One has to ask if the Chicago Bulls “Brain trust” GM Gar Forman and Head of Basketball Operations John Paxson are using the old Indiana Jones plan: Making it up as they go. They traded Derrick Rose; OK – that made sense, both sides needed a divorce. They needed a point guard, but they sign serial malcontent Rajon Rondo to a two-year contract. They allow Pao Gasol and Joakim Noah to leave via free agency.
Then word comes out that the Miami Heat and star guard Dwayne Wade and suddenly, the Bulls are in the mix to sign the 34-year-old player who grew up in the Chicago area. At first, I thought the story was all a tempest in a teapot, surely the Heat would retain Wade, or he would go to another team that needed a guard. Maybe if the Bulls hadn’t committed to Rondo, it would have made more sense, but instead they found $47 million and signed Wade to a two-year deal, which forced the team to part with Mike Dunleavy to Cleveland and Juan Calderon to the Lakers to clear the salary cap space.
Wade will be 35 years old in January, Rondo is 30, but both have won NBA titles and both are outspoken, opinionated players. Fred Hoiberg seemed like a deer caught in the headlights in his first NBA season as head coach despite having been a Bulls player years ago. Not that my opinion holds any sway (especially since I don’t follow basketball closely anyway), I still don’t see a cohesive way forward, and many people who I know who do follow the NBA don’t either. Perhaps the plan is to just keep putting fans in seats as the Bulls made a playoff run and first round exit?
If that is the plan, it may succeed unless Bulls fans wakeup and see that Paxson, Foreman and Hoiberg have no clothes.

Long time readers know that I don’t follow much NBA basketball, but in light of the Cleveland championship, even I have spent more time keeping track of the NBA. I haven’t investigated what happened to the league’s finances, but it seems that suddenly the teams have stupid amounts of money to spend on free agents this year, and the number one target was Oklahoma City All Star Forward Kevin Durant.
Durant has spent his entire nine-year career with OKC and unlike LeBron’s “Decision” a decade ago, it seemed like OKC would be where he would land. They had more money to pay him than any other team, but still the suitors lined up, hoping to even get a one-on-one discussion. Reportedly, it boiled down to OKC and Golden State, the NBA Finals runner-up who had put together the most successful regular season in history 73-9 before almost being beaten by OKC in the Western Conference Final before losing to the Cavs in the NBA Finals.
I think that most people expected Durant to stay in OKC and try with Michael Westbrook to try and find a way to beat Golden State and All World outside shot Steph Curry. I think fans whose team don’t have a realistic shot at the free agent root for things to stay the way they were. There’s a certain comfort with the status quo (which may be the main reason behind conservatism), unless of course your team is trying to sign or keep that player. We were all surprised when Durant announced via first person article that he was going to Golden State, the team who won one NBA Title and came ever so close to repeating. Durant did a smart thing – he took top dollar – $26 million per season, but only for two years. Durant is trying to win at least one title, and the Warriors, already the top team in the league, give him the best chance to win next season. At 27, he still has a lot of playing left to do, and with only a two-year-deal, if he continues to play at the highest level (which there’s no reason to assume he won’t), he’s up for another max deal in the future. He could return to OKC, he could still go to the Knicks. The options are nearly endless.
Of course, the NBA pundits are up in arms. ESPN Chief Idiot and Resident Ignorant, Loud Black Male Stereotype Stephen A. Smith called the signing “the weakest move that I’ve ever seen an NBA superstar commit.” (I guess he doesn’t remember LeBron’s television “decision.”) (I do love Durant’s tweet “F^&k Stephen A. Smith & His Uncle Tom Ass Opinions.”) Charles Barkley, who I do love but sometimes you have to wonder if it hurts because he speaks out of his ass so much said that Durant was cheating to try and win a title. LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh weren’t doing that when they went to Miami?
At the end of the day, a player has the right to play where he wants when free agency comes along, and maybe after nine years in the league, he wants the money and a ring, and he doesn’t have to commit long term. Sounds like a smart move to me…

Unlike the intelligence of the Kevin Durant signing for both sides, the Chicago Bulls seem to be unable to put a quality team together. They traded injury prone one time home town hero Derrick Rose to the Knicks. OK, that makes sense, Rose and the Bulls needed a divorce and Jimmy Butler is the reigning superstar in town. He and Rose did not get along well on or off the court. Standout forward Joakim Noah, a free agent, followed Rose to the Big Apple. Noah brought toughness., rebounding and a decent scoring touch to the center/forward position. Center Pao Gasol, also a free agent, signed with San Antonio. I liked Gasol as a player and as a team leader.
