John Paxson. Kenny Williams. Jim Hendry. Jerry Angelo.

What do these 4 men have in common? Aside from being GM’s of Chicago sports teams? I’ll tell you what. They all suck. None of them are any good. Angelo is a moron when it comes to constructing the Bears. Kenny Williams thinks he can build a team to win it all while being cheap. John Paxson thinks the team he’s built can contend for a title. Jim Hendry likes to acquire garbage, and when he has a chance to get rid of that garbage for something useful, he either hangs on to the player and lets him walk, or he waits until his value is so low that all other teams offer him in return is garbage. Why can’t we have competent GM’s around here!!??

With the Los Angeles Lakers acquiring Pau Gasol, all superstars are now off the market. Kevin Garnett was taken off last year when the Celtics got him, and now the Gasol is a Laker, this takes him and Kobe Bryant off the market. And with that, Bulls GM John Paxson has lost his free pass as GM. He had a chance to get these guys and failed miserably. 2 years ago we could have had KG for Tyson Chandler, Loul Deng, and our top draft pick in 2006, which ended up being #2. We could have had Kobe. We could have had Gasol. Leave it to Paxson to continually fuck things up. Trading LeMarcus Aldrigde for Tyrus Thomas. Trading Tyson Chandler for PJ Brown and JR Smith. Trading JR Smith for nothing. Signing Ben Wallace to a 4 year/60 million contract. This team he built has imploded in his face, and now he is going to have to start over if he wants to build this team to dominate. He refused to break up the team b/c he didn’t want to ruin the chemistry. Real gay. You know Pax, as Dennis Rodman once said, “chemistry is a class you take in high school or college.”

With the 2007-08 NBA season nearing the halfway point, most people expected that the Chicago Bulls would be one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference. Instead, at 14-22 they are much closer to the bottom, and head coach Scott Skiles has already been deposed.

What’s going on here? This team was supposed to be a contender to make the Eastern Conference Finals, if not the NBA Finals. They brought back the core of their team from last year, and they improved the team by getting rid of the scrubs like marshmallow Mike Sweetney and bringing in Joakim Noah and Joe Smith.

The problems with this team go beyond the fact that they don’t have a big man who can dominate inside or a superstar with a killer instinct like Kobe Bryant, or the fact that Ben Gordon and Loul Deng turned down five-year, $50-million extensions. In fact, it may not have anything to do with their struggles. They don’t even have referees to blame this season for their poor record.

After Skiles was fired, players openly admitted that they had tuned out Skiles and implied that they weren’t caring. Their play showed that they didn’t care. Firing Scott Skiles hasn’t fixed anything, as Skiles was not the reason for the team’s poor play.

Former NBA great and current TNT analyst Charles Barkley said Skiles should not have been fired. Instead he said, “The person that didn’t trade for Kevin Garnett last year should get fired. You have a chance to get Kevin Garnett and Pau Gasol, you’ve got to make that trade.” Barkley would be referring to Bulls GM John Paxson.

While I think he was going a bit too far saying Paxson should be fired, Barkley does bring up an interesting point. This is more Paxson’s fault than it is Skiles’. Paxson has not done enough to build this team into a title contender. While this team’s poor play is not due to the lack of a dominant inside force, this team still needs one.

When Joakim Noah, who now appears the most competitive and genuinely interested of all the Bulls, said back in November that other teams were basically doing whatever they wanted against the Bulls, he wasn’t lying.

These Bulls don’t seem to care at all. They don’t play the game with any desire. There is no effort or hustle. Their play is sloppy and opponents have turned the tables on the once Pamplonain-hustle of the Bulls, having their way on any offensive possession.

Interim head coach Jim Boylan won’t fix the team’s lack of effort. In fact, the one thing he might have had that Skiles didn’t – control of the players – he might not have that anymore, either. After Noah blew up at assistant coach Ron Adams at practice last week, Paxson and Boylan suspended the rookie for one game. However, his teammates didn’t feel it was enough and unanimously voted to extend it an extra game. They then went to Boylan and Paxson and the “superiors” agreed to it.

Who are these players to vote to increase his suspension?

How does it become the players’ job to shut up the most competitive player on the team- likely out of fear that he’ll out-hustle, out-shine, and even out-play guys like Big Baby Ben Wallace?

Ultimately, in the long-run, this poor play might end up being a blessing in disguise, especially if it leads to a high draft pick that puts the team in position to potentially draft Tyler Hansbrough from North Carolina, Michael Beasley from Kansas State, Eric Gordon from Indiana, O.J Mayo from USC or Kosta Koufos from Ohio State.

While the losing may bring the final piece to the puzzle to dominate the league not seen since the Jordan era, this team needs to show more effort and act like they care.

