When the Bulls drafted Derrick Rose #1 overall in June, lost in the shuffle was the fact that Loul Deng was still the cornerstone piece to the Bulls franchise. On Thursday, July 31, he was recognized for it and rewarded with a 6 year, $71 million contract, and incentives that could bring the deal up to as much as $80 million.

This contract ends a year of speculation of where Deng would end up, after last year when he turned down a 5-year, $57.5 million extension from the Bulls in hopes that he and the team would have greater success than they had had the previous 3 years, and then be able to cash in with a bigger deal at season’s end. Instead, the Bulls performed miserably, going 33-49, missing the playoffs and costing Scott Skiles and Jim Boylan their jobs, while Deng’s game slipped a little as well.

Now that Deng is signed, the Bulls must take care of business with their other restricted free agent, Ben Gordon. Bulls GM John Paxson has said he won’t make any moves until he has certainty on Deng and Gordon. If Gordon is to get a deal at or above the 5 year, $50 million extension he rejected before last season, it would push the Bulls over the luxury tax limit, something cheapskate owner Jerry Reinsdorf recently said that he would not do for a team not contending for the title. Really, Jerry? I’m not going to get into that here, but that is funny that JR said what he said.

Congrats to the Bulls on getting this deal done, not only for an outstanding basketball player, but an even better human being. For those who don’t know, as great columnist Jay Mariotti wrote, Deng is a wonderful young man off the court, with his efforts to help save Darfur being shown throughout the NBA Cares ad campaign.

If the Bulls are serious about making a title run again, it’s time to get rid of Gordon and Hinrich, clear out some cap room for the 2010 off-season when LeBron James, Chris Bosh, and Dwyane Wade will be free agents, and find a big man who can dominate inside.

A year after the Los Angeles Angles of Anaheim of California of the United States of America of North America of planet Earth of the solar system of the universe of the Milky Way Galaxy struck out in their bid to acquire Mark Teixeira from the Texas Rangers, they finally got their man. On Tuesday, July 29, they traded first baseman Casey Kotchman and pitching prospect Stephen Marek to the Atlanta Braves in return for Teixeira.

This move adds thunder to an already loaded lineup. With Tex and Vladimir Guerrero, the Angels have a 3-4 combo rivaling the Boston duo of David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez. With this move, the Angels have added an offensive machine who is still in his prime at age 28. Since 2004, Teixeira has a .291 batting average, .381 on-base percentage, .546 slugging percentage and .927 OPS. and has averaged 35 homers and 40 doubles. Oh, he’s also a gold glove winner.

With the best record in MLB and a double digit lead in the AL West, the Angels have gone for the kill with this move, as it puts them in position to win the World Series. In addition, the Angels did not ask to negotiate an extension with Teixeira, although they will try to keep him. However, he is a client of Scott Boras, and now that he is an Angel he is nearby Boras, who will surely advise him to hit the market in the winter, as early reports indicate he will command at least 10 years and $230 million. Turns out he was smart to turn down that 8 year, $160 million offer from Texas last year before he was traded.

Since sending his letter to the NFL requesting reinstatement, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has decided to hold off a decision on whether or not to reinstate former Packers QB Brett Favre, opting to give the Packers more time to work something out.

Reports indicate that the Packers are considering doing something they have wanted to avoid doing, trading Favre to their rivals, the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings, in an attempt to end this. The Packers have also said that if Favre is reinstated and comes to Packers camp, that he would not be allowed to take part in team drills, only individual drills.

On July 1, Ron Artest had a decision to make: Whether or not to opt out of his contract and become an unrestricted free agent a year early. Doing so would have allowed him to sign with his hometown Knicks or to head down to SoCal to be with his buddy Kobe, and help add a key piece to the Lakers title puzzle. Artest ultimately chose not to opt out and play out the final year of his deal. But later on, he regretted his decision, and wished to be traded. Yesterday, he got his wish.

The Kings have agreed to trade Ron Artest to the Houston Rockets in exchange for Rockets rookie Donte Green, Bobby Jackson (who played for the Kings from 2000-05), and a future first round draft pick. This deal reunites Artest with his former coach in Sacramento, Rick Adelman, and makes the Rockets a serious threat in the loaded Western conference. Along with Artest, the Rockets have their 1-2 punch of Yao and McGrady, and they also have Luis Scola and Shane Battier who are no pushovers. However, given that both McGrady and Yao have never advanced out of the first round, don’t throw the Rockets in the title mix just yet.

