With the current playoff series between the Chicago Bulls and the Miami Heat, a new rivalry is on the rise. Although the rivalry is mainly due to Heat guard-forward James Posey’s thug actions, there have been other players involved, and plenty of hard fouls that have been cleaner than those performed by Posey.

Posey has been involved in several incidents with the Bulls prior to this season. In last year’s first round playoff series, late in the game with the Bulls comfortably ahead, Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich was running a fastbreak as Posey came and shoulder tackled him. If you see the play on video (type “Posey Hinrich,” no quotes, into YouTube), it is clear that Posey had no intentions of knocking the ball away and he was going strictly for Hinrich’s body.

On Opening Night of the 2006-07 season, Posey smashed Bulls forward Tyrus Thomas’ nose and broke it, causing Thomas to miss a few games and wear a protective mask upon return. On Dec. 27, 2006, in his third incident with the Bulls, Posey clothes-lined Bulls guard-forward Luol Deng with intention to injure as he was going up for a layup. Deng fell hard on his right wrist, which he had had surgery on just a year before. Fortunately, Posey’s attempt to injure Deng failed as his wrist was fine. For videos of this and the Thomas incident, type “Posey Deng,” no quotes, into YouTube.

Earlier in this game, Heat coach Pat Riley accused Hinrich of yanking Heat guard Dwyane Wade’s wrist, labeling him a dirty player. Riley said, “Hinrich pulled his hand. Hinrich grabbed his hand, which he does all of the time…That’s what he does anytime Dwyane comes off screens. They always either grab his shirt or hand. It’s a little bit of a tactic down below the body. The officials can’t see it. So he had Dwyane’s hand and tried to pull it out of there.”

The physical play between the two clubs continued into game two of this year’s series. In this game, Bulls forward-center P.J. Brown bumped Posey and was given a flagrant foul for it. The league rescinded it after viewing the film, and referee Steve Javie said he called the flagrant foul because Posey was bumped in the air. Late in the game, Posey fouled Thomas away from the ball on a play that looked very similar to opening night when Posey smashed Thomas’ nose. No foul was retroactively given on this play.

With this physical play between the two clubs, it brings up the question of what role hard fouls have in the NBA. In the 1990s, the NBA instituted the flagrant foul in an attempt to deter contact that put a player’s health at risk. According to the NBA rulebook, this is defined as “unnecessary and/or excessive contact.” Rule 12B, Section IV, Part A of the rulebook states that a flagrant 1 foul is a foul in which there is excessive contact but not intentional. Part B states that a flagrant 2 foul is defined as one in which the contact is deemed intentional and excessive: Posey, case in point. In the incidents with Hinrich and Deng, it is obvious his intentions were to injure.

My view is that the league should do away with Part A, as there have been clean, hard fouls for many years before this. A vicious hit that is not being done with intention to injure should not be a flagrant foul. Football and baseball allow it, without penalty, and there isn’t a huge rash of injuries because of hard hits in these sports. The players police themselves: you injure one of their guys, they’re going to take out one of your guys. However, I believe Part B should stay.

In my 10 years of watching the NBA, I have never seen actions as blatant as those performed by Posey. He had no intentions of making a play in either incident and could have caused serious injury. Say Posey actually manages to break Deng’s wrist. Deng is possibly done for the season while Posey gets off with a few games suspension. How do the Bulls get even? Knowing how the league runs and their dislike for the Bulls, using a scrub to take out Wade is the only solution I see.

While this rivalry has not escalated into fights like the one between the Heat and the Knicks in the late ’90s did, the league needs to reconsider its rules on hard fouls before this budding rivalry gets out of hand.

I was watching the Bulls-Heat playoff game on Saturday, and Mike Breen said us Bulls fans have no reason to be booing Posey, just b/c he hip-checked Kirk Hinrich in the playoffs last year. He said while that was flagrant, Posey is not a dirty player. ARE YOU THAT MUCH OF A MORON!!?? Do you not realize that “Thug James” has had a history of incidents with us? Opening night of the 2006-07 season, he smashes Tyrus Thomas and breaks his nose. Then on December 27, 2006, he clotheslines Luol Deng. If anything, we hate Thug James because of this, not the hip check on Kirk.