So with the recent news of the Detroit Tigers acquiring Miguel Cabrera AND the D-Train, Dontrelle Willis from the Florida Marlins, and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim signing Torii Hunter in free agency, the White Sox have laid another major dud and continue to show they are a one-and-done deal. What’s going on here on the South Side?

Just 2 years ago they won a World Series title (Though I must say, that was not legit either, as the Sox only made the playoffs because Buerhle tried to kill Pronk. That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.) and now they are bumbling around, coming off a 90-loss season.

Since the White Sox like to pick apart the flip-flops of Jay Mariotti, I think it’s time to return the favor, and pick out their flip-flops:

Didn’t Kenny Williams say after the Sox won the 2005 World Series that they wanted to win “two or three world championships”, reduce the Cubs to second status and take over the town and that you can’t win 2008 in 2006?

Then how about at the trade deadline in 2006 when they could have gotten Alfonso Soriano for Brandon McCarthy? I recall them saying that McCarthy was too big a part of their future, yet while the White Sox were stumbling and bumbling following Ozzie calling Jay Mariotti a fag, they refused to put McCarthy in the rotation while it was stinking up the joint. And then what did they do that off-season? They traded him to the Texas Rangers for scrubs.

Then how about when they signed Mark Buerhle and Jermaine Dye to contract extensions during 2007? Didn’t Kenny say that the Sox had a grand plan this off-season that included Cabrera and Hunter?

And then how about after this season: “Last year did not sit well with any of us. We’ll be damned if we’re going to go through that again. We will aggressively pursue a championship. We’re trying to win the 2008 championship. We were embarrassed last year.”

If by aggressively pursuing a title you mean re-signing a Dominican murderer, trading one of your best arms for the O-Cab and signing Scott Linebrink in free agency, okay Kenny. What happened to this Spiderman like video of Torii Hunter climbing the Chicago skyline and telling the whole world how badly you wanted him? What happened was the White Sox lowballed him.

And how about Miguel Cabrera, Ozzie’s “4th son.” Wasn’t Kenny Williams bragging about how it was a done deal and all that was left was to dot the i’s and cross the t’s? And what about that Venezuelan Motherfucking fag on his 4th son who he says has lost 30 pounds: “I think he is going to bring more leadership to the ballclub.” He said that in the present tense too. What’s going on here? They were just doing their best Cubs impression during the MacFAIL era: Say they’re after someone to keep PR, but not really interested in them.

And how about these remarks following the Tigers getting Cabrera and Willis: “All this has done is put the Tigers in a better position to contend with us. We certainly are not going to shy away from the challenge, especially knowing that no matter what your roster looks like on paper, it takes well-rounded teams in major-league baseball to compete for a championship.” Okay Ken. You are right that it takes a well-rounded team to compete and with this deal, the Tigers are pretty well-rounded. They have a true modern-day version of a Murderer’s Row lineup, with Granderson, Polanco, Sheffield, Ordonez, Cabrera, Rentaria, Pudge, Guillen, Inge, and the Frenchman Jacque Jones. They have kick-ass rotation with Bonderman, Verlander, Willis, and Kenny Rodgers. They got Todd Jones closing out games for them, and they will get Zumaya back at mid-season.

You think the White Sox are well rounded? LMAO!! Who do they have in their rotation other than Buerhle? They are kidding themselves if they think they can win with a bunch of kids. Ask the Cubs how that turned out. And what about the lineup? I thought they wanted to add speed and some guys who could put the ball in play? Their Thome-Konerko-Dye-Crede middle of the lineup is old, and can do nothing but swing for the fences.

At the rate Ozzie and Kenny are going, they’re the leading candidates to do a remake of Abbott and Costello. The Blizzard of Oz said the Sox were interested in Andruw Jones. Very interesting. His agent turns out to be Jerry Reinsdorf’s best friend, Scott Boras. The White Sox hate him so much that it is practically the organizations policy not to deal with anyone he represents, which means Joe Crede is going to be gone by the end of the 2008 season at the latest one way or another. Later on, Kenny Williams said: “He is not on our list.”

Then who is? Are you going to bring back Aaron Rowand, or is he just going to turn into a former legend? Will you pony up the dough? What are doing with that money that was supposedly earmarked for Hunter and Cabrera? If that money isn’t going to go into Rowand, then who is it going to? Does JR have a secret plan to spend it on his other team, the Bulls and get Kobe? Doubt it.