At last, a year after it was first revealed that there was a gambling scandal in the NBA, the ring-leader, disgraced referee Tim Donaghy has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for conspiracy to engage in wire fraud and transmitting betting information through interstate commerce, plus 3 years of supervised release. He was given a 15-month sentence on each count, but the judge ruled that they would be served concurrently.

Donaghy says he let the sport down by taking thousands of dollars from a professional gambler in exchange for inside tips on games, such as how the games were going to be called, and interactions between players and officials — including ones he refereed. He’s dam right he let the sport down. This is a serious blow to the credibility of the NBA’s officiating, and this only feeds the fire of conspiracy theorists who believe the league favor’s certain teams and players to improve ratings and increase revenue.

For Donaghy, it’s over. For the NBA, this is just the beginning. Commissioner David Stern has tried covering this up and sweeping it under the rug saying that Donaghy was a rouge official who acted alone. This issue is not going to go away. Regardless of whether or not Donaghy said the things he said such as officials rigged the Lakers-Kings playoff series in 2002 to take it to a deciding game 7, which was also a revenue and ratings booster, to get less time, David Stern needs to be upfront and address the claims head-on.

This issue will not die until he does that. And if Donaghy is telling the truth, then I demand a Mitchell Report like investigation and congressional hearings and the like! But before any of that, I’d like to see what, if anything, David Stern has to say about the claims Donaghy made.

After saying he wanted to return for 2 weeks, Brett Favre made it official, sending a letter to the NFL requesting reinstatement. Commissioner Roger Goodell now has 24 hours to act on it, considered a formality, but perhaps he will wait the full 24 hours before granting reinstatement to give the Packers more time to work out a trade. After reinstatement is granted, the Pack will have another 24 hours in which they can decide whether to keep him, trade him, or release him, something they have said they will not do, because they are concerned he will bolt immediatly for the Minnesota Vikings.

Meanwhile, Packers team president Mark Murphy traveled to Mississippi, apparently in an attempt to talk Favre out of reporting to camp. Reports say that Favre has been offered $20 million over several years not to report. The Packers control Favre’s rights until his contract expires following the 2010 season.

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: The Packers are being really stupid here. Did they take some of Jerry Angelo’s stupid pills or what? Their reasoning seems akin to something Angelo would say, such as last year when he more or less said he traded away Thomas Jones so that Cedric Benson wouldn’t have to compete with him for the #1 RB job. They should have nipped this in the bid and welcomed back Favre as the starter. Now, they are really backed into a corner, or more appropriately, as the first article I linked says, they are backed up against their own goal line. Whether or not they avoid the sack remains to be seen.

Kwame Brown still has job in the NBA as an active player? Wow! How did that happen? Is this a dream?

It turns out, it is not a dream. Brown actually is still in the NBA as a player, agreeing to a 2-year contract with the Detroit Pistons. This is a horrible move. It’ll end up being nothing but a waste of money. The Pistons say they believe they can help turnaround Brown, the #1 pick in the 2001 draft, and the first high-schooler choosen #1, around after a rocky start much like they did Chauncey Billups and Rasheed Wallace, also former top-5 draft picks.

There is a big difference here: When they started out, Billups and Wallace never really had any good coaches, and even so, Sheed was pretty decent with Portland, he just had a bad temper and was known more for getting T’s than his play. Additionally, when coming to Motown, Billups played for Rick Carlisle, who is a pretty good coach, but has been given a raw deal in both of his coaching gigs so far, and then later Larry Brown, even though I have never believed he is a very good coach overall, who also helped him. Same with Sheed, coming over mid-way through the 2003-04 season, as his play was pretty good already.

Kwame Brown on the other hand, has played for an elite coach. In fact he has played for the best coach in the NBA right now, Phil Jackson, and he still was not able to figure it out. He played for Jackson for about 3 years, too. If you can’t figure out your game under Phil Jackson, how do you expect to figure out your game anywhere? Look for Brown to continue to fail spectacularly for the next 2 years until he hopefully is out of the NBA forever.

