one even management themselves as they revealed in the 2004-2005 marketing slogan "Through Thick and Thin", which means we'll stick with the team even though they blow balls, expected such success like this so early.
Have the Bulls officially broken the cycle, the cycle in which they trap themselves in losing situations by recycling experienced talented players for rookie talented players ?
Well, it's tough to say because this is just one year and 6 years of crappery isn't just erased.
First off, were lucky to not have suffered any serious injuries to players like in years past. Pretty much every useful player has been available whenever Coach Skiles has needed to put them in, which has helped the team's continuity a thousand fold.
Right now, the Bulls are winning on momentum and winning streaks rather than on any established confidence from players. They are winning games here in the midseason when other teams may take games as something quantifiable. The Bulls do have confidence now, but it's strictly based on this year.
There's still no established constant star who is carrying this team through it's tough moments, though I'm inclined to say that Ben Gordon is the closest they have to one because he has been the main factor in closing out victories. Kirk Hinrich I wouldn't consider a star because while he is the undisputed leader of the team, he's consistent, and can keep the team in games, he rarely helps the team close wins out. And the wins are what matters, not who's the "purest" or "truest" point guard in the game.
So without this established star at least for now, who's to say that next year and years preceding we won't just turn out to be the struggling Denver Nuggets of this year who have Carmelo Anthony ?
The talent I think is there for us, but eventually I think we need an established star and defined roles for these guys so the winning becomes embedded in their minds.
In addition to these random bursts of talent during games, the coaching strategy I have to question as well because of it's lack of adaptability. Basically it's work hard, teamwork, defense, constant intensity --- fundamental peewee league basketball. It seems to be built in the mold of Jerry Sloan's defensive philosophies which is predicated on continuity and having certain players. That strategy worked well last year when all their players were in tact, but is now choking when one of their key players went down earlier in the year. If you have a system, theoretically, I think it should at least hold the team in some place and you don't slip into one of the worst teams in the league as has happened to this year's Sloan-coached team.
I mean I'm neutral to coach Skiles, I give him credit for this instant turnaround. But you gotta question what the long-term effects of this strategy are. The reason this strategy can work in the leagues under the NBA is because there is less physical demand on those players and they play only 30 or so games. I'm glad that the team seems to have confidence but I have to wonder if the players will eventually wear out, or if we'll hold up when the tests come down near the end of the season.
Wow, I forgot about this thanks to such inanities like posting on message boards, school, the 2004 election, and some bombings in Fallujah (conveniently arranged right after a certain election).
So here's my annual Chicago Bulls preview !
Whoa, easy there partner.
This is the first year that I am not very excited at all. In fact, I hope they lose, because I dislike everything current management has done.
Management have placed the players and coaches in a very tough position, a position that cranks out a recipe for failure: young team barely out of high school with veterans who rest on the bench hydrating with ivies. It's been that way. For a long time already. (You would think everyone would agree with this and it would stop me from posting at bbb.net.)
Like I said in my state of the Bulls address, this team is lodged in a cycle that will take either or both of: a big shift in mindset of the organization or, a superstar player.
Negative, and negative.
Doesn't look like it's going to get better either because the owner of the whole team just gave his word that John Paxson, the general manager would be his man for a "long time" (one sigh) and there is no real transcendent Lebronesque superstar for years to come (two sigh).
Were so bad that the clippers didn't even wish this on us. Not only do we give players away after 4 years, but we also put players through lots of useless bullshit such as making them benching them if they don't dive on the floor for loose balls and have at least 27 different floor burns by halftime, even if we are down by 28. Excuse me, sorry 27. All this bullshit we put them through, and them getting through it ensures their success elsewhere. [optimistic insight of said team] Our task has been to show these cushy-lifestyled athletes how bad it can get. If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere ! [optimistic insight of said team/] Enough highly sugared fluids.
So, where does that put this current team this year ?
At the bottom of the league. We don't need a definite answer as to standing or number of wins/losses anymore because we have already had the worst 6 years of any NBA team in history. The Clippers pity us. I have a feeling we'll be making that more than 7 years. And two years after that 7 years, when management is still fumbling and stumbling drop droppin like its hot, some idiot fans will be asking why the players didn't do anything in their 4 years here to lift us out of mediocrity.
Man, the Cubs are going to blow it some way. We should replace the "bs" at the end of "Cubs" with "rse."
Bears, you always suck too. But hey kudos to beating the Pack. At least we know we'll go 2-14.
Chicago Bulls, I don't agree with the way you're being managed. I can't wait for this team to get demolished to shut these subconsciously racist kool-aid drinking Kirk Hinrich fans. In fact I would be happy with an 8-74 finish which would ensure us the worst single-season record of all time.