Kosuke Fukudome anyone? Get out of here. Since when are the White Sox going to win a bidding war? He’s going to sign with the Cubs if it turns into a Cubs-Sox bidding war. What will the White Sox do then? Go and cry that the Cubs are turning into the Yankees and Red Sox? Hey, White Sox, it’s called big-market team. You got the money, spend the money. The Cubs are playing by the rules. There is nothing that says they can’t do what they’re doing. Why don’t you do it too? You guys got the money. Baseball is flush in cash. Start spending it. You aren’t a small-market team. You play in the nation’s 3rd biggest city. You put 3 million asses in the seats. Start acting like it.

The White Sox are in for a long, slow, painful re-building process. “We were embarrassed last year.”

Guess what, Ken? You’re going to be even more embarrassed in 2008.

With the circus making its annual invasion of the United Center, it is no surprise a stink awaits them. The source of that stench, however, is surprising. Few would expect that that stink is coming solely from the Bulls. With the Blackhawks actually playing well and reminding Chicagoans hockey still exists, the 2-10 Bulls are left alone in their early season misery, unable to duplicate the early season success of their stadium-mates.

Twelve games into the season, the Bulls are off to their traditional slow pre-circus start. Every year they have gotten off to slow starts under Scott Skiles, but this one is the most puzzling. In years past, the team was young and hadn’t played together much. This year, though, there are only a few new names and the core players have now been together for four years.

Watching the Bulls play through their first twelve games, the team looks flat and it appears all the Kobe talks have affected their play.

As rookie Joakim Noah said, other teams are doing whatever they want on the Bulls. Skiles called out the rookie for giving his assessment after playing only his first NBA game, saying someone else should be saying it. Hey, Scott, if you don’t want a rookie speaking the truth, then whom do you suggest? Kirk Hinrich? Ben Gordon? Ben Wallace? Loul Deng? Andres Nocioni? The truth is, the team has no outspoken leader.

In addition to being distracted by the Kobe talks, this team is pretty much the same team they were last year. A nice group of role players but no one with a killer instinct, and they still lack a dominant inside presence.

There are two solutions to the team’s problem: Kobe or a big man who can score inside, like Pau Gasol of the Memphis Grizzlies. Following a summer in which the Bulls lost out on the Oden-Durant sweepstakes and saw the Boston Celtics acquire Kevin Garnett, John Paxson is running out of options to add that final piece to the puzzle to return to dominance.

While it may seem easy, just make the trade and all is fixed, it is tougher than it appears. I recently asked Chicago Tribune basketball writer Sam Smith how the Bulls can make the salaries match for Kobe, if they could have signed Gordon to an extension and then trade him, as the Lakers original demands of Deng, Gordon, Tyrus Thomas, and Noah would not add up to equal Kobe’s salary. He said if the Bulls signed Gordon to an extension, it would not help. As for making the salaries match for someone like Kobe or Gasol without giving up Hinrich or Wallace, the two highest salaries on the team, he said the Bulls could still sign-and-trade P.J. Brown, put whoever the Bulls and Lakers agree upon trading, and then throw in fillers to make them match.

Further complicating matters on the Kobe front is the trade kicker in his contract that says if he is traded, his salary will increase by 15 percent. Knowing how owner Jerry Reinsdorf likes being a cheapskate concerned more with making money than winning, it is unclear if he would approve a deal that adds $20 million-plus to a Bulls payroll already over the salary cap and luxury tax limits.

While it is going to be very hard to add that final piece, Paxson must eventually pull the trigger if he wants to return the team to dominance. Otherwise, this team will just be a pretender.

Last month, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen got a contract extension through 2012, despite the fact that he was calling the shots on one of the shittiest teams in the majors. With that being said, about Ozzie getting an extension he shouldn’t have gotten, where is the extension for Chicago Bulls head coach Scott Skiles? Both the Bulls and White Sox are owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, so it only makes sense to give an extension to Skiles. I don’t care if Ozzie won a World Series. They had 1 good season, and then proceeded to play like shit afterwards.

Ever since Ozzie called Mariotti a piece of shit and a fucking fag, the White Sox have been playing horrible. Skiles may not have won a title, but he is building this team back after Krause left a horrible mess, and has gotten them into the playoffs 3 years in a row, and last year, led the Bulls to their best season since the Jordan era ended. Winning one title is not enough. Winning consistently and making the playoffs on a consistent basis is the key. Skiles has done that. Ozzie never will. Where is Skiles’ extension?

With Octoberquest complete and baseball’s playoffs underway, the new magic number for 8 teams is 11. The Cubs are one of those teams. I’m really feeling it this year. So many things have happened since 2003, I really feel it. The Red Sox broke their misery in 2004. The White Sox broke their misery in 2005, leaving the Cubs as the only miserable team in baseball. Furthermore, the White Sox beat us to it in our city. Top it off with the fact that our next biggest enemies following the White Sox, the Cardinals, won it all in 2006.

