So last week, Bulls forward Tyrus Thomas broke his arm while lifting and is expected to miss 4-6 weeks. And with that, Thomas’ career with the Bulls is likely coming to a close. Even though this injury is not season-ending, I believe that this will be his last season in Chicago for several reasons:

1. Thomas has been inconsistent throughout his time here, much more than Joakim Noah, who seems to be taking his game to another level this year
2. Thomas has some attitude problems and hasn’t always been in favor with the coaching staff
3. With the drafting of Taj Gibson and James Johnson, the Bulls have a logjam at power forward
4. Johnson and Gibson are cheaper than Thomas, and Gibson has shown me so far that he is capable of doing what Thomas has been doing, if not more.
5. With Thomas out now, Johnson and Gibson should get more playing time and a chance to be a big part of Vinny Del Negro’s rotation.
6. When Thomas returns if Johnson and Gibson come along as they should, Thomas’ role with the team will be diminished.
7. He wasn’t given an extension on his rookie contract, and will be a restricted free agent this summer if the Bulls give him a qualifying offer. And with the vaunted free agent class, letting him go means more cap room. Bulls.com beat writer Sam Smith has suggested that LeBron to the Bulls is a possibility.

So this will likely be Tyrus’ last season in Chicago. So long Tyrus, it was nice knowing you

Earlier this week, I got an email from the Chicago Bulls saying that former Chicago Tribune basketball writer Sam Smith is back writing for bulls.com. Smith was bought out at the Tribune in April. Congratulations to a wonderful basketball mind, and I look forward to reading his wonderful take on the NBA

After undergoing surgery on his wrist to repair a torn ligament, Washington Wizards center Brenden Haywood could miss the entire season. The team said he will will spend 2½ months in a cast before starting rehabilitation and will be out four to six months. With Gilbert Arenas out until December or January after undergoing his 3rd knee operation in the last 1 1/2 half years, this is a damaging blow to the Wizards, a team expected to make some noise in the East. How they fare without those 2 is to be seen, but it doesn’t look good.

Monta Ellis is a moron. Now he will pay for it. Literally and figuratively. After tearing his deltoid ligament in his left ankle over the summer in a moped accident and then lying to the team about it, the Golden State Warriors made a moron pay, suspending Ellis for 30 games without pay for violating his new 6 year, $66 million deal by riding a moped.

Paragraph 12 of the NBA’s uniform player contract prohibits players from engaging “in any activity that a reasonable person would recognize as involving or exposing the participant to a substantial risk of bodily injury,” including “driving or riding a motorcycle or moped.”

Why an NBA player has a moped or motorcycle with him to begin with, I don’t know. Your contract prohibits it, so why do you have one? And when you have at least $100 million in salary and endorsements in front of you, why do you ride one and risk getting killed? Look at Jay Williams. He played just 1 season in the NBA, and then he almost killed himself on a motorcycle and is now out of basketball for good, and he only got to make about $5 million.

Additionally, Ellis lied to the team at first. He said he hurt it playing pickup ball. You should have known better than that. A torn deltoid ligament and cuts and abrasions don’t happen while playing basketball. At least make up something plausible, like riding a bicycle.

The Warriors are going to count their 4 pre-season games in the suspension, so Ellis will be suspended for the first 26 games of the season, ending after their Dec. 17 game. It is unclear whether or not Ellis will be able to play by then anyways. If I was in charge, I would not have suspended Ellis, since he is going to probably be out until then anyways, but rather, I would not have paid him for each game he missed.

After being caught with marijuana and women in their room, in violation of the program’s no-visitors rules, at the NBA’s rookie transition program, Mario Chalmers and Darrell Arthur were expelled from the program.

It turns out, NBA Commissioner David Stern was the one who expelled them. Upon finding out about what they did, Stern was enraged.

According to sources, Chalmers and Arthur were caught in Arthur’s room at the Doral Arrowwood resort in Rye Brook when a smoke alarm went off Wednesday at about 2 a.m. Hotel management went to the room, but the players refused to allow them in.

Management then left to get security, which used its own key to enter the room minutes later. Once inside, security found Chalmers, Arthur and at least two women. There was a strong stench of marijuana in the room, and one person was in the bathroom with the door locked, repeatedly flushing the toilet, sources said.

The police were called to the room, which they searched, but neither marijuana nor drug paraphernalia was found. Representatives from the players’ association were also on the scene by that time.

Chalmers and Arthur were allowed to spend the night at the resort and were seemingly planning to attend a kickoff address by Stern later Wednesday morning. But after being told of the violations shortly before beginning his speech, Stern immediately had the players removed from their rooms.

According to several reports, Stern was livid. And that anger was evident. Stern mentioned the 2 players by name, and told the other 67 rookies in attendance that they were thrown out and would be forced to attend the 2009 session. They will also be fined $20,000 and could start the season on the suspended list.

Congratulations to David Stern for taking a stand and throwing out these morons. How hard is it to wait for 4 days anyways to smoke pot and hit it with some pussy? I hope these morons get massive suspensions.

What could possibly stop LeBron James from going to the New Jersey Nets and joining his buddy Jay-Z other than the other New York team, the Knicks? Some other title contender offering top dollar? Hardly. Then what could it be? Surprisingly, the answer is a European team.

A person close to James said he would consider playing overseas if he was offered a salary of “around $50 million a year.”

James’ current contract expires after the 2010-2011 season, but he can opt out after the 2009-2010 season. Even though many teams are working to clear out salary cap space for that summer, none could offer a contract beginning at even $20 million a year.

The Russian team CSKA Moscow and the Greek team Olympiacos, which recently gave Josh Childress a contract approaching $30 million over three years, have already contacted James, according to the person close to him. The person added, however, that no monetary or contractual discussions have taken place.

While $50 million may seem outrageous, it actually is not, considering the fact that David Beckham signed a 5 year, $250 million contract to play soccer in America, or the $33 million that Jerry Reinsdorf now regrets having given Michael Jordan to return for the 1997-98 NBA season. Additionally, the strength of the euro in comparison to the dollar, and the fact that European clubs are not bound by a salary cap make this deal sensible.

There have been several players who left the NBA for European league teams this summer, but none of James caliber have left – or even considered it. If James were to go overseas, it would be a disaster for the NBA. However,

The source close to James said LeBron would play in Europe only for a year or two before returning to the NBA. He said James would view it as an opportunity to popularize the game and himself overseas. He added that James would not consider himself to be playing in the “minor leagues.”

“Not at all,” the person said. “He believes those guys are pros also.”

The entire scenario falls in line with James’ stated goals of becoming a billionaire and “global icon.”

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.

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.

LeBron James. Dwight Howard. Kobe Bryant. Kevin Garnett. Chris Paul. Steve Nash. What do these 6 men have in common? They are your leading contenders for the 2007-08 NBA MVP award. My pick goes to Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers. Why?

After all that he’s gone through the last few years, the split with Shaq, the media questioning him about being a ballhog, his wishes to be traded, everything, Kobe has matured into a team player this season. He continues to dazzle us with his moves, but this season, he is passing the ball more. And now, he’s playing with a broken finger too that needs surgery. With Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, and Andrew Bynum when he returns from injury, the Lakers have a real chance at winning the NBA title this season. Kobe is a big part of that.

The last 3 years, Kobe was not worthy of the MVP, as he didn’t pass much, and the Lakers would muddle along the road. But this season, with the Lakers competing for the best record in the wild, wild West, and with Kobe passing more, this is the year Kobe truly deserves the MVP.