Before some Chicago Sports Teams fan wanders into this, drools and grits his flattened teeth like a 7 year old rotweiler while spilling beer into his nuts on jeans tighter than a math nerd's braces on the count that he hasn't bought any since Bush the first was in and these were his loose pants, and labels me a "bandwagoner" thus completely validating his own life as a "genuine fan", let me say that this is my way of getting joy out of these teams instead of wallowing in misery when Prior gets rocked or Tyson Chandler gets injured again.
At least if my predictions are right, my judgement and trust in my psychic abilities is further amplified.
Plus, if they do happen to start winning, I'm still going to feel the same, which is high as in potsmoking high for a day, and then it's back to the world we call reality or earth or shit.
And so continues the Bulls' entrapment in a humdrum seven-year cycle of losing, and losing badly.
And it will continue past this upcoming year till either a very very special player(s) comes along for the Bulls to keep or the environment changes.
Why will this cycle continue ?
Because this team keeps stacking rookie players with talent hoping that they'll eventually blow past the competition, all the while maintaining a revolving door of veterans. With a revolving door of veterans, the rookies, while above average players and talented, are thrown into the fire without any meaningful veteran help. These rookies are saddled with carrying the team and the fans call to trade them or let them go by the end of their rookie contracts.
Fuck attack. Super fuck attack.
This trade was just another representative of that ongoing cycle of recycling veterans. You don't win in the NBA with a bunch of rookies, people who are in the process of figuring things out. Prior to LACMAing and killing brain cells watching Jessica Simpson trying to open a jar of peanut butter last Thursday night, I was all over the message boards letting every Bullhead know what a horrendously stupid trade John Paxson just made just to let out my anger as a Bulls fan responding to every stupid question I read.
Why was this particular trade stupid for the Bulls ?
While he wasn't going to set the world on fire, Jamal was the veteran there to ensure that this team had some chance at cracking the playoffs. He was the leading scorer on an offensively-deprived team. He had the most impact on whether this team won or lost just the past year. He was the most productive player this team had, admittedly though by default and wasn't as great as other team leaders.
Now why would they trade him you ask (you meaning, the smartass Jamal-hating Bulls fan of course) ?
Because as said he was going to be overpaid (relative to how others with his production and how low their salaries are). Overpaid too much for someone who was merely the leading scorer on the 2nd worst, arguably the worst, team in basketball. And plus, in the bigger picture he wasn't going to lead this team anywhere, so the Bulls kool-aid suckers say. Bottomline: he didn't "prove himself" enough as general manager John Paxson told him to before last season commenced.
OK, so maybe he wasn't going to lead this team all by himself to the championship and he wasn't a world-beater in the mold of Michael Jordan, but a few months ago when tickets were being sold, I remember a certain general manager from the Chicago Bulls named John Paxson promising PLAYOFFS. Playoffs ! Something that has not been seen in Chicago basketball since the end of Michael Jordan's 1st comeback.
And as I said earlier it will take either a very very special player to break this cycle of shittiness or a change in environment. Playoffs or gearing towards that would've definitely broken this cycle of shittiness.
However, in a recent interview discussing the trade, Paxson modified his tone towards the playoffs only saying, "this roster is far from complete," implying that playoffs were far from this team's reach even in the Eastern Conference and that he knew it. What's he's done as opposed to what he's said thus far is not gearing towards breaking that cycle of shittiness but rather catering to it.
He's sounded like a guy bent on this team getting to the playoffs who, preaching ever since his days as Bulls radio commentator just two years ago about the importance of two things: experience and defense. To date, he's done his best to acquire players who exhibited those traits, except that most of these players he's acquired are rookies. Rookies, meaning players with no experience, meaning they still have to figure out if they're good enough to hang with the big boys of the NBA, meaning that it should be a while before they function as a confident bunch of individuals who can put it altogether. Not Veterans (if they are, they're usually useless). And he just traded the longest tenured and most productive Bull. I think he knows all this and so he switched his tone to something ambiguous meaning we have to wait before he presents us our final product.
No problem, we can wait for him to complete his roster and wait for his new players to develop into great players right ?
Wrong !
No waiting should be done. Two reasons: it's been 7 years and history has shown that we'll be lodged into the cycle, and more practically, this is the contract year for the two most important players on this team.
As I said earlier, the Bulls have been losing for 7 years and it's been a cycle for them to give up their best players, leading scorers, their VETERANS initiated always with the general manager's promise of something better:
In 2001, they gave up Mr. consistent, Elton Brand for Tyson Chandler because Tyson Chandler had more potential to impact the game. (This is the only trade I actually think might pay off)
In 2002, they gave up 2004 defensive player of the year Ron Artest and top center Brad Miller for Jalen Rose because they wanted a bonified star to jumpstart this team's offense.
In 2003, they gave up Jalen Rose, leading scorer for the team in his one full year, and the second leading scorer Donyell Marshall for the offensively challenged Jerome Williams and a fossilizing Antonio Davis because they wanted to shore up the defense.