After having drafted Denzel Valentine as a guard in the first round of the draft, did they need another point guard? Obviously, Head of Operations John Paxson and GM Gar Forman thought so, signing Rajon Rondo to a two-year, $28 million contract. Rondo was a standout guard for the Celtics and also played well for the Mavericks and, most recently, for the Sacramento Kings, but the 30 year old guard is also as well known for his temper and bad relations with teammates, coaches and front office members of his own team.
This is problematic since the Bulls have been embroiled in turmoil for years. Tom Thibodeau was the Head Coach with the Bulls until the team got tired of his tough, defense first approach. Of course, this approach got the team the closest to a title since Michael Jordan left town. There’s little doubt that the Bulls would have been much better if Rose had not suffered injuries for the end of Thibodeau’s tenure, but that couldn’t be But Thibs was fired and sat out a year, and is now the Head Coach of the up-and-coming Minnesota Timberwolves.
They brought in former player and successful head coach at Iowa State Fred Hoiberg, but Hoiberg’s up tempo style didn’t fit the personnel in Chicago and the Bulls missed the playoffs for the first time in several years last season. Hoiberg had issues with many of the players, a bit of a surprise for a man who actually played the game and should understand how players react to situations.
So now, the Bulls bring in Rondo, who has been outspoken on his previous teams, and who at 30, is more likely to be more outspoken, not less. Now Rondo faces a coach who, it was said, was too often soft or spoke up too late to last year’s team. Add to the fact that the front line is a shambles with no free agent pickups or highly drafted big men on the roster, and the 2016-2017 team may have the lowest expectations since Tim Floyd was the coach.
Do the Bulls still believe that it isn’t players that win championships but front offices? They certainly did under Jerry Krause when Jordan retired the second time; Krause let Head Coach Phil Jackson leave for the Lakers to win more championships; and broke up the team that had won six NBA titles in eight years. Does Owner Jerry Reinsdorf not remember that lesson? Does Paxson, who was eyewitness to the breakup, think he knows better than Krause? Do Paxson and Forman remember the hatred that the players and fans had for Krause? Do they think they are in a different situation?
It could be really ugly. The Bulls are sailing the NBA seas without a map and it looks like the ship is rudderless and sailing without a clue.

2016 has been a monster to too many cultural icons: Parliament/Funkadelic’s keyboardist supreme Bernie Worrell, Anton Yelchin, Maurice White, Glenn Frey, Paul Kantner, Bowie, Prince. We lost Abe Vigoda and Alan Rickman Away from music, we of course had Muhammad Ali and Gordie Howe barely days apart. Well, this morning we lost two more sports icons: Pat Summitt and Buddy Ryan. Neither had been in good health, but to lost them both on the same day is a blow to many of us.
Ms. Summitt was the winningest Division I basketball coach of either gender in history. Her Tennessee teams won 8 NCAA National Titles and in many ways put women’s college basketball on the cultural map. The women’s game was overshadowed by the men, but Ms. Summitt’s steely look on the sidelines, no nonsense attitude made people take notice. Success breeds success – the titles allowed Ms. Summitt to recruit the best players in the nation, who all wanted to learn from her. And they learned how to be independent women; women who didn’t need a man to define them – they were achievers on their own terms.
In many ways, she was to the women’s game with John Wooden was to the men’s game. She stepped down five years ago after being diagnosed with early onset dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease. It was the Alzeihiemer’s that killed Ms. Summitt. The loss of memory, the loss of mind had to be the ultimate ignominy.
Closer to Chicago, we lost Buddy Ryan, the defensive coordinator of the 1986 Champion “Super Bowl Shuffle” Chicago Bears. Ryan was an abrasive personality, who earned the loyalty of his players nonetheless.
Middle Linebacker and Pro Football Hall of famer Mike Singletary was shown visiting Ryan at his home last year on the team’s 30th anniversary special on ESPN. Ryan had survived a stroke and was battling cancer when the show aired.
The “46” defense, named for safety Doug Plank was the most dominant defense in NFL history. The 1985 team lost only once all season, rolled through the playoffs and dominated all opponents in the playoffs, before destroying the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XX. While he and Head Coach Mike Ditka were almost rivals on the Bear sideline, the two head strong men eventually buried the hatchet in 2000.
Once again, we have to say farewell to people who made a difference in our lives.

I get it. I do. The world is changing and you can’t get off. The old are frightened and want to retain what’s left of a world that they understand. Never mind that that world was 1) racist; 2) sexist, and: 3) never existed except through the lens of dewy-eyed fake nostalgia. Moreover, no one wants to get scammed; no matter how dumb someone is in believing in the wildest get rich quick scheme, very few will admit complicity in allowing themselves to be ripped off.