This year, with the Cubs making the playoffs, all 5 of my teams did good this year. My Buckeyes made it to the national title game in both football and basketball only to lose to Florida in both. The Bears made it to the Super Bowl, only to lose thanks to Grossman. The Bulls made the playoffs only to get bounced in the 2nd round by the Pistons. How much more suffering am I supposed to take?

A few ominous signs this year have also given me an optimistic look. In June, Sam Zell’s attempted to screw the Cubs by vetoing the deal for Jacque Jones because he didn’t want to put more debt on the new owners tab, when this would have taken $600,000 off. Ever since the Cubs failed to trade the Frenchman, he has been a big part of the playoff run. Until September, the Cubs had never won a game with me in attendance. That all changed on September 5th, when they finally won with me in attendance. Last week, San Diego Padres outfielder Milton Bradley got into an argument with an umpire. It led to a full-blown confrontation, with Padres manager Bud Black needing to restrain Bradley. In a very Cubs-esque moment, Bradley tore his ACL when his manager spun him to the ground in an attempt to restrain him. Another sign: The crew chief of that umpiring crew that angered Bradley was an old friend of the Cubs, Bruce Froemming, he who has been screwing the Cubs for 35 years and is retiring after this year. You see, ever since he became an umpire in 1972, he has been making life hell for the Cubs. He ruined Milt Pappas’ perfect game that year. Pappas had retired the first 26 batters, and had a 2-2 count on the 27th hitter. The next 2 pitches were extremely close, but Bruce called them both balls, ruining the perfect game. Ever since then, he has always made sure to make calls to screw the Cubs. Seeing him screw someone else, that is a sign.

I take all these events as a sign that the external forces are weakening and this is the year it’s gonna happen. Next year is here!! Go, Cubs, Go

Following a 49-33 regular season and a playoff run that included sweeping the defending champion Miami Heat out of the first round and losing a tough six-game series to the Detroit Pistons in the second round, the Bulls look to make the next step and return to dominance.

A season which started with eight new players, a 3-9 start, “head-band gate” by Ben Wallace and P.J. Brown requesting a trade, ended as by far the best season the Bulls have had since the Jordan era ended nine years ago.

However, all season long, the Bulls were hindered by their inability to score inside. If John Paxson and Scott Skiles are to build this team to dominate, they’re going to need a big man who can score. Without an inside presence, they will be no match for the powerhouses in the West, including Phoenix, San Antonio, Dallas and Utah.

The Bulls lost out on the Greg Oden-Kevin Durant sweepstakes, getting the ninth pick in the draft, courtesy of the Eddy Curry trade with the Knicks. This was expected, however, as they only had a 1.9 percent chance of winning the draft lottery. This summer, the Bulls will only have their mid-level exception to spend under the cap, $5.5 million, as Kirk Hinrich’s five-year, $47.5 million extension kicks in, and Ben Wallace is being paid $15 million a season for three more years.

Due to the NBA changing their draft rules, making it so Americans have to be one year out of high school, and foreign players 19-years-old, this is one of the deepest drafts ever because it has held phenomenal talents like Oden and Durant in college to gain more playing experience.

Because the Bulls will not have the money to make a splash in free agency, they will only be able to get a semi-decent veteran who can score inside. At pick nine in the draft, Yi Janlian from China, Joakim Noah from Florida, Spencer Hawes from Washington and Marc Gasol from Spain are expected to be available. None of these guys are expected to be major impact players like Oden or Durant, but unlike Wallace, they can score inside, which is what this team needs.

Although it may seem that it is impossible to make a trade for Kevin Garnett or Pau Gasol, it is not. I recently asked Chicago Tribune basketball writer Sam Smith how the Bulls would make the salaries match if they were to trade for the likes of Garnett or Gasol, as I looked at the payroll, and Wallace and Hinrich were the only players who could make a deal work. He said that I was right, they’d have to be included, but to do it without giving them up, they can still do it. He said they would have to do a sign-and-trade with P.J. Brown, and package some expiring contracts such as Chris Duhon and Victor Khryapa.

As for the current roster, there is plenty to do. Tyrus Thomas must develop a mid-range jumper. Luol Deng and Ben Gordon are due extensions, which Paxson says he will start working on in August, as he did last year for Hinrich. Thabo Sefolosha must continue to develop. Hinrich and Ben Gordon need to be more consistant with their play. Andres Nocioni must stay healthy. The Bulls coaching staff is going to need to monitor Hinrich’s minutes next season, as he is going to be playing for Team USA again this summer, despite the team’s wishes he not. Management has said they would prefer him to take it easy over the summer and lift, but they are not going to demand he not play.

While a lot of work is to be done, this team is very close to returning to dominance.

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!!