And now they just again traded their top productive player for the 4th year in a row, yet another veteran, this time for expiring contracts, which would enable the team in the future to have more flexibility to sign other players and/or foster deals.
Last time this team had so much flexibility was in 2000 when the team was at the infancy of its horrification but the light at the end of the tunnel lay in this flexibility to offer a lot of money to top players. They were planning on signing Tracy McGrady, Eddie Jones. Neither happened because Chicago had a LOSING TEAM, stock full of young players and castoffs. Proof that losing was a big concern to them: they went to teams that simply looked more promising; Eddie Jones was all but gone to Chicago until the Heat made an 11th hour offer for him. Apparently, he and his mom were praying very hard for the Hornets to sign and trade him to Miami and stay away from Chicago.
Since 2000, not much in the Bulls winning column has changed. Not much in the ingredients appears to have changed either except that there might be a ray of light in these two young big men named Tyson Chandler and Eddy Curry, whom this organization has pinned their hopes on since they were drafted in 2001 because big and talented wins in the NBA. This organization has been waiting for them to "prove themselves" like Jamal, but that has yet to happen in terms of impacting the team's win total in the positive direction.
Amplifying the pressure on these two, apparently Paxson dealt Jamal Crawford so he could sign them at the end of the season with the one insy weensy lil (of course by that you know I'm being sarcastic) condition that Jamal Crawford had of "proving themselves" this season.
Proving themselves meaning impact the win column which will be super hard especially with ingredients for failure written all over them like an Anne Rice novel: more young players and castoffs. They don't even have their departed buddy to help them.
And so as the story goes, they'll be let go, just like Jamal, because they didn't "prove themselves." And if they'll be anything like Elton Brand, Ron Artest, Brad Miller. . .
As I said earlier it will take either a very very special player to break this cycle of shittiness or a change in environment. It goes on and on and on and on. . .
Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) commissioner Noli Eala has invited Michael Jordan to attend the opening of the league's 30th season in Manila on Oct. 2 in a grand ceremony as guest of honor.
I handcarried Eala's letter of invitation and personally delivered it to Jordan during a 45-minute interview arranged by Nike in a 50th floor suite at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Tokyo last Monday (May 24).
Wow, I'm glad to know that he acknowledges the existence of the Philippines ! Yeah booy. Yay. My two-time hero (92-93, 96-2000 the moment he went on this ridiculous two year comeback to sabotage his legend). Magajadavoo magajadavoo (the Eskimo-like chant I developed specially for MJ after game 1 of the 1997 NBA Finals)
"On the possibility of a Filipino someday playing in the NBA, Jordan said it won't be easy but it can be done."
"Small players are making an impact on the game," said Jordan. "Guys who are 5-3, 5-7 and look at (Allen) Iverson, he's barely six feet tall. It's like David against Goliath There are no shortcuts to making it. You gotta believe you can do it, that you can make it happen. It'll take a lot of hard work but if you set your mind to it, you can do it."
Yes cause there are no Filipinos in the world who are over 6 feet tall, MJ.
"As for more Asian players breaking into the majors, Jordan said the level of competition in the region is not like in the US. He explained that there is much so talent in the US where playing the game is more prevalent."
MJ is probably thinking specifically of his simple-minded (cause he's a midget in NBA terms and there's something about small people being stupid when it comes to basketball, right you tall waste of space 40-something, hippy curly haired, 200-lb overweight weekend warriors ?) 5'3 Mugsy Bogues and his slanted eyes when he thinks of Asian players.
He's probably right that Asians will continue to not be so competitive in basketball (they're like the WNBA). After all he did take the Wizards out of the. . .oh he didn't ? Oh never mind then.
In other news, I just can't wait to tell every white person old and young, male and female how I have friends and relatives who have had relationships with white people. Only then can I gain meaningful relationships with those people. (Plus, I can tell them that I speak fluent English.)
I just give up this year on Chicago team sports. Its super depressing to follow.
Suspend all knowledge of Michael Jordan for a minute and all you have is town o legends that get the love of fans while never actually winning anything. Ernie Banks, Bob Love, Jerry Sloan, Gayle Sayers, Dick Butkus. Chicagoland favorites, but didn't lead their respective teams anywhere.
This year is no different, with the Chicago Bulls who are 5-15 as we speak. They got Jamal Crawford who could eventually become a minor nugget for marketing with his in-game And 1 abilities, the superenthusiastic Tyson Chandler, and the larger than life Eddy Curry. Good players, but doing nothing !
I will try to never expect anything out of Chicago sports again (for the 567th time).
There's a weight of expectation on them to do some damage. ESPN and USA Today have them ranked as #15 in the power rankings and as the 7th seed for the playoffs. NBA.com has 1,2, and 3 (Eddy Curry, Jamal Crawford, and Tyson Chandler) within the top ten of players ready to break out this season. And with good reason.