That however is what has been happening in Britain and the United States. Warren Buffett says that the war of the haves and the have-nots has already been won and the 1% has not just been victorious, it’s been a slaughter, most similar to Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg in the Civil War. The Kochs and their ilk have had poor people separated, fighting culture wars, spouting religion, fighting for the same tiny piece of the pie as they take the rest of the pie for themselves. Let’s blame the immigrants, the Blacks, the Hispanics, the women for the plight of white men in the world, and, as we know from history, white men will use violence to continue their dominance over everyone else.
LBJ said that “if you can convince the lowest white man he’s better that the best colored man, he won’t notice you picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on and he’ll empty his pockets for you.” Hence, you have the GOP’s “Southern Strategy,” gerrymandering of House Districts, the takeover of government by the rich.
Except there are a lot more of “them” and as a member of “them,” we aren’t just going to fold under terrorist tactics, and demographically, there are more and more of “us.” According to studies, current minorities will be a majority in the U.S. before the middle of this century, and deep down, many whites understand karma all too well.
Looking at the vote last week by the UK to exit the European Union and possibly to a United States near you is the same old BS. Old white people voting to try to turn back the clock to that old time when life wasn’t as complex (and is idealized in any event), selling off the future of the young because they really don’t care about anyone but themselves. The only young people they care about are their children and grandchildren.
In England this week, young people are upset and are among the loudest groups calling for a “redo” of the election. However, looking at last week’s election, only 30% of eligible voters between 21-30 voted. They couldn’t be bothered, I guess. Unfortunately, that is the same type of result we get across the pond. It seems like every election, young people are vocal in their concerns, but then don’t bother to show up at election time and wonder why the old people have sold them up the river.
Even worse, many young people and liberals/progressives/whatever you want to call them have learned what I call black folks power syndrome, best epitomized by Tavis Smiley and Dr. Cornel West: I’m glad you won, black person, but you can’t or won’t do things the way I want; the way I want them done; at the speed I want them done. In other words, “you aren’t doing it my way, so you suck.” This has been most evident with the election of Barack Obama. “He isn’t black enough,” say the Smileys and Wests of the world; mostly because Mr. Obama is not about to allow them to be in charge; Mr. Obama was elected, Smiley and West couldn’t win an election for dog catcher.
I remember many white liberals like Matt Damon and others talking about how disappointed they were with Mr. Obama, without understanding that he wanted to get a second term in order to be able to enact real change. Plus, no one could have estimated the GOP’s intransigence toward ever working with this President. So, all of the progressives and a lot of young people who voted from Mr. Obama in 2008 weren’t as passionate in 2012. Only the realization that Republicans in Congress would never support anything from a black president brought forth the kind of true left wing reforms that have made people understand how good a president Mr. Obama has been.
I wasn’t there in 1947 when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball but he was chosen because he had the moral fiber to take the name calling and death threats and not respond in kind. President Obama, as the first African-American in the office, was in the same dilemma. So he had to move cautiously and not be too fast in promoting change. Has he been perfect? Of course not, but he’s done one helluva job.
When I see the supporters of Brexit and Donald Trump in this country, I wish we lived in Logan’s Run where the old people get killed off before they can ruin the world for the rest of us (of course, I would have long been killed off in this B-movie world). I still shake me head when the forward steps of the 1960s are being rolled back by people who were certainly there, but it seems that only a small percentage of non-black people were actually enlightened in the 1960s and the years thereafter.
We can’t change the minds of these old people – they will cling to their pig-ignorance like a life preserver on the Titanic. They will continue to vote because they have nothing better to do, and they can screw things up like their parents did to them. The question is for the young: you can pose and be “too cool” to vote, but you’re going to be the once screwed in the long run. There was a lot of passion around the Bernie Sanders campaign, but he’s lost – we have to work around Hillary Clinton to keep the vain, infantile bigot Trump out of the White House.
England woke up having passes Brexit. Many Brits googled Brexit after they had already voted, and many of them wish they hadn’t voted that way. There is reportedly a petition with over 3 million signatures requesting a do-over. Scotland and Northern Ireland, both of whom voted in favor of staying in the EU are looking at ways to split from the UK and stay in the EU. Now, the Brexit leaders are not as strident now, given the opportunity to act on their election win. The future is uncertain for the EU, for Britain, and even for Brexit.
Some say that the Brexit win bodes well for Agent Orange’s chances in November. However, I will keep voting and pushing for equality and fairness because I have the Indignant Daughters and I want a healthy, more tolerant world for them as they grow up. To those who sit on their asses, don’t vote and then bitch (like those who helped elect Illinois Governor Bruce “I’m for the 1%” Rauner), are you going to act or get screwed and bitch?
