Before Friday, ESPN had televised three Bulls games and Jeff Van Gundy - coach Tom Thibodeau's mentor with the New York Knicks and Houston Rockets - had worked every one.

Thibodeau always is happy to see Van Gundy, but the Bulls had dropped each of those games.

Van Gundy, though, worked the ESPN broadcast of the Bulls' surprising fourth-quarter rally Friday in Dallas, so I asked Thibodeau if Van Gundy now was allowed to do another game.

"Yeah, he was about ready to be banned right there," Thibodeau said.