Derrick Rose has been patiently waiting for an ankle on the mend. Against San Antonio, Derrick had to just put it out of his mind and play as hard as he could play for as long as he could go. Coach Vinny Del Negro wanted to keep a close eye on Derrick Rose’s minutes, but he ended up playing 33 minutes in what was his first game in almost a month’s time.

Chicago Bulls 92 San Antonio Spurs 85

This was a huge victory for Chicago and probably not too irritating of a loss for San Antonio, although San Antonio Coach Gregg Popovich was not too happy with the effort. All Coach Popovich could do was admire the effort of the Chicago Bulls.

Deng got no argument from Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, who saw his team follow up Wednesday’s win against New Orleans with a dud. Except for Tim Duncan (28 points, 16 rebounds), the Spurs didn’t give much of a fight.

”Chicago just did a great job out there,” he said. ”They had more guys come to compete than we did. We had one. They deserved it, and I’m happy for Vinny.”

Deng (17 points, nine rebounds) led six Bulls in double figures. He shot 8-for-13 and was one of the few Bulls who had any sort of offensive rhythm throughout.

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Derrick Rose chases down a loose ball with a bad ankle

Luol Deng, by the way, was one of the walking wounded for Chicago as he was coming off of a lower stress fracture that had him sitting around for 6 months. If the Bulls are going to do anything at all this year it will involve Luol Deng putting together a potential All Star season. That is what Chicago has been hoping for since they drafted him. Maybe with Derrick Rose around to set him up, Luol can at least approach that level.

Tyrus Thomas Free Agent

Tyrus Thomas checked in with 10 points in the third quarter to help the Bulls winning cause. The Bulls have been unable to come to terms with Tyrus Thomas and he will become a free agent at the end of the year.

The Bulls will have significant salary-cap space available for the summer of 2010, and aren’t inclined to reward Thomas with an extension like his 2006 draft classmate, Portland Trail Blazers forward LaMarcus Aldridge(notes) (five years, $65 million). The Utah Jazz also signed forward Paul Millsap(notes), a second-round pick in 2006, to a new four-year, $32 million contract this summer.

Thomas, 23, was the fourth overall pick three years ago, and has steadily matured and begun to show signs of fulfilling his vast promise. Forman has maintained that Thomas, a 6-foot-9 power forward, is part of the franchise’s core group with Derrick Rose and Luol Deng.

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This move may anger many Bulls fans that yearn for the days of Michael Jordan and don’t like to see any young talent walk out the door. Tyrus was a key with Deng and Rose to the Bulls future.

On this night Bulls fans will just have to put it all aside and be happy with a victory over Tim Duncan and the powerful San Antonio Spurs.
Image: Zuma Press

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Rasheed Wallace was never one to shy away from making bold statements. When he was a Detroit Piston there were a few playoff games where Rasheed Guaran-Sheed a victory. Usually the Guaran-shee came true, but not always.

Now before you get all huffy about Rasheed keep in mind that players like Rasheed help the attitude of your team. You need a player that is so fearless, so tough, so outspoken, with a dash of bad boy to them to put down the other team and trivialize their chances. This takes away the fear in your teammate’s eyes and replaces it with an attitude of “Hey, if Rasheed says they are punks then they must be punks!”

Rasheed will need to throttle LeBron for the Celtics to be the best!

This time Rasheed must have been hanging around Jon Kitna of the Lions will win 12 games fame. This time Rasheed has predicted that the Celtics will be the all time greatest team with the all time greatest record.

The depth of Celtic belief in themselves started to be revealed in that Media Day interview with Celtic owner Wyc Grousbeck. He revealed one interesting thing about that private meeting with Rasheed. Wyc said that Kevin Garnett told Rasheed that if he came to the Celtics they could ‘be one of the greatest teams ever.’ That is correct. One of the greatest teams…ever.

A throw away line? Maybe. Until Doc goes on NBATV and says that he wants this Celtic team ‘to be in the conversation’ as one of the…. greatest defensive teams in NBA history. No wait. Make that in sports history. And he said he was serious.

So a season’s quest to reclaim a lost title just became more than that. It is a quest for a special place in sports history. Not just the basketball and not just the NBA. Doc Rivers said that they want to be considered as the 1985 Chicago Bears are for football, as the greatest defensive team (in Doc’s opinion)…ever. Or are at least in that conversation.

For the record, the Chicago Bears that year set a few Super Bowl records. Wiki….