Yesterday, New York Yankees catcher Jorge Posada announced that he would undergo season-ending surgery on his right shoulder, dealing a big blow to the Yankees hopes of reaching the playoffs for the 14th year in a row. Posada had been dealing with shoulder pain all season and had been trying to put off surgery until the winter and rehab the shoulder so it would be strong enough to allow him to be a DH or 1B the rest of this season.

MRI results showed fraying in the tendons around the labrum, but no rotator cuff tear. Before this season, Posada had never been on the DL. Absolutely amazing, that this catcher who has been in MLB since 1995 and is now 36 had never been on the DL until this year. Wow. I believe that Posada has made the right decision to get the surgery now and come back better next year. The Yankees have enough thump to win even without Posada, and they have an endless supply of money to add help.

So last week, the Cubs placed closer Kerry Wood on the DL for the 12th time in his 10-year major league career with a blister on his throwing hand. Wood has been out since July 11 with this, and was eligible to come off today. But with the problem still lingering, Wood appears nowhere close to returning. Cubs fans can only hope that this is not a severe problem that lingers, and knowing the Cubs and their history of not being upfront and honest with injuries, this is a concern. Woody, I know I said this to you last year and you told me that everyone says it to you, but I’ll say it anyways: STAY OFF THE DL!! If we are to play deep into October, we’re going to need Woody healthy and ready to come in and close out the 9th.

Since last week, when opening bids for the Cubs were submitted, it has been learned that Tribune Co. cut the # of bids for the Cubs, Wrigley Field, and the team’s 25% stake in ComCast Sports Net Chicago down to 5 from the original 10. Among those 5 bids, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was one of them, and John Canning, considered by many to have had the inside track due to his ties to commissioner Bud Selig, was not. Additionally, it has been learned that Cuban’s bid was the highest at $1.3 Billion.

According to sources close to Canning’s group said that due to the fact Wrigley Field needs anywhere between what they estimated $300-400 million in repairs, any bid over $800 million would make the investment unprofitable, which probably explains why Canning’s group didn’t make it to round 2.

Grade A columnist Jay Mariotti, of the Chicago Sun-Times believes that Sam Zell would have rejected Canning regardless, saying:

It’s tough for Cuban to go on the record these days, particularly with me, a frequent critic of the lords [Bud Selig and Jerry Reinsdorf]. But a source close to the situation reminded me of the underlying story: “MLB can’t be involved until after the Cubs pick someone.” Meaning, Zell and Cuban could bond like long lost brothers, and Cuban’s group could bid a trillion zillion dollars for the Cubs — and it still wouldn’t matter if Bud and Jerry drive the political wedge and opt for their kind of peeps. There is a precedent, by the way. It happened in 2002, when the lords rejected the highest bid for the Boston Red Sox and went with the lower, $660-million bid of Selig’s dude, John Henry.

This might explain why Zell, in an impressive pre-emptive strike, rejected the bid of a big-clout group presumably supported by the lords. John Canning is a Selig guy, an 11 percent owner of the Milwaukee Brewers. He’s a Chicago guy, chairman of private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners LLC. He had men influential in Reinsdorf’s world — Aon Corp. chairman and Chicago 2016 chief Patrick Ryan, Chicago sports mogul Andrew McKenna and restaurant legends Rich Melman and Larry Levy. It’s hard to believe their bid was so low that Zell buried it. But then, given the Red Sox case, can you blame him? This could have been his message to the lords — you can’t politically favor Canning if he isn’t part of the process.

Well since we know what the numbers are, Mariotti is wrong on the front that Canning’s bid wasn’t a low one. But his analysis of it is still a very thoughtful one nonetheless, seeing how Selig and JR are only interested in getting their cronies in. Additionally, when Sam Zell took the Tribune Co. private last year in a heavily leveraged $8.2 billion deal, he took in $13 billion of debt. Next year, in June 2009, Zell has to pay off $750 million of that debt. He is not interested in helping install a crony. He is interested in top dollar, and he realizes that by throwing out the crony, that task becomes a lot easier. Let’s hear a shout-out to Mr. Zell for throwing out John Canning.