Everybody Relax

I swear, Bulls fans are some of the most irrational in all of sports. A young, very unexperienced, and new team put together a run which featured an MVP season from Derrick Rose, first year coach Tom Thibodeau being named coach of the year, a division title, best record in the league (62-20), and an appearance in the conference finals. And somehow that's not enough as Bulls fans are talking about who to trade.

Whatever happened to the philosophy of players working hard in the summer to get better. If they do, and they will because this is the NBA, then there is no need for a trade.

Most of the ridiculous and premature statements I've heard include Carlos Boozer being traded somewhere, anywhere really. This man was playing with torn ligaments in his toe, I don't think most people understand what it's like to play through an injury. It slows the player down a ton, and it also slows the player down mentally because he begins to question what he can and can't do. This was Boozer's first year in Chicago and he scored about 17 a game while also posting 9 rebounds a game and shooting 51%. Get off the guy's back.

The other thing Bulls fans seem to be going crazy about is the idea of getting Dwight Howard. It will not happen. The Bulls can't sign him because of Boozer's contract and Noah's and now Rose is up for an extension which means another max contract is on the way. Therefore it would have to be a sign and trade and it won't happen simply because they would never trade him to not only another Eastern Conference team, but a contending team at that. They don't want to get bounced out of the playoffs by their former star for the next ten years. IF he gets traded, and that's a big if, then I think he's going to the Lakers or somewhere in the Western Conference.

Staying with the Dwight Howard subject, the Bulls would have to get rid of a lot to get him. My guess is that they would have to send a draft pick, Ronnie Brewer, Joakim Noah, and probably Taj Gibson as well. That would be horrible trade for the Bulls, you give up your depth and I personally love Noah and think his attitude and energy is irreplaceable.

However, if it was Noah for Howard straight up, well then bye-bye Noah but the other pieces make it too much. One of the really big benefits however to getting Howard is that they would never have to deal with him in the playoffs.

They would never admit it publicly but I'm sure that was part of the reason why Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, and LeBron James got together. So they didn't have to run into each other during the postseason.

What the Bulls need is a shooting guard who can score by creating his own shot. Keith Bogans averaged 4 points a game this season as the starting shooting guard. That can't happen. If they can get another legitimate scorer it will really open up the offense and not allow teams to load up on Derrick Rose as they will all do from this point forward.

Even if the Bulls get no one they will be fine. It was their first year. Everybody take a break. Take a deep breath, enjoy the summer, and resume the ridiculous statements and demands in September.

The Physicality of the NBA

I understand that the NBA needs to protect its money making superstars and therefore cannot allow a walking dollar sign....I mean player, to get injured because of excessive contact. That's all well and good but they're taking it to a whole new level. I'm warning you right now, this is going to be one of those angry rant articles and I'm going to focus on two main subjects. The first of which is flopping, the second is the showmanship of players today.

I personally feel that flopping is a sign of weakness and that it's embarrassing for a player to do. You never saw Jordan, Bird, and Magic doing that. They may have sold the call a little bit but never throwing themselves on the floor to draw the foul like in today's game.

As you can see by the picture, LeBron James get bumped, and then throws himself backwards and flails his arms in the air like an injured ballerina to get a cheap foul call.

In in the fourth quarter of tonight's game four of the Eastern Conference Finals Carlos Boozer delivered a hard foul to Chris Bosh. Now, yes the foul had some force behind it. But in the replay you can see Bosh clearly regain his footing, then stop drop and roll as if he were a kindergardener during a fire drill.

It happens all the time. And Bulls fans, don't agree with me too fast because I'm going at a Heat player. Omer Asik is one of the worst floppers I've ever seen. If he doesn't have a chance at the rebound, he just jumps under the basket and yells and hopes the ref calls a push on somebody.

Remember the Bad Boys Pistons from the late 80's?

Under today's regulations not only would every single player be suspended but they would also be in an abyss of debt because of all the fines they would have to pay. For those of you who aren't familiar with basketball in those days. It was actually a contact sport in which players would fight for the ball. If you went to the foul line you were going to earn it, it was as simple as that.

In today's league, if you so much as lay a finger on LeBron he's going to the line. If someone ever actually laid him out? First off the player who did it would be playing in Puerto Rico before sunrise and David Stern would be at LeBron's bedside feeding him hot soup and coco.

It seems like all of the real stars in the league today flop. Don't get me wrong, there usually is contact, but they then throw their bodies to make it look like they were hit hard. One of the only guys who doesn't do it is Derrick Rose and I respect him for it (also my favorite player so he gets the mention).

At the end you will see my list of players who flop all the time and the players that by my definition aren't floppers.

Is this the message we really want to send to all the young basketball players out there? "Don't worry about playing tough, every time you go to the basket scream and hope you get a call, and if not, complain to the ref." That's disgusting to me.

If Michael Jordan played in today's NBA, I think he might have scored 50 a game because he would have been at the free throw line all night.

But that's not the case, Jordan played against those Pistons teams who kicked the crap out of him every single time he went to the basket. That's how teams today would defend LeBron but, as I said before, they would be lucky if they were not sent to a terrorist prison camp as a result.