Jamal Crawford
Eddy Curry
Tyson Chandler
That good reason is that these young guys are the core players of a team.
Last year Eddy Curry edged out dat motherfocker Shaq for the field goal percentage title, something Shaq held for seven straight years. Jamal Crawford fought through a whirlwind of adversity from early season benchings, cold spells, family deaths, to re-claim his job from acclaimed super rookie Jay Williams. Tyson has shown steady improvement in both years. These guys need to establish themselves as powers this year.
However, personally, I'm skeptical if these guys will ever live up to their full potential because there is too much depth that will cover up their mistakes. Donyell Marshall, Corie Blount, and Lonny Baxter will pull down rebounds when Eddy is too "lazy" to do his job. Marcus Fizer will score when Tyson is on his usual aversion to offense. Scottie Pippen and Jalen Rose will play defense when Jamal shirks his defensive responsibility. This type of depth is great for a championship team, but not so for a team relying on a young core because this young core is untested.
The key to this season's and preceding seasons' success will rely on this young core. Jamal, Eddy, and Tyson need to prove that they can carry the Bulls on their own through their own mistakes. That is, the team relies on them, and they create most of the momentum. And while we can rely on these guys, the big guys still seem to be teetering and tottering at the brink of their potential because of this three-year coddle treatment and thus as of now still seem to have trouble creating momentum for this team.
If they can't create momentum they won't be anything special. . .
But what do I know. I'm just a fan.
So, if they live up to potential I see: 50 wins
If they play up to their potential for like half a season: 43 wins
If they play the way they did last year with minor improvements: 37 wins
First off, the Bulls signed the hometown favorite, yet sometimes volatile Scottie Pippen. If you've seen my away messages on AIM about "Scottie Pippening fools", this is the guy I make reference to. When I say I'm "Scottie Pippening fools", it usually means that I'm playing some tight-ass defense, passing the rock, making fools look good, and leading the team to yet another win. Scottie has been away for 4 years, and now, at age 37, he plans to retire in Chicago. But first, he's got to get these current Bulls into the playoffs.
These current Bulls lacked: experience, consistency, the knowledge of defense, the knowledge of rebounding, a plethora of shooters, and overall, just wins on the road (3 wins, 38 losses on the road compared to 27-14 at home). This team has the ability to do everything it takes to win as evidenced by wins over the Lakers, Nets, Warriors, and pretty much the whole East, it's just a pretty young and basketball dumb-ass team full of budding stars who could jump out of the arena but would not know the first thing about teamwork. Let's see, there's the Mr. And 1 Jamal Crawford. There's the two tanks who couldn't jump if they pressed it on a controller in Marcus Fizer and Eddy Curry. There's the running turkey, Tyson Chandler. A circus of a bunch.
Scottie Pippen is expected to be the guy to clean up this mess and teach these guys how to harness their talent. He prides himself on all the elements the Bulls lack, thus the perfect fit. Even though he is a paleontologic 37, he still managed to lead the Blazers to an impressive 41-23 record with him in the lineup (The Blazers were 9-9 without him) as only a fraction of what he once was averaging 10 points per game. He's only played up to 60 games out of 82 the last few seasons, so hopefully his legs and back can hold up. Hopefully the young guys and maybe even some of the older egotistical guys like Jalen Rose and the lazy lackadaisical speed demon Eddie Robinson can learn a thing or two.
Go Bulls.
Secondly, Kobe Bryant is charged with sexual assault. My stab. . .err. . .guess at the truth is that Kobe instilled some kind of fear into her, and then she consented. I actually respected Kobe and his simplicity, but it seems like he blackmailed this girl into having sex with her. It's been re-iterated up and down the tube that he did not do anything without her consent. And the girl feels like she was forced. Something's got to give, and the truth lies somewhere in between the two sides' stories. Considering that she's as old as I am, she probably just felt very violated by Kobe suckering her into having sex with him and it seems like she will prey upon how she got fooled and how this assault has damaged her. Kobe's defense will counter her claims by sacking her credibility first and foremost, and then tinker with the county's definition of sexual assault.
With all that said, the penis makes us guys do really stupid things; it's like walking everywhere with a loaded gun and getting pissed off at someone (Wookie, There's Something About Mary). I highly doubt that Kobe physically forced her to have sex with him if that is what this sexual assault is about. This seems more like a civil case. Kobe is not a criminal, but for possibly blackmailing her, he should pay millions to the damage she's incurred to her reputation and her name in general. Now by the Kobe fans and the media, every little detail of her life is being exposed. I'm not on anyone's side, but it's unfair how the alleged victim is getting this kind of treatment. Jeeze, a message to the guys reading this: un-Load before you lock !
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