When he fouled Deng, Deng fell hard on his wrist, which he had had surgery on just a year ago. Fortunately, Deng’s wrist was not broken, but it doesn’t justify Posey’s actions, nor only getting a 1 game suspension. Furthermore, Posey has been an asshole about the comments afterwards on the incidents with Hinrich and Deng.

“He didn’t see me, first of all. So anything like that — a guy coming from the side — a collision will happen like that. That’s all it was.” That was Posey on decking Kirk. Here is the video of him decking Kirk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxU3YXcRwV0

It is clear that Posey decked him with intent to injure. He claims fouling Deng was part of the game also. Look at the video and tell me that he was going for the ball: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLnTdZb18oM&mode=related&search=

After seeing this, it is obvious that us Bulls fans have good reason to hate Thug James. F— THE HEAT!! POSEY SUCKS!! POSEY SUCKS!!

IS LOU PINIELLA TAKING STUPID PILLS!!?? THESE MOVES HE’S MAKING ARE AKIN TO DUSTY’S!!! IZTURIS SUCKS! FLOYD SUCKS! CEDENO SUCKS!! JONES SUCKS!! THEY’RE ALL AUTOMATIC OUTS!! I WANT TO SEE MORE OF TheRiot AND LESS CEDENO/IZTURIS!! MORE MURTON AND PIE!! LESS FLOYD AND JONES!!

WADE MILLER ALSO SUCKS!! IS HE THE NEW GLENDON RUSCH!!?? HE SUCKS!! GET HIM OUT OF HERE!!

EVER HEARD OF CUTTING SOMEONE, JIMMY BOY!!?? WHY DON’T YOU DO IT!! AND YOU LOU, DERREK LEE IS NOT HITTING RIGHT NOW!! ARAMIS IS!! MOVE LEE DOWN IN THE ORDER!! MOVE ARAMIS UP!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!

THE CUBS ARE PISSING ME OFF BEYOND MY IMAGINATION!!

I was bored, and I came across this:

“Sooner or later, somebody is going to get hurt, and then they are going to blow it all out of proportion… But go back and look at the overall picture. For a guy who is supposed to have run pitchers into the ground, look around and see our track record of how healthy our pitchers have stayed. Who has had healthier pitchers?” – Dusty

ROTFLMAO!!!!!

This is the most hilarious thing I have ever heard!! Coming from the man who has destroyed Kerry Wood and Mark Prior for life. WOW!!! What was Dusty on when he said that.

And how about this: “You are damned if you do, damned if you don’t. But you can’t take away the fact that I’ve won. For the people who aren’t down here doing our job, it’s easy to sit up there and type the stuff over the computer. They say, ‘Don’t stick with your starters as long,’ but when you bring in this guy or that guy, it’s ‘Why did you bring him in?’” – Dusty

Ever heard of saying to the media I don’t give a f— what you say?? Try it. It might work.

“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK ISN’T WORKING!!?? YOU SEE THE DAM GAME!!” – Sweet Lou. Ever try that one, Dust Bag??

The biggest story during the opening two weeks of the 2007 MLB season was not Barry Bonds’ assault on Hank Aaron’s all time home run record, the on-going steroids probe, Dice-K (Daisuke Matsuzaka) mania, Sammy Sosa or the $300 million made-over Cubs, but rather, the cold and stormy weather that has caused several games to be postponed, most notably, an entire four game series between the Seattle Mariners and the Cleveland Indians.

Last week, a snowstorm in the Cleveland area dumped about a foot of snow. They were one strike away from an official game in the Friday opener when the umpires called it because the field was deemed unplayable. Ultimately, they were unable to play any games.

The one problem with these postponements is when games are postponed because it’s “too cold.” Cold should not be a reason. These guys have Under Armor gear to keep them warm-they even have jackets, winter hats, ski masks, hoodies, heated benches and clubhouses. As long as the field is playable, the games should be played.

While there is nothing MLB can do about the weather, they should have been more proactive on this issue, and upon seeing that snow was in the forecast in the Cleveland area, they should have moved the series to Seattle, where Safeco Field has retractable roof.

There are several alternatives to avoid the bad weather in April and May, but all have drawbacks. The first option is to play the games in warm weather places and stadiums with domes or retractable roofs. It is more likely the games will get played and will not create scheduling and travel havoc later in the season. Unfortunately, this gives an unfair advantage to teams in cold weather cities, as they would get more home games in August and September.