“The Bears set Super Bowl records for sacks (7) and fewest rushing yards allowed (7). The Bears’ 36-point margin over the Patriots was a Super Bowl record until Super Bowl XXIV (45). The Patriots were held to negative yardage (-19) throughout the entire first half, and just 123 total yards in the entire game, the second lowest total in Super Bowl history.”
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Now there are two things wrong with all this.
1. Are you kidding me? That is Michael Freaking Jordan you are talking about.
2. Rasheed often opens his mouth and words come out that don’t mean anything. So many things would have to go right for them to be better than Michael’s team that it ain’t even funny.

But then Rasheed did Guaran-sheed it, didn’t he?

Photo source Newscom

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Michael Jordan was inducted into the Hall of Fame and here is a youtube of part of his speech. Michael is called the greatest player ever and that is what he discusses in this youtube. There is also a great joke at the end of the video so make sure you play it until the end.

In other parts of his speech Michael Jordan called out Byron Russell and made a little fun with him. The highlight of Michael making the game winning shot over Utah in the 98 finals with a double clutch move was made over Byron Russell. The comments were not meant to cut on Byron, it was all in fun. Byron, for his part, was even proud to be a part of the most famous play of all time, but would love one more shot at Jordan in a game of one on one.

Was Michael Jordan the greatest player of all time? That is a great argument, because you have to set some parameters. Anyone that saw Wilt play would notice that Wilt scored at will even scoring 100 points in a single game. Anyone that watched Bill Russell play would notice that Bill almost beat Wilt every time they played. So is the winning more important than the stats?

All we know is that in Jordan’s era he was the best player and no one as arrived yet to take that away. Maybe before LeBron James is done he will be greater than Michael, but for now it is all Jordan!

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Michael Jordan will be enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame this Friday and we all would be remiss if the legacy of Nike and Michael Jordan was not expounded upon. You see Michael helped make Nike and Nike in return helped make Michael Jordan the legend.

An odd little bit of trivia had David Stern, the NBA Commish, ban the Nike’s and make them popular beyond belief.

A small bidding war between Reebok, Adidas and Nike finally netted a deal: $500,000 and a cut of the profits for M.J.

By early 1985, a shoe was constructed. It was a little clunky and unorthodox, featuring the red and black colors of Jordan’s Chicago Bulls. But it was also nearly an instant hit, powered by Jordan’s high-flying game (he and Dominique Wilkins engaged in a memorable slam dunk duel at All-Star weekend).

That year NBA commissioner David Stern provided Nike with marketing gold when he banned the shoe for not complying with league color schemes.

“I knew we were onto something huge when David Stern wouldn’t let him wear the shoes,” Vaccaro said.

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The real story was Jordan. He was just coming into the league and nobody projected him to be the best player ever, which is what many now portray him as being. He was the skinny low scoring kid from North Carolina that took the game winning shot in the NCAA finals.

Baseball? Why is Michael Jordan playing baseball? That is a whole 'nother blog.

Truth be known, it became obvious at the Olympic trials that Jordan was the man. He was clearly the best player. Still, Nike took a huge risk when Magic and Bird were in the NBA already wearing Converse and Michael was still an unknown.

More than that, Jordan hadn’t displayed much of a personality. Carolina was a program that kept its players under wraps, this was no Barkley. Besides, no one knew him. Carolina was a Converse school; Nike had no entrée. Even Vaccaro had never spoken to Jordan, a rarity since Sonny had met nearly every great young player while operating the Dapper Dan Roundball Classic, the first national high school all-star game. Jordan, somewhat of a late bloomer in high school, hadn’t been invited to the tournament his senior year.

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It all looks so easy in retrospect, but now you see that it wasn’t. Still it all worked out, because what serious basketball fan cannot picture the Nike poster of high flying Michael floating through the air with the basketball in front of him gripped by his huge hand and the Nike’s prominently displayed?

Image: Zuma Press

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Shaquille O’Neal has moved to number 5 on the all time scoring list for the NBA with 27, 411 points.

Kareem leads everyone with 38,387
Karl Malone is next with 36,928
Michael is next with 32,292
Wilt is fourth with 31,419

Shaq moves up the scoring ladder

He is number 8 on the NBA/ABA list. Only us old timers would even consider that.

What does Shaq have to say about all this?