The choice is up to you.

What was once a Cinderella story has now ended – former Englewood area guard, once NBA MVP and All Star and then oft-injured Derrick Rose was traded from the Bulls to the Knicks in a multi-player deal. The Bulls sent Rose, Justin Holiday and a second round pick in the 2017 draft to New York for center Robin Lopez, point guard Jose Calderon and Jerian Grant (I always though Jose Calderon was a former outfielder with the White Sox.)
Rose enters the final year of his contract a shell of the league MVP. Injuries have limited Rose physically and also mentally. He has bowed out of games due to “general soreness” and other maladies. It is here, in the court of public opinion that “the bloom was off the Rose” (yeah, I had to get one pun out). Despite the diversity of industry in this town, Chicago remains, certainly in its sports fandom, a blue-collar, lunch-bucket kind of town. A town that loves its sports heroes for being tough: Butkus; Michael Jordan in the “flu” game; Duncan Keith losing seven teeth to a puck in the second period and returning in the third period. Chicagoans love their sports figures, perhaps too much, but they love toughness, and after the injury, Rose was anything but tough.
Add the fact that Rose and new found superstar Jimmy Butler did not co-exist well either on or off the court; it seemed like one of them would have to go and since Butler is younger, without as much injury experience, it seemed to be a no-brainer.
To me however, the writing was on the wall early last season. As I wrote above, Rose told the press that his main motivation was to be able to play ball with his son as he grew up. Then he made it worse, saying that his focus was on his next NBA contract, after having signed a $98 milion dollar deal with the Bulls after his MVP season. Now, we can debate whether Derrick Rose is the poster boy for spoiled athletes, but the biggest problem is honesty. Even if that is your thought process, the only thing you should say to the press is that your focus is on a championship, which really is where an athlete’s mind set should be. Also, Rose’s brother has a very big mouth and he would make things worse for Derrick by badmouthing the team and front office in a vain attempt to draw the attention off his brother.
Often in sports, players, coaches, even GMs and front office officials need a change of scenery. The environment is so poisonous, attitudes are so toxic that the person needs to do their business elsewhere. It happens in business; it happens in industry; and it happens, most publicly in sport. Rose will remain in a big market, and be without the hometown hero expectations. The Bulls will be without Rose and they can try to build without him. I do wish him luck, both on and off the court.

LeBron James is now, officially, one of the best players in the history of the NBA. He was probably there already with his two NBA Championships in Miami, but he was never deemed to “put his team on his back” and take them to victory. The other members of the “Three Amigos” Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade were as crucial to the victories as James. To many of us, we remember him not showing up against the Celtics when he was with the Cavs before.
That’s all over. As everyone knows, James and the Cavs, down 3-1 to the winningest regular season team in history, the 73-9 Golden State Warriors, came from behind and did what no team in history has ever done, win an NBA Final after being that far down. Kyrie Irvin had a transformative series – we all knew he was talented, but injuries kept him from blossoming into a true superstar. He held his own with MVP Steph Curry, which is saying something.
But it was James who showed what he has down deep. He drew upon his heart, stopped trying to be so damn democratic with the ball and do what he must. As such, he won the Finals MVP with the most points, rebounds, assists and steals. Also, he’s the second player to take two teams to championships, along with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Unlike too many Bulls fans, I’m not going to downplay how well Golden State played in amassing their 73-9 regular season record, They were an excellent team who had an amazing season. Perhaps Oklahoma City showed how to defeat them in the end. Maybe that series “softened them up” for the Cavs? I don’t know. In the final analysis, does it really matter?
This is the end that LeBron James promised when he returned to Cleveland. Almost all of the hatred that fans all over the world had for him after “The Decision” went away when he returned to Ohio. Now, many people are speculating (including world class @$$hole Stephen A. Smith) that James will exercise the clause in his contract to become a free agent. The Big Market Lakers and Knicks have salary cap room to give him big money. The Heat probably wouldn’t mind having James back in Miami. I can’t help but think that with a budding superstar like Kyrie Irving, wouldn’t it be nice for James to stay put? It certainly isn’t the money, he is going to make huge money everywhere. Some look at the ad revenue he could generate in a big market as incentive, but why blow the positive publicity he has generated going home if he was just to leave again?
So, they’re partying in Cleveland – the city’s first championship since the 1964 Browns. For the time being, all is right in Cleveland and considering the financial and bad sports teams that the city has been forced to withstand over the years, I’m happy for them.