Another option is pushing back the start of the season two weeks. It is unlikely that the owners or players would want to do this, as it would just mean bad weather in October and then all throughout the playoffs, which would end in early to mid-November.

Starting in mid-April and scheduling doubleheaders wouldn’t work either, as the owners would lose too much money, and the players would be burnt out earlier. Even if the doubleheaders were split doubleheaders (day to night) allowing the owners to get their money, it will still burn out players early in the season. Shortening the schedule is not viable either, as the owners will lose too much money.

What MLB should do is take advantage of the schedule’s structure.

MLB has an unbalanced schedule, in which division teams play each other 18 to 20 times a year. They should open up the season with more intra-division games. The benefits of this are multi-fold.

First of all, in the event Mother Nature does not cooperate, rescheduling games would not be as much of a hassle, as teams usually make two or three trips to the cities of their division rivals. Postponed games can be made up when they come again, without creating schedule and travel issues that will burn players out more easily.

One or two doubleheaders will not hurt owner’s wallets or tire players, and split doubleheaders can be done as well.

While no solution is perfect, opening with more intra-division games is the best solution, as this reduces the potential for travel and schedule havoc later in the season, and keeps everyone satisfied.

With last week’s sale of the Tribune Company to real estate mogul Sam Zell, the Chicago Cubs will be sold at the end of the season to help pay off some of the debts the Tribune Co. owes. Because Zell is also a minority owner of the White Sox, unless he sells his shares, he will be required under MLB rules to sell the Cubs.

Analysts have predicted the team will sell for over $600 million. That’s a far cry from the $21.1 million Tribune Co. put up to buy the team in 1981. It has been reported that Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and former Suns and Diamondbacks executive Jerry Colangelo have expressed interest in purchasing the team.

Between Colangelo and Cuban, Cuban seems to be the better owner. Colangelo may have built a World Series team in Arizona in only four years, but he piled on massive debts to do it. The team was also aided by inferior competition to get into the playoffs and was then able to ride shutdown aces Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson to take the title.

Cuban, on the other hand, has turned the Mavericks from the laughingstock of the NBA into a title contender in just seven years since he officially bought the team midway through the 1999-2000 NBA season.

Success is not measured only by titles. Consistent winning is the key.

Arizona made the playoffs only a couple times and then tanked. In each of Cuban’s first six full seasons as owner, Dallas has made the playoffs, including a trip to the NBA finals last year.

Cuban would be a great fit because of his fan-friendly attitude. Most owners tend to watch games from their own private suite where no one can see them. At Mavericks games, Cuban can be seen sitting courtside with the fans, wildly cheering on his team, often wearing team jerseys and shirts.

Only a fan of an enemy team (Cardinals, White Sox) wouldn’t want Cuban as owner. Cuban gets the Cub thing: Wrigleyville, the Bleacher Bums, the ivy, the beer and the hot chicks. He likes having fun, but he also likes spending big money to win, as can be shown by his brilliant job building Dallas from a cellar dweller into a title contender.

Cuban comes from the George Steinbrenner School of payroll: spend. He has the kind of money Steinbrenner has, and the Steinbrenner attitude on spending: You got the money, spend the money.

In an era where baseball is flush in cash, a major-market team like the Cubs should throw around the money they have. The Tribune never re-invested the profits back into the team, despite giving good payroll. Cuban’s attitude says he will take that next step and put the extra money into the team to make it a title contender.

Thanks to the Tribune’s $300 million offseason spending splurge, the new team owner will have to pay massive money to keep this team intact. Doing so would require committing $55 million to just four players (Alfonso Soriano, $17M/year salary, Aramis Ramirez, $15M/year, Derrek Lee, $13M/year and Ted Lilly, $10M/year) through the 2010 season. Not to mention a big contract coming for Carlos Zambrano, supposedly in the $17M/year range. Cuban will spend the money.

However, it is unlikely Bud Selig will want anything to do with Cuban.

The appropriately called ‘maverick owner’ has been fined several times for saying what he thinks of the NBA. Selig can’t take it when writers blast him. Seeing how Cuban has blasted David Stern, who’s to say he won’t rip Selig apart? And who thinks Selig will stand for such behavior?

