Hey "aughts", I'mma let you finish, but 2009 has to be one of the craziest years of all-time! Think of all the wacky stuff that has happened in the last 11 months. Vampires became our country's mythological creature of choice by a shockingly wide margin. Twitter took over the world seemingly overnight. Tom Delonge and Mark Hoppus kissed and made up. Full Court Press lost not one but two editors. The Taco Bell dog died. And, oh yeah, let's not forget about whatever the hell happened during Michael Jackson's funeral.
This year has been wild. Insane, I tell you. The madness has even hit Chicago sports.
Never mind losing out on the Olympics, I'm more concerned about the damn-near-epic fall from grace that inflicted nearly all of our city's sports superstars. Alfonso Soriano put in, by far, the worst year of his career. Carlos Quentin went from a potential MVP candidate to a guy you expect to injure himself when he gets out of bed in the morning. Brian Urlacher missed an entire season with a wrist injury. Patrick Kane - tiny, innocent Patrick Kane - inexcusably beat up a Buffalo cab driver over 20 cents. Jay Cutler actually has some fans wishing for the return of Kyle Orton.
This brings us to the recent struggles of Derrick Rose.
If I see one "Yeah, but they played the Kings! Without Kevin Martin!" comment, I swear to Walter Payton that I won't approve it. I don't care if it comes against the Lakers or if it comes against a team as woeful as Sacramento: for the Bulls, any win on the infamous Circus Trip is a reason to celebrate.
So, before we get any further, let's all take a second to commemorate the Bulls' unthinkable 1-0 start on the Road Trip From Hell by doing the Brad Miller taunt.
It's hard to take much satisfaction in a too-close-for-comfort victory over a Michael Redd-less Bucks team, but you still have to win and on Tuesday night, the Bulls were able to do just that. As Vin Diesel once put it: "It doesn't matter if you win by a second or a mile, winning is winning."
Vinny Del Negro's Bulls will seek to improve on their 41-41 record of last season.
UPDATE: Last chance, Bulls fans: Get your prediction in before tonight's tipoff against the Spurs -- how many wins for the Bulls this season and how far do they advance in the playoffs? So far, we have Tim as the leading optimist with 55 wins and a possible Eastern finals berth. Drew (54) and RPK (53, 2nd-round exit) are close behind, followed by Villano (51, 2nd round), Seedy (48), Keith (46, 1st round), Tim Little (45, 2nd round), Qumar (43) and then Hitman and yours truly at 42 (hey, Hitman, we finally agree on something!). Get your prediction in by 7 p.m. Central and we'll see who was right come April.
By popular demand -- OK, by Edgar's demand -- we present our Bulls' season preview post, in which we solicit your predictions on what their final regular-season record will be and how far you foresee them advancing in the playoffs.
Derrick Rose has been glued to the bench for most of the preseason by an ankle injury.
A week from tonight, the Bulls finally tip off the regular season against the San Antonio Spurs. This seemingly endless preseason -- extended due to the London trip -- has been made even more excruciating by the absence of Derrick Rose, who sustained an ankle injury in the first game and hasn't been back since.
As the mysterious injury lingers on, concern has grown about whether Rose will be ready for Opening Night. Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro didn't put minds at ease the other day when he allowed that it was ''within the realm of possibility" that his star point guard wouldn't be ready for the opener. It's enough to make a Bulls fan extremely nervous.
So grim, in fact, that we didn't even talk about it.
I'm a big picture guy, you see. The present is alright, I suppose, but it's not nearly as cool as the future. Such is especially the case when we're talking about your Chicago Bulls. 2009-'10? Meh. It could be alright, I guess. But, barring a midseason trade roughly three times the magnitude of the one they made last year, this team isn't going anywhere.
"Nowhere" might be a little harsh, actually. The Bulls should go the playoffs, perhaps as high as the No. 4 seed. But, all things being equal, they're probably (definitely) not better than the Cavs, the Magic, or a healthy Celtics team.
This is the NBA we're talking about here, not the parity-ridden NFL or whatever you want to call the baseball playoffs. No 2006 St. Louis Cardinals stories to see here, folks. The better team almost always prevails in the NBA. It's part of the charm of the league. It can also be a little bit of a downer, particularly if your favorite team is ran by the people that run the Bulls.
Michael Jordan enters the Hall of Fame tonight (5:30-8 p.m. Central time, ESPN).
Cherished memories of Michael Jordan: The list is potentially endless. His game-winning shot to beat Utah and clinch the Bulls' sixth championship in 1998. The shot over Craig Ehlo in 1988 that beat Cleveland and began the Bulls' playoff run. The double-nickel game in which he put 55 points on the Knicks in Madison Square Garden after coming back his first retirement in 1995. You could go on and on and on.
Derrick Rose will renew excitement in Chicago come October, as will the Blackhawks.
Typical Sox: After taking three of four from the Red Sox, they get blown out by the A's on Tuesday and miss a rare chance to gain ground on Detroit. They're still eight games out, way too big a deficit to make up even with six remaining games vs. the Tigers.
Typical Cubs: They spank the Pirates for the second straight day, but again fail to gain any ground either on St. Louis (which rallied in the ninth to beat Milwaukee) or on wild-card-leading Colorado. Amazingly, the Cubs still haven't gained as much as a half-game on St. Louis on any day since Aug. 4, falling from a tie for the division lead to 11.5 games out.
Baseball season is over in Chicago, and no matter how exciting Jay Cutler and the Bears may be, we can't talk about them every day. So thank goodness that some familiar friends from last spring soon will be back in action.
It's not something anyone - the coaches, players, owner, fans - will want to admit, but it's true: the 2009-2010 season is largely irrelevant for the Bulls. This became official the day the Bulls got rid of Ben Gordon without compensation.
See, there were two ways the Bulls could have made themselves into contenders.
Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf was in a talkative mood with Bulls beat writers this week.
Jerry Reinsdorf did something this week that he should do more often. The Bulls chairman sat down with beat writers from the major Chicago-area newspapers and fielded questions on a wide variety of topics. As always, Reinsdorf was thoughtful and well-spoken, and he would reap a PR bonanza for his Bulls and White Sox if he made such media get-togethers a regular occurrence.
Some of what Reinsdorf addressed already has been discussed here, but his comments about Ben Gordon and Luol Deng are what I found most interesting. In discussing Gordon's free-agent departure to Detroit, Reinsdorf said Gordon was going to be out of the mix with the Bulls and, had he stayed, would have seen dramatically diminished playing time. As for Deng, who missed much of last season and the entire playoffs with a foot injury, Reinsdorf forecasts a bright future.
Rasheed Wallace smiles at a news conference after joining the Celtics last week.
The Carlos Boozer-to-the-Bulls report last week generated a lot of buzz among fans on this blog, who seemingly were split down the middle on whether the Utah Jazz forward would be a good addition. Unfortunately, whatever trade talks that might have taken place don't seem to be going anywhere, leaving the Bulls with nothing to offset the free-agent departure of Ben Gordon.
So which NBA teams are having outstanding offseasons, in terms of personnel changes that will make them better next season? The Cavaliers made the splashiest move, bringing in Shaquille O'Neal to play alongside LeBron James. But according to Chad Ford of ESPN.com, the team that has fared best in this offseason is the San Antonio Spurs.
Carlos Boozer reportedly could be dealt to the Bulls in a deal involving Tyrus Thomas.
If there's one thing the Bulls lack, it's someone who can give them consistent scoring down low. That is the most tantalizing aspect of the reported trade talks that could send Utah forward Carlos Boozer to the Bulls in a three-team deal that supposedly would involve Tyrus Thomas and Kirk Hinrich. I've never been a huge Boozer fan, but this still sounds like a good idea.