“It was good, but I’m still kind of disappointed in myself,” O’Neal said. “Mathematically, I’ve missed three years worth of games and I missed 5,000 free throws. If I was there, I’d probably be No. 2 or No. 3 right now.”

Then he added, “It shows I’ve been consistent at what I’ve been doing and the next guy is my illegitimate father — Wilt Chamberlain — so just like in Star Wars, hopefully I can catch up to my father.”

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Photo source Newscom

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These are the type of comparisons we all love to make and your intrepid author is no exception.

Joe Johnson can’t carry Kobe Bryant’s jock strap you may say, but if you break down the stats it turns out he can carry Kobe’s jock strap and carry it rather well.

Entering Tuesday’s game, Bryant was averaging 27.7 points on 47.5 percent from the field, 35.0 percent from 3-point range and 86.9 from the line. Johnson was averaging 21.6 points on 43.3, 34.4 and 80.5 percent, respectively.

Break down Bryant’s points and you’ll find that 14.6 percent of them come on 3-pointers, 27.5 in the paint, 22.5 on free throws and the other 35.4 percent from midrange.

Johnson’s breakdown is 27.3 percent on treys, 26.7 in the paint, 16.9 on freebies and 29.1 percent from midrange.

They score in a similar fashion.

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But you know that there is more to it than that, don’t you? You do, don’t you? Well?

Yeah, there is that intangible part that makes Kobe great and Joe really good. The difference is in that skull thing that sits above the neck on both players. Kobe has what some would call a genius of athletics. Can we say that? Guess we already did. Kobe knows he will take your team to the mountain, he will win the game, make the big shot, the big pass, whatever it takes and he has done it before.

Isiah Thomas used to say that Michael Jordan was the most competitive athlete he ever met. If you beat Michael Jordan at hoops then be prepared to play until he wins or you drop dead. If you did drop dead then Michael would probably be a bit upset at not getting a chance to beat on you. You can just picture Michael dragging your dead body out on the court and jumping over you to jam the ball and shouting out, “That is 1 to nothing, your outs!”

Kobe has that and Joe would like to get it.

Maurice Evans, Bryant’s former backcourt mate in L.A. and Johnson’s current backup in Atlanta, agrees. “I think you see a little bit of the mental edge [with Bryant] as far as the confidence level, as far as winning championships and having a greater level of success,” Evans said. “When [the Hawks] played Boston last year and they went to Game 7, Kobe’s been in situations where he’s actually won that game and had that type of success. Once Joe gets that under his belt, I think he can start playing on that level.”

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When Joe gets that edge then maybe, just maybe he will earn a category on my blog. Until then, Joe better keep taking it to Kobe until he wins!

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Former Coach Eddie Jordan explaining how to take a defense stance

Eddie Jordan was fired from being the coach of the Washington Wizards.

The excuse from GM Ernie Grunfeld was the lack of defense. Oh, and that 1 – 10 record probably did not help.

It just felt like we were going in the wrong direction,” Grunfeld said. “It felt a little stale.”

Jordan was in his sixth season with the Wizards and led the team to the playoffs each of the past four — the longest postseason streak for a Washington coach since Dick Motta did it from 1976-80. Under Jordan, though, the team made it past the first round only once.

In September, shortly before the start of training camp, the Wizards picked up a one-year option to keep Jordan under contract through the 2009-10 season. That, along with the injury-depleted roster, were reasons Jordan’s job was thought to be safe — and why Monday’s move came as something of a shock, despite the team’s record.

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Guess you can’t win for losing. Eddie Jordan gets this team into the playoffs 4 straight years, then he loses not only his best offensive player in Agent Zero to injury, but maybe his only real defensive player in Brendan Heywood to injury and they fire him?

They should fire Ernie Grundfeld for failing to find more players that have ever played defense.

Photo source Newscom

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Shaq – the big guy smiles and says he is leaving

“My basketball career will be over in 735 days,” O’Neal told News 13 television in Orlando, Fla. “And being an educated man, I’ve always had things to fall back on. So one of my options is law enforcement.”

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In modern times there have been 3 dominating players, in terms of them having no equal in what they could do. The obvious one is Michael Jordan. All he did was win, win, and win again.

The next one is a bit further back. Wilt Chamberlain. Look up some of his statistics and they will boggle your mind. Wilt was a 7′ 350 pound man in the day of 6′ 9″ centers. He scored at will. Wilt did not always win, but scoring and rebounding put him in a class all by himself. By some accounts, scoring with the ladies also puts him in a class all by himself.