Also standing in the way of Cuban getting ownership is Selig’s right-hand man, White Sox majority owner Jerry Reinsdorf. Reinsdorf serves on the Executive Council and Ownership committee of MLB, which is the first step in getting prospective buyers approved. It’s unfortunate that a White Sox owner gets to influence who owns the Cubs, but such is life, just as the 1994 MLB Players Strike that J.R. caused was.

While doubtful MLB will want anything to do with Cuban, having him as owner would provide a true feeling on the North Side that there will be a season where the team is built to win the World Series.

So today the White Sox opened the 2007 season in smashing fashion, laying a giant dud, losing to the Tribe 12-5. The White Sox continue to show 2005 was a fluke, that they only got into the playoffs because Mark Beurhle decided to try to kill Pronk. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. The White Sox only made the playoffs b/c of the attempted murder that kept Pronk out of action for a month. Had the Tribe had Pronk, or if MLB would have realized that it was intentional and suspended Buerhle for the length of Hafner’s injury, during the White Sox’s collapse in August/September, they would have blown it. What kind of team can’t beat the Royals, blowing big leads to them constantly. Even my manager, who doesn’t understand baseball well, knows that the Royals suck. This team is poorly built. They have no 5th starter, their offense is not capable of doing anything but swinging for the fences, and they play in the hardest division in baseball.

Instead of tackling a prime opportunity to take over this town, the White Sox have booted it away. Their happy-go-lucky GM Ken Williams traded away 2 quality starters this winter, instead of trying to load the team for another title run in the final year of their window of opportunity. And with Buerhle, Jermaine Dye, and Tadahito Iguchi up for Free Agency after the season, and the fact the White Sox apply principles to everyone, you can look at this team sucking majorly for years to come.

They have a personal vendetta with Scott Boras and b/c of it, they refuse to draft Boras clients, and they refuse to negotiate long term deals with his clients, which means after the 2008 season, their lone Boras client, 3B Joe Crede, will be gone. Also, the maximum length contract they’ll give pitchers is 3 years. In this market, the only players they’re gonna get with these principles is sub-standard crap. White Sox Suck, YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!!

Does Jerry Angelo take stupid pills? Why won’t he accept the Redskins offer of Lance Briggs and the 31^st draft pick for the 6^th pick? This is way better than Jay Mariotti’s “clump of lint” Angelo got for Thomas Jones.

Multiple sources have confirmed that Redskins owner Dan Synder has offered the Bears the 6^th pick in the draft for Briggs and the Bears 1^st round pick, the 31^st selection. According to the point system teams use in their draft war rooms, the 6^th pick is worth 1,600 points and the 31^st is worth 600. The 1,000-point difference is equivalent to the 16^th selection. This is far more than what Briggs is worth. Washington would be the one getting a clump of lint.

According to Angelo, the 6^th pick in the draft will require giving a bonus double what they will be paying Briggs in 2007, $7.2 million. Sounds like Halas Hall is focusing on profits and not winning. They have about $20 million under the cap right now. Letting Briggs go would free up another $7.2 million. Furthermore, a draft pick’s bonus, or any player’s bonus for that matter does not count to the cap in a lump sum unless he’s cut.

Synder is a fool to be offering this. Angelo should realize this and take the deal. He can figure out what to do with the pick later. Having the 6^th pick gives him more ammunition than the 31^st pick. Briggs and his agent Drew Rosenhaus will certainly make a stink and destroy the Bears season the way he and T.O. did to the Eagles in 2005. He has said he won’t report to the team until week 10 so he can get service and prevent the Bears from putting the franchise tag for 2 more years at linebackers salaries. He sounds very serious about this and will likely make good on the threat. The third year the tag is used, the salary has to be the average of the 5 highest paid players regardless of position.

No one can fault Briggs for doing what he’s doing. He’s trying to look out for his best interests. No contracts are guaranteed in the NFL, only the signing bonus. And in the sport of football, where a player’s career can end with one misstep or one vicious hit, Briggs is simply trying to get a market value deal to set him up for life. He played for 4 years at a salary of $700,000 each year. By not reporting until week 10, Briggs reduces his risk of injury while getting service under NFL rules.

According to Angelo, the money needed to commit to the 6^th pick would interfere with their plans to lock up Peanut Tillman, Nathan Vasher, Bernard Berrian, and Tommie Harris, who by the way, is also a Rosenhaus client. It leads to wonder, given how the Bears have handled the situations with Jones, another Rosenhaus client, and Briggs, if Tommie Harris will want to stay with the Bears.