The second problem I have is the way guys look into the crowd and do stupid non-basketball related things to get attention.

This is a basketball game, not a performance.

Last year I went off on LeBron (you will notice I'm not a fan) for dancing during games. He would actually get up off the bench, report to the baseline and start dancing like he was in a Michael Jackson music video. That's just an insult, not to the other team, but to all of the players who came before him and to all of the people out there who genuinely love the game.

Every time he dunks or hits a shot LeBron seems to feel the need to look into the crowd and make a spectacle of himself. Play the game. When you hit a game winner, or win a huge game, then you can do all that stuff, not when you hit a jumper in the middle of the third quarter. It's not just him, Kobe does it, KG does it (although I think we've all just accepted that he's crazy), Amar'e Stoudemire does it, as well as many others.

The NBA should really crackdown on all of the extra foolishness because it's ruining the game for basketball fans. It seems that a lot of people my age view it as entertainment, I (and a lot of older basketball fans) view it as nonsensical stupidity that should be eliminated immediately.

Don't even get me started on halftime shows nowadays.

And as for the fouling situation. The NBA should make a statement this offseason saying that after a review of the play, if it is ruled that you flopped, you will be hit with a 10,000 dollar fine automatically. It's hard to tell during the game if a guy flops but slow motion replays usually show it.

Basketball used to be a tough game and to go to the foul line you usually had the bruises to show for it. Now, whoever generates the most league revenue gets there. It's shameful.

Non notorious flopping star players:

Derrick Rose

Deron Williams

Kevin Garnett

Jason Kidd

Tim Duncan

Dwight Howard

Al Horford (using the term star loosely)

Kevin Durant

Kevin Love

Kobe Bryant (sometimes)

Notorious floppers:

Rajon Rondo

LeBron James (he's 250 pounds, not that easy to knock down)

Dwyane Wade

Paul Pierce

Omer Asik

Kirk Hinrich

Anderson Varejao

Kobe Bryant (sometimes)

Glen Davis

Derek Fisher

Danny Granger

Tyler Hansbrough

Luis Scola

Tony Parker

Chris Bosh

and the list goes on and on....

Dissecting the Chicago Bulls

Having just watched game three of the Eastern Conference Finals my prediction after game four of the Eastern semifinals was confirmed: That this Bulls team does not have what it takes to win it all, not this year.

The Bulls were up 2-1 against the Hawks and were in a close game down the stretch of game four with the chance to take a commanding 3-1 lead. Due to a lack of urgency, they let that game slip away.

That's the difference between a championship team and a very good team. A championship team has that ability to smell blood in the water, and as much as I hate to admit it, the Heat have a couple of sharks just waiting to feast. The Bulls are now down 2-1 heading into Tuesday's game four which is a must win. There's obviously a big difference between being down 3-1 and being tied 2-2.

The Bulls can say that they are still confident all they want but they're mentally exhausted and it's clear as day. Just their body language alone shows their emotional fatigue. Give the Heat credit, everything is a struggle for the Bulls offensively and that attack mode mentality just isn't there.

This team is a championship team, it's just not ready yet.

Let's not forget that this team is way ahead of schedule. Nobody, and I do mean nobody, expected the Bulls to be the winners of 62 regular season games, have the best record in the league, and be in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Right now the Heat are doing to Derrick Rose what the Celtics used to do to LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. They load up on him so that no matter where he tries to cut into the defense he's seeing three defenders at all times. To make things worse, that wall of defense also blocks off the player's vision which causes turnovers and bad shots. Rose is struggling with it the exact same way Wade and James used to. Forcing bad shots and becoming indecisive as a result.

The Bulls are one player away from being a championship team. Everyone talks about them needing a shooter. They do need someone, not a shooter but a scorer. Nobody major, just someone that can create their own shot (not Ben Gordon). If they have someone like that (Manu Ginobli in a perfect world) then the defense can't load up on Rose. That would leave a four on two situation with open threes for Deng or Korver all game.

Next year, I think the Bulls will win it all, and I've been saying that since game two of the first round. The pain of losing is something that really drives Derrick Rose and having sniffed the Finals once, I think he'll be a man on a mission, even more than he has been this year. The inexperience of this team shows. When James or Wade brings the ball up the court in a big situation they look calm and excited, they've been here before. When Rose or Deng brings it up, they have a look of fear as if they're thinking, "I really hope I don't screw up".

This is where the sharks analogy comes back. James and Wade look like they're going in for the kill at the end of the game, a certain quality that Bulls great Michael Jordan possessed once upon a time. Make no mistake about it, Rose is a shark, he just doesn't have the experience yet to relax himself in those situations. He's come up big many times down the end of games this season which earned him the MVP but the playoffs are different. Jordan went through it, James went through it, Kobe Bryant went through it, and now Rose is going through it. In a way it's like a rite of passage for a young superstar.

This time next year, if the Bulls roster stays similar to what it is today, I will be writing about how the Bulls are on the brink of a championship. This experience will teach them what it takes to be a championship team. Unfortunately, I think losing to the Heat is the only way they're really going to learn. Bulls fans should be upset but not discouraged, this team has a bright future with several rings for years to come.