The third one has to be Shaq. No, not the Shaq of the last couple of years. That is an older less motivated often injured Shaq. No, you have to back up to when he played with the Lakers.

Try year after year of 27+ points per game and double digit rebounds. Even more dominating was to watch him play. He would get the ball and just start backing you down. There was nothing you could do and then he would wheel around and slam home a dunk. Thunderous. Coach, pull me now please, before they give Shaq the ball again.

The Shaq also displayed a personality that just draws people in. Shaq will be missed, bigtime.

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You know if this news came out years ago, the Knicks fans would be going bonkers.

The news this time is dealing with Patrick Ewing Jr. not Senior.

Ewing Jr. hasn’t shied away from his father’s legacy. He started his collegiate career at Indiana before transferring to Georgetown, where his father led the Hoyas to three Final Fours and the 1984 national championship.

The 24-year-old Ewing averaged 6.1 points and 4.2 rebounds last season, winning the Big East Sixth Man of the Year award.

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Ewing Senior

Patrick Ewing Sr. dominated basketball, first at Georgetown in college and then with the New York Knicks in the NBA.

Ewing joined the Knicks as the No. 1 pick in the 1985 draft, and is the franchise’s career leader in points, rebounds, and blocked shots, among other categories. He was voted one of the league’s 50 greatest players, and will be inducted into basketball’s Hall of Fame next week.

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A lot of people will not give Ewing Sr. his due, because he never won an NBA title in spite of being close several times and having to play during the Michael Jordan era.

Hey, the guy won an NCAA title, was a member of the dream team, and took the Knicks to the Conference finals or title game more than once. Ewing ruled the paint.

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Let’s back up and look at Doug Collins.

My early memories were of Doug playing for the 76er’s, swooping to the hole and making a layup or drilling jumper after jumper. He played on the great Dr. J’s teams. He averaged over 17 points a game for his career.

Doug also played on the Olympic team that the Russians beat after the ref’s kept giving them do over’s until they scored the winning basket. Ok, so that one still bothers me. You can’t let everything go.

After retiring as a player, Doug went on to coaching. He got his first walking papers as Michael Jordan’s stubborn coach.

“We knocked heads early,” Collins said at the time. “I was 35, had never been a head coach before, was going to roll up my sleeves to show everybody that I could get the job done. I wanted to do things my way.”

Collins was fired and replaced by Phil Jackson, whose first team also lost to Detroit in the conference finals, 4-3. The following season the Bulls broke through, sweeping the Pistons 4-0 and going on to the first of six championships in the 90s with Jordan and Scottie Pippen leading the way. In 1995-96, they finished 72-10 as what many consider to be the greatest NBA team of all time.

Collins accepted his second head coaching job in 1995 and worked 2 1/2 seasons with the Pistons, going 46-36, 54-28 and 21-24 before he was let go amid reports his style caused friction with some of his players.

He was 37-45 in both seasons in Washington but couldn’t get the Wizards into the playoffs. He was fired shortly after Jordan was denied a return to the front office.

Collins’ overall record is 332-287 and 15-23 in the postseason.

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Here is a YouTube breaking the Chicago Bulls news of hiring Doug Collins.

Now being a huge Piston fans, the early Chicago years were followed and the Piston years were followed. Doug was tough, demanding, and a my way or the highway guy. He could make a weak team strong, but could not make a good team great.

Speaking of great, after a while Doug grated on you and you did not want to play for him anymore.

Now after Chicago experienced the tough, demanding, my way or the highway Scott Skiles, why would they sign Doug Collins?

The Bulls and Collins, who coached a young Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen before the 1990s dynasty took off, acknowledged Thursday discussing a return engagement. The sides also said there would be more talks once Collins’ obligations with TNT ended, which happened when the Los Angeles Lakers eliminated the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference finals that night.

And Collins was adamant during a pregame interview with TNT: “I have not been offered. I have not accepted.”

On Friday, general manager John Paxson did not return a call to his cell phone, and Collins’ representative John Langel declined comment. A message seeking comment was left Friday night on Collins’ cell phone.

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The Bulls will have the number one pick in the draft, probably Derrick Rose of Memphis.

Does this sound like a do over of young Michael Jordan and Doug Collins?

Only Derrick Rose is not Michael Jordan and young Doug Collins had better not be old Doug Collins!

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