Angelo should realize only Synder would be foolish enough to make such an offer. Synder doesn’t get the concept of building the team through the draft. The Bears do. Who cares if Synder is going to throw Briggs a mega contract? He always does this. It’s how he beat the Bears to recently acquired safety Adam Archuleta last off-season. Furthermore, it should be noted that Briggs is merely a by-product of Urlacher’s freakish abilities, as were Warrick Holdman and Roosevelt Colvin while Dick Juaron was the coach.

With the 6^th pick in the draft, the Bears would be in prime position to take Ohio State Receiver Ted Ginn and improve the offense and return game. Or perhaps Angelo could trade down, get 2 first round picks, and still be in position to draft Ginn. His stock has fallen a bit recently, and he is now projected as a mid 1^st-round pick. With that extra pick, the Bears can use it on Penn State linebacker Paul Posluzny to replace Briggs, while also being able to take Ginn’s college teammate running back Antonio Pittman at pick 37. Jerry Angelo is a shrewd negotiator when it comes to making draft day deals, and will likely find a way to pull off a deal.

Letting Briggs go sounds better with each passing day. The Bears should do it now before Briggs destroys the season T.O. style later. NEXT QUESTION!!

With two weeks left in the regular season, the Bulls have clinched a playoff spot for the third straight season and have a legitimate shot to grab either the first or second seed in the Eastern Conference. If not, under the NBA’s playoff seeding, the Bulls will have the fifth seed because the other two division winners-the Atlantic and Southeast-will get the third and fourth seeds.

After a pair of first-round exits in ‘05 and ‘06, the Bulls look to advance past the first round as the John Paxson/Scott Skiles regime looks towards building the post-Jordan dynasty Jerry Krause failed to do. They took a major step in doing so over the summer when they managed to pry Ben Wallace away from the Pistons, giving him a four-year, $60 million contract in hopes of him being that final piece to the dynasty.

However, Wallace’s play this season has been inconsistent. Some nights he looks like he can be the dominant inside force the Bulls envisioned. Other nights, the man with a career scoring average of 6.6 points per game, plays like an older, better version of the man he replaced, Tyson Chandler, owner of 7.4 points per game average. Wallace is not capable of doing anything except playing defense.

When the Bulls signed Wallace, they figured the reason for his low scoring average was due to not being involved in the Pistons offense, and that he could be an offensive force if he was involved regularly in the offensive game plan. They were wrong; his game is only defense.

While having his defense has certainly lifted the Bulls to one of the elite teams in the East with Miami and Detroit aging, and LeBron continuing to struggle with a weak supporting cast, the inside scorer this team lacks is the major reason why this team won’t yet compete with the powerful Western Conference teams including the Spurs, Jazz, Suns and Mavericks.

Without a big man who can score, the beautiful work Paxson has done cleaning up the mess Krause left will go to waste.

Thanks to Eddy Curry’s pigheadedness and Isiah Thomas’ stupidity, the Bulls own the rights to swap picks with the Knicks in 2007 draft, no strings attached. The Knicks, 31-41 as of March 31, are fighting to make the playoffs as the eighth seed. Bulls fans are rooting hard the Knicks miss the playoffs. Even if they won’t get a lot of ping-pong balls, the Bulls still have a chance at a top-3 or top-5 pick.

The big man to complete the puzzle is better served coming from the draft, as getting one through a trade for the likes of Kevin Garnett or Pau Gasol would require giving up too many pieces and taking on too much salary, countering the desired effect, and hindering the ability to lock up the young core.

This draft has the potential to be loaded with big men, depending on whether or not these guys leave college early. Greg Oden from Ohio State, Kevin Durant from Texas, Joakim Noah from Florida, Glen “Big Baby” Davis from Louisiana State, Roy Hibbert from Georgetown, and Gasol’s brother Marc from Spain headline what could possibly be one of the deepest drafts in the last 25 years.

With Kirk Hinrich, Andres Nocioni, Ben Gordon, Loul Deng, Chris Duhon, Ben Wallace, Tyrus Thomas and Thabo Sefolosha, the Bulls have one of the deepest teams in the NBA. All these players eligible for the draft will make a major impact right away, and getting one would be the final piece for the Bulls to dominate the league not seen since Michael